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News
Amazon launches online wine store
Amazon.com has unveiled its new online wine shop in the US, as it attempts to crack the sector for a second time.
The new service will initially be available in 12 US states and Amazon said more areas will be added “soon”.
Amazon Wine launched with more than 1,000 wines available from wineries across the US. Some of the wineries include Francis Ford Coppola, Pepper Bridge and Mark Ryan Winery.
The world’s largest Internet retailer tried getting into online wine retail in 2000 after investing a reported US$30m in Wineshopper.com, but the venture failed.
Customers can order up to six bottles of wine for a flat shipping fee of US$9.99. It is thought that one of the reasons that Amazon Wines is not available in more states is the complex nature of US regulations regarding the sale and distribution of wine across state borders.
The Amazon wine store offers information from winemakers including tasting notes, total case production and recommended food pairings; the site will also provide Amazon’s usual customer reviews.
Small wineries that currently have limited distribution across the US are thought to be one of the groups who will benefit from the new Amazon store. Mike Reynolds, president of Kathryn Hall winery in Napa Valley, said: “This is about reaching a customer base we haven’t reached before. There’s a group of consumers out there who buy most of their stuff from Amazon.”
Amazon offers a new opportunity for participating wineries, in customer acquisition and the additional sales opportunities to those newly acquired customers. As an observer it appears that once a winery has fulfilled and shipped a wine order obtained by Amazon they are free to follow up with the new customer directly and potentially without any further compensation from the winery to Amazon.com. So this wine initiative by Amazon appears to be fantastic low cost winery customer acquisition tool with the heft and coverage of Amazon behind it…next thing you know Amazon will be offering “same day wine” delivery …lol…
Wow, this will affect the market. Still unsure whether their involvement is good (democratisation of wine to the masses) or bad (going to have repercussions for other online retailers in the market / wanting to enter the market – even with a loyal customer base, it would surely make it harder to acquire new/retain existing customers. Looking forward to seeing what happens…