The 10% increase in sales of directly-shipped wines continues the channel’s history of outpacing the growth of overall wine sales in the United States, says the report.
More than 3.17 million nine-litre cases of wine were shipped direct to American consumers in 2012, a 7.7% increase over 2011. Napa wineries continued to receive the lion’s share of sales shipping $713 million worth of wine. But the report suggests the famous region’s wineries under-performed compared to the overall wine shipping channel, increasing their sales by 8%.
The report looks specifically at wines shipped from wineries to consumers and it includes details about regions, price and type of wine.
Ship Compliant CEO Jason Eckenroth said: “We hope that the data in this report will act as a lens for wineries, magnifying the opportunities that abound in the direct-to-consumer channel.
“The idea is to give wineries not just the systems to help sell to consumers, but also new ideas and insights to apply to wine sales and marketing.”
Chet Klingensmith, publisher of Wines & Vines magazine said: “The direct shipping channel continues to grow at a faster rate than the overall wine market and has become vital to the small and medium sized wineries.
“The higher margins realized by wineries using this channel and the access it gives consumers to the increasingly diversified wine market provides a win-win situation for all parties.”
The 2013 Direct Shipping report is available free for downloading at http://www.shipcompliant.com/shippingreport and from Wines & Vines Online at http://www.winesandvines.com/pdf/2013Direct-to-Consumer-Shipping-Report.pdf
