Wine Direct launches new eBay venture

US direct-to-consumer wine platform, Wine Direct, has signed a deal with eBay that will mean its winery clients can tap into  a potential customer base of 167 million people.

The Napa Valley-based company, which provides the platform and logistics to enable wineries to sell their wines direct to consumers, already has deals in place with Vivino and Amazon, but said the marketplaces were increasingly likely to become “an important channel”.

It said eBay was “an ideal channel for wineries” and the move would make its clients’ wines available to a potential audience of around 167 million customers.

The partnership “further empowers wineries to efficiently attract and delight a new massive audience of buyers,” a company statement said. “We believe that marketplaces like eBay will become an important channel for DTC wine sales”.

Posting on the Wine Direct and its partner Vin65 sites, the company’s vice president of marketing & business development Jim Aggers said marketplaces were increasingly important. He pointed out that they were the fastest growing area of ecommerce, growing at 19%, compared to the wider market’s 15% growth, and that Amazon and eBay together accounted for a third of all ecommerce sales.

Aggers also pointed out that marketplaces were trusted by consumers, meaning they were more likely to buy from a marketplace than from an individual winery.

“This provides a unique opportunity to put a winery’s brand in front of millions of new potential customers, with a higher probability that they’ll convert to a sale,” he wrote.