Weddings - How they are changing and what your wine shop can do?

Dear Retailer,

Wedding season is upon us which means lots of wine drinking and champagne toasting. To save money on their weddings, couples are now opting for venues that allow them to bring in outside food and wine. Several larger retailers have become a popular place to buy wedding wine because of their value. However, as we know, the impersonal approach gives you an advantage to help couples prepare for their big event in an equally cost effective fashion.

We advise you to get in touch with local venues that allow outside wine that hosts weddings and wedding planners to offer your expertise in pairing wine and offering great prices for larger purchases. Work with them to figure out what wine would taste best within their budgets.

You can also help finding affordable gifts for them and their guests. Couples do offer their guests wine with their own label on it that they can take home which you can definetely help find for them. We even get inquiries from couples asking to use our wood wine boxes as center pieces or to have wine bags to use to put in their favors. There is so much your store can offer these couples so make sure you get the word out there that you are hear to make the most memorable event of their lives just that - and affordable.

Cheers!

True Sales Tip: Creating More Relevant Wine Sections

Dear Retailer,

The environment and eating healthy have all become something we think more about. Even when we go shopping at the grocery store, we take a look through the organic produce section or walk the aisles of the locally grown foods. We just can't help it anymore and grocery stores have helped us by making seperate sections and signs to steer us to them.

Wine sections in almost every store we go into are typically organized by varietal or by region (or both). This has always been the case since we started drinknig wine oh so long ago. But as times change, the primary reasons people pick up a bottle of wine may change as well or at the very least become more varied and nuanced.

Right now, food pairing has become incredibly more popular as well as locally grown or produced vintages. That is why we ask all of you to put on your creative hats and think about new sections you can create in your wine stores that can hopefully be more relevant to your customers. Maybe have a section that says "Great with Steaks or for Barbecuing" or a section that says "Produced within 200 miles of here" or a section that says "Newest Wine Makers in the US". I'm sure if you ask your customers and also watch how they choose their bottles, you'll get some insights on how to reorganize some of your wine sections.

We all have lots of ideas about this so ask us if you're curious!

Cheers!

True Sales Tip: More Interesting Ways to Review Wine

As merchants, it's important for us all to remember that not only are people changing the way they purchase products (i.e. online), but they're also changing what they're buying. Consumers have a lot of information and a lot of choices -- the easier and more memorable you can make the process of choosing wine, the better. Figure out new and interesting ways to showcase different wines other than the just tags on the bottle showing the points and the score. Your store should be a whole different way of helping the consumer than what they can find online (notes, reviews, etc.) Make it fun and personable...what favorite novel does this wine remind you of? What quote reminds you of this wine? As a physical merchant, remember your competitive advantage is seeing, knowing, and engaging with the customer.
All this makes the consumer a little bit more relaxed, a little bit more engaged and little less overwhelmed with the choices...and much more likely to purchase your products.