The wine industry’s digital presence has grown significantly in recent years.
Since the pandemic, a dramatic rise in online wine sales has led to an increase in competition among wine merchants, meaning it’s more important than ever for wine brands to choose an effective e-commerce platform to promote and sell their products.
As Shopify designers and developers, we’ve helped wine merchants sell their products online and have a few tips and considerations for anyone interested in selling wine on this platform.
Can you sell wine on Shopify?
Yes, you can securely and legally sell wine using Shopify. Just make sure you have the appropriate licenses that comply with the laws and regulations in the region you’re selling (read Shopify’s policy for selling alcohol products here).
7 Reasons Shopify is a great platform for wine e-commerce
Shopify has plenty of features and capabilities that make it a particularly good choice for wine retailers:
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Compliance with industry regulations: Shopify is compliant with industry regulations for the sale of wine, including age verification and shipping restrictions.
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Ability to support product variations: The platform supports product variations - something that’s important for wine sellers wanting to offer different types of wine and different sizes, such as 750 ml and 1.5 L bottles.
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Mobile responsive websites: To reach customers who prefer to shop for wine on their phones, Shopify’s mobile responsive themes mean your online store can be optimized for mobile devices as well as desktop.
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Plans for every kind of wine brand: Whether you are a small-scale retailer or running a larger enterprise, there are a number of Shopify plans to pick from. You can choose a Shopify plan best suited to the size of your business and scale of your growth.
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Customizable themes and storefronts: Make your website look exactly how you’d like it to; customizable themes can help you stand out in a crowded digital marketplace, allowing your store to represent your brand with a unique theme and layout.
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Easy to use: Shopify is known for having a great user-friendly interface; even if you’re non-technical, you’ll be able to master it’s easy to use back-end system and manage all aspects of your online wine store from one platform (Shopify integrates with a variety of third-party tools, including shipping carriers, payment gateways and marketing and advertising platforms).
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Discover new sales paths: utilize apps and integrations to sell in different channels; Shopify can integrate with a variety of third-party tools including email marketing, social media selling and other platforms to help you share your wine with new audiences (and keep them coming back).
Case Study: Shopify migration project with wine company Chateau Beauchene
Chateau Beauchene is an 11th generation family winery who struggled to reach their customers directly.
Their old website served as a source of information rather than a selling platform so our goal was grow direct-to-consumer sales and reach a wider audience by re-platforming Chateau Beauchene’s website to Shopify (as their customer base would grow, Shopify would be able to offer them a customizable and scalable platform).
We overhauled the layout and overall online experience, introducing a new clean, cohesive layout that looks modern but still captures the feeling of heritage important to the spirit and history of the brand.
We introduced a product catalog that was clearly presented and easy to manage so that the Chateau Beauchene team could manage inventory, process payments and fulfill orders.
Read the full case-study can be found here.
Bottling up success: tips for selling wine on Shopify
There are loads of e-commerce best practices to follow if you want to increase your site’s performance. Here are a few:
- A well-designed, user-friendly website is at the heart of everything; you want to have an online store that is easy to navigate, visually appealing, and helps customers find what they are looking for quickly and efficiently.
- SEO is crucial for your wine store. It’s a big topic and ongoing process that involves optimizing your website for search engines to make it easier for customers to find your wine in your online store.
- To increase the likelihood of customers making a purchase - and positively impact your SEO - we recommend you write clear and detailed descriptions of your wine products, including information about things like the taste profile, varietal, region, producer, unique selling points, packaging, why you make or sell the product etc.
Sell wine like a pro with our help!
Whether you are just starting to sell wine online, moving platforms, or interested in a FREE UX audit to discover how to improve your site’s performance - we would love to talk about all things Shopify (and wine) with you. Get in touch and tell us about your project.
