Wine Online Goes Upmarket

The profile of wine online sales has changedAustralian and New Zealand wines.
dramatically across the last six weeks asOnline wine merchants like their bricks and mortar
consumers ready themselves for Christmas. Winepiers are also promoting the concept of quality
online is changing from being very price driven andover quantity to ensure responsible drinking
mass market, to more discerning and quality led.trends are being adopted. There are several key
Fine red wine online growth is slightly ahead ofwine online merchants running socially responsible
white wine online growth, but with a 9% shiftcampaigns to accelerate this trend.
from standard to fine wine, this is a noticeableThe trend of fine wines online is predicted to
trend. This trend has bemused some online wineaccelerate as we move into the Christmas
merchants, but people do funny things in aholidays, which can only be good for wine
recession. So what is going on in the online spaceproducers as well as consumers. There is a new
you may ask ?generation of online wine merchants who are
Online wine sales have been growing steadily fortrying to demystify wine online, and provide
the last five years as the bricks and mortarchoice, as well as create a shop window for small
retailers have been reducing the number of linesfamily vineyards. These merchants are also using
they stock. Also as online retail has grown andthe concept of food and wine matching to drive
consumers trust the online space to a greatertrial of new varietals and wines from different
extent, purchasing from online wine merchantsplaces such as Lebanon.
has become more convenient. After all you don'tOf course the market will not change from
have to carry the bottles home.standard to fine wines but choice will continue to
The second trend that is happening is the trenddrive wine online, and the real benefit of wine
of having less treats during a recession butonline, is to discover products that you have
spending more on them when you do. As a resultnever seen in the real world.
consumers are trading up to better quality winesAs we move out of Christmas into the New Year
online. At the same time online wine merchantscertain consumers may change their buying habits
are offering 6 bottle cases rather than 12 bottlefrom buying champagne online to other fizz
cases because consumers are consuming less, butbrands. We strongly believe Prosecco online will
want a more premium wine online.start to nibble away at Champagne sales as
This trend is also having a positive knock onpeople move away from the bling to taste. The
effect for old world wines, as it seemsUK does love it's Champagne, but Prosecco could
consumers chasing the finer wine choice arebe the new fizz of 2010.
buying French, Spanish and Italian wines ahead of