How The Internet Changed The World Of Wine
It may have resulted in millions of people wasting time watching cat videos, but nobody can deny that the internet has been one of the biggest game changers when it comes to commercial retail. Just as malls changed the way people went shopping 50 years ago by offering a collection of stores all in one place, today a person can sit in their home in New York and, within a few minutes time, go on a shopping spree that involves stops in California, Tokyo, London and Paris, not to mention a hundred other locations that a generation ago nobody had even heard of. Naturally, this experience has also greatly changed how people buy and enjoy wine.
One of the most expensive aspects of being involved in the retail trade is the cost of distribution and advertising. It does not matter if a person has built a better mousetrap; if there is no way to tell anybody about it or get it to them, it will not sell. These problems are compounded in the world of wine and spirits because of all the regulations placed on them by state governments as well as the feds. Without the financial resources to compete against the largest, most well established wine makers, many of the small wines and wineries of California never had a chance for thriving. Those that did survive usually did so strictly in their own region.
Although this is still a major issue in the world of spirits - look at how even some of the largest breweries in the country have been taken over by international conglomerates - it has become a much more level playing field because of the internet. Now these small batch wineries do not have to worry about finding ways to get their wine shipped out to wines stores and compete for space and visibility on the shelves. Instead, they can use targeted advertising online that reaches out directly to the people that are most interested in them. They do not have to sell enough cases to justify the expense of filling up a truck; they can sell one bottle to a consumer and ship it to them directly.
Just as the internet has made shopping for a wine an experience that is both easier than ever and more expansive than it has ever been, it has also allowed winemakers the ability to focus on producing small harvests of lesser known varietals. They are able to connect with winemakers from around the world to learn the best way to plant, grow, harvest and age these wines, and they can make sure a marketplace is already established, thereby eliminating almost all of the risk entirely. We may find ourselves saying, "Okay, just one more cute video" far more often than we like, but at least we can be sipping a great California wine while we do it.
About the Author
Jack Terry is a freelance writer who writes extensively about the retail market place for wines and spirits in the 21st century. http://www.wineclubworld.com
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