Wine.com Celebrates Growth In Mobile And Millennial Shoppers During Ninth Annual Industry Growth Summit

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 22, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Wine.com, the nation's leading online wine retailer, hosted its ninth annual Industry Growth Summit on Wednesday, where it highlighted the continued growth of its business, especially in the key segments of mobile shoppers and young, millennial consumers.
Hosted on the campus of Sonoma State University, home to the Wine Business Institute, the global leader in Wine Business Education and Research, attendees included over 350 industry executives representing domestic and international Wine.com suppliers and wholesalers.

In morning presentations, the Wine.com management team reported that revenue reached $130 million in 2018, and has grown 15-20% per year for the last several years. After the launch of its mobile app mid-2017, mobile revenue grew over 90% and now represents 30% of the total. Consistent with this trend, millennial consumers now make up one-third of Wine.com shoppers and are the fastest-growing segment in revenue, up 33% over the last 12 months. The company sold 38,000 different wines in the last year, from 5,500 wineries – relying on 250 wholesalers to provide selection breadth and inventory depth.

"Mobile is the best thing to ever happen to wine retailing," said Rich Bergsund, Wine.com CEO. "It puts the power of wine scores, write-ups, videos and our live chat experts right in the hands of our customers -- helping them discover and enjoy wine with confidence, wherever they are."

"Millennials will not put up with the dreaded 'wall of wine' at retail," said Mike Osborn, Wine.com Founder and Executive Vice President. "Unlike paper towels or kitty litter, every winery has a story -- and our job is to tell those stories, from thousands of wineries, to millions of consumers."

Attendees also heard an update from Ray Johnson, Executive Director of Sonoma State University's Wine Business Institute, and a presentation from Distinguished Professor and Master of Wine, Dr. Liz Thach, who outlined recent research on the luxury wine consumer.

Danny Brager, Senior Vice President of Nielsen's Beverage Alcohol Team, shared an overview of industry trends and announced that effective immediately, Wine.com is sharing its online wine purchase data with Nielsen, providing Nielsen's clients with a comprehensive view into the previously opaque online wine channel. In comparing Wine.com with the U.S. wine industry, Brager gave Wine.com top marks for its selection, broad and balanced growth across generations of wine consumers and its premium price point ($31 average selling price versus $10 for the industry as a whole).

"Wine.com has built an impressive e-commerce business in the wine industry, and we are excited to be working with this team," says Danny Brager, Senior Vice President of the Beverage Alcohol practice at Nielsen. "The addition of Wine.com sales data to Nielsen's Beverage alcohol and e-commerce datasets will allow players in the beverage alcohol space to easily benchmark and identify growth opportunities across more channels, as well as measure, predict and activate on insights to improve performance within the wine category."

After working sessions with the Wine.com buying team and a panel discussion with suppliers and wholesalers, Wine.com presented its two Exemplary Supplier of the Year awards to global wine business Maisons Marques & Domaines (owners of Champagne Louis Roederer, Delas Frères, Domaines Ott, and the U.S. sales agents for Dominus Estate, Pio Cesare, and many more) and Washington State-based Wines of Substance (producers of K Vintners, Sixto, CasaSmith Vino, Substance and B. Leighton). The annual Extreme Service Award was presented to Maxime Touton of New York-based Monsieur Touton Selection, Ltd.

Wine.com also donated two $10,000 scholarships to the Wine Industry Scholars Program, a collaboration between the School of Business and Economics and Sonoma State University's Educational Opportunity Program, dedicated to supporting and advancing higher education for first generation children from families of vineyard and winery workers.

Suppliers interested in working with Wine.com should contact [email protected].

ABOUT WINE.COM
Wine.com is the nation's leading online wine retailer, offering selection, guidance and convenience not found in brick and mortar stores. The company provides its customers access to the world's largest wine store, with live chat wine experts available 7 days a week on its mobile and full websites. With multiple fulfillment centers and the most sophisticated retail wine distribution network in the United States, Wine.com delivers in 1-2 days to most addresses, offering date-certain delivery and the convenience of shipping for local pickup at 11,000 Walgreens and FedEx Office locations nationwide. The company's popular StewardShip program provides unlimited wine delivery and exclusive access to new releases for $49 per year. Wine.com's mission, to inspire the wine lifestyle through innovation, is captured in its brand manifesto video, viewable here. For more information, visit the company's website at www.wine.com or download its app in the Apple Store or Google Play.

SOURCE Wine.com

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