The Merchant23 Blog

With the wholesale environment shifting towards Winery-Direct and Direct-to-Trade sales, wineries are moving away from distributor-centric sales and instead are taking on the job themselves. For many people, this is an exciting yet daunting task. Where to begin? Who do you talk to? How do you get a Buyer to purchase your products? Thankfully, we have answers for you.

2017 was all about Direct-to-Consumer sales, but 2018 is about Direct-to-Trade (DTT). Unlike DTC, Direct-to-Trade sales still operate within the highly regulated Three-tier System. But DTT isn't your everyday approach to wholesale; it gives Buyers and Sellers much more freedom. So, what exactly is 'Direct-to-Trade'?

This week I flew to New York for Vinexpo 2018 to speak on the panel: Millennials' Purchasing Power and The Rise of E-commerce alongside the brilliant leaders of Vivino, Minibar Delivery, Enolytics, Sodexpa, and Racine's NY. 

When a company launches a new product, they hire a PR firm. When a corporation wants to redesign their headquarters, they hire an architect. When a wine business wants to gain competitive advantage, they hire Cathy Huyghe. As the Founder of Enolytics, Cathy and her team have perfected something most people haven't even attempted; making wine data useful.

Take a moment to think about the ballpark prices of alcohol. Do you know how much a bottle of Meiomi Pinot Noir should cost? A handle of Ketel One Vodka? A 12 pack of Coors Light? Were your answers around $20, $40, and $10?

Now, how much should a bottle of Ideology Chardonnay cost? You probably have no idea. You've probably never heard of it. Or better yet, your customers have never heard of it. This 2014 Chardonnay from Napa Valley, with beautiful packaging, is available in your store only. Your customers can't go compare the price of this wine at Costco, or Target, or Walmart. So you add a 50% margin, retail it for $20 a bottle, and sell out in two weeks.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to blind price wines.

If you've followed the alcohol industry for any length of time, you know that large distributors are continuing to consolidate every year. In the past, consolidations led to small producers getting dropped, independent retailers having less diversity to choose from, and consumers becoming frustrated by the lack of options. Now, for the first time in history, the little guys have reason to be hopeful.

The wine industry has an annual $220 billion economic impact in the United States. The Big Data Analytics Market is worth $203 billion. Yet the terms "big data" and "wine industry" are rarely used in the same paragraphs, let alone the same sentences. Why is that? This is the question that Don White and John Lawlor set out to answer when they founded Label Analytics. In just three short years they've done something seemingly impossible; brought big data to wine.

We've all been there. 'One drink' turned in to 'one too many' drinks, and now your pounding headache is a constant reminder of why you tried to limit yourself in the first place. After taking Advil, chugging Pedialyte, and eating the greasiest food possible, your hangover is still raging on. Thankfully, we've found 5 lesser known, science-backed hangover cures to help you get back on your feet! We can all drink to that.

In the alcohol industry, new and innovative companies are popping up daily. From brilliant apps, to smarter software programs, and game-changing websites, there's never been a more exciting time for the industry. Below are seven companies shaking up the way we learn about, purchase, and consume alcohol!

Here's a mind-blowing statistic: the average supermarket carries 5 products per category, except in the wine category, where supermarkets carry roughly 900 different products. Let that sink in for a moment; a consumer who wants to purchase eggs has five options, but a consumer wanting to purchase wine must choose from nearly one thousand different options.

 "...Research now shows that there can be too much choice; when there is, consumers are less likely to buy anything at all, and if they do buy, they are less satisfied with their selection."
- Barry Schwartz, Harvard Business Review 

Since delighting customers should be the number one goal of every retailer, it may be time to re-evaluate your wine section. Here are the 10 things retailers should keep in mind when buying wholesale wine.