Online Wine Stores - Building A Relationship
With the increase in online shopping stores over the past ten years, so to has the online wine industry, albeit somewhat slower than some other industries. One of the main reasons behind this has been the skepticism behind buying wine from unknown sources.
Over time, there has been more people enter the market with better ideas and better ways to sell wine over the internet. Business models have improved and therefore the level and quality of wine being sold has also improved. This is not to say that there still aren’t some bad ways to buy wine over the internet.
One of the most dubious ways to buy wine over the net is through online wine auctions houses. Many great deals can be garnered by buying through the auction houses with many wineries and wine companies dumping stock that they cannot sell at bottomed out prices. There is one main problem with this. The companies will generally dump their stock as “cleanskins” (wines without labels) which leaves the consumer with no real idea where they come from apart from wine type and region.
Ordering cleanskins without first tasting them can be fraught with danger as you really don’t know what you are getting. The varietal of wine matched with the region may seem like a great match and seen as a generally safe option, but this is not always the case. The next thing to be aware of is how the wines have previously been stored. Many examples of wines being purchased which have found to be off can be found, with the main reason being the lack of knowledge as to how the wine has been stored. Imagine buying a six pack of well known quality wine worth $50 a bottle for $20 a bottle, then finding only one of them is drinkable
“Affiliate” sites are also starting to creep into the online wine market. These wine stores look like a normal wine store stocking almost any wine you can think of. The bottom line is these stores don’t stock any wine at all. They are on-sellers and just pass on your order to the originating wineries and take a commission for them.
The easiest way to pick these types of web sites is by checking their “Shipping/Delivery Information” pages. Within these pages, that most will ask you to check the shipping costs either from the winery themselves or a special shipping page which highlights the costs within the site itself. You are better off finding the wine you like and ordering it directly from the winery themselves as the service levels will be no different and you are supporting the winery directly. If they are smaller wineries, they will appreciate your patronage more so directly than paying an affiliate a commission.
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