Key Triggers to Online Wine Purchasing

With so much information to convey, wine buying is often a complex process, making the digital environment ideally suited to selling it. The wine industry was quick to recognise this, giving the sector a head start over other alcoholic drinks, and wine now outperforms all other alcohol categories in driving online sales value across many key markets.

Without the same constraints on shelf space, online wine vendors have a considerable advantage over bricks and mortar outlets, and this has contributed to the popularity of wine online. Globally, offers and range available are the main motivations to buy online. A ‘wider range of products that I like’ is the most influential ‘trigger to online purchasing’, with 79% of wine drinkers citing it as the most important factor. The number two and three triggers for digital purchases amongst global regular wine drinkers are ‘good special offers’ and ‘a promotional offer’.

Delivery time is not as critical for wine as it may be for other consumer goods. At a global level, ‘fast delivery’ is the fourth most persuasive trigger in online purchasing amongst regular wine drinkers. Interestingly, in China and Brazil, which have a disproportionately high App usage, the speed of delivery is a more important trigger. In Brazil it ranks second and in China it leads, with 82% of those surveyed saying it was the most important online purchase trigger. Speed of delivery may become a more important online purchasing lever as app usage rises across markets.

Outside of China, there remains significant untapped potential ecommerce audiences in most markets. A third of regular wine drinkers in the US, Canada and Brazil say they are open to e-commerce purchases in the future but do not currently participate in the channel. China is the only market which looks to be reaching full penetration. In most markets, the addressable but un-converted audience for wine e-commerce amounts to around 3 in 10 drinkers.

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