For years, wineries evaluating new technology have asked the same question: “Can it handle my clubs and tasting room?” While that’s still important, the bigger question today is: “Can this platform help me grow into the future?” For years, wineries evaluating new technology have asked the same question: “Can it handle my clubs and tasting room?” While that’s still important, the bigger question today is: “Can this platform help me grow into the future?” The truth is, covering today’s needs is table stakes. The real opportunity lies in embracing tools that unlock growth and connect wineries to the same ecosystem powering the world’s most innovative ecommerce brands. That’s why more wineries are moving to Shopify, and choosing Awtomic as the engine behind their clubs. Built for the Wine Industry With Awtomic and Shopify, wineries don’t have to choose between tradition and innovation. Our pl

Ensuring good wine filterability is key to saving time, protecting quality, and avoiding costly production issues. Poor clarification and high polysaccharide levels can quickly lead to fouled membranes and slow filtration. We are excited to introduce our innovative solutions to help you streamline clarification, reduce microbial load, and improve the overall quality of your wines. Improve Filterability with Oenoflow Max Œnoflow Max is formulated with specific enzymatic activities (pectinase, AG-II-hydrolase, hemicellulase, and β-glucanase) to break down a wider variety of complex polysaccharides compared to other enzymes on the market. This advanced formulation ensures a more effective and cleaner filtration process, saving time and preserving the purity of your wine. Better filtration, better balance, less time with VinoTaste Pro VinoTaste Pro is a purified enzymatic blend of pectinase and β-glucanase that improves clarification while enhancing wine quality. Impro

For years, discounting has been the default lever wineries pull to spark sales and reward loyal customers. But in today’s crowded marketplace, deep discounts can erode brand value and condition customers to buy only when the price drops. There’s a better way: loyalty points programs. Retention, without discounting, comes from making customers feel known, valued, and part of something special. They’ll stay not because it’s cheaper, but because it’s theirs. Instead of discounting away margin, wineries can encourage repeat visits and purchases by offering rewards that feel aspirational, personalized, and memorable. Loyalty points add up over time, giving guests a reason to come back again and again, all the while protecting your brand’s premium image. 10 Reasons Why Loyalty Points Work Shift from price to experience. Points reward frequency and engagement, not bargain hunting. The program should reinforce experience, access, and emotional loyalty, not

Are compliance checks done in real time? Compliance checks must happen in real time to ensure a smooth transaction for the customer, and to provide a safety net for yourself. This begins with precise age verification. It's essential to confirm that only adults of legal drinking age (LDA) can make purchases online. Subsequently, compliance extends to accurately calculating and applying the appropriate tax rates, taking into account the location of the sale and the destination of the order.  Are the compliance rules automatically setup?  Producers should not have to worry about managing their own set of tax rates, shipping limits, and pre-purchase age verification as this easily leads to mistakes. Compliance solutions should have a built-in tax rate table, working on 9-digit zip codes, so you feel confident all taxes are correct.  Can states rules be manually bypassed? This should be a no brainer, if states rules can be bypassed, you should question how compliant you

E-commerce soared from less than one percent of retail sales at the turn of the century to 16 percent two decades later. COVID-19 lockdowns alone drove online purchasing up six points, from 10 percent in 2019. Wine sales in the healthy $284 billion retail e-commerce market doubled from pre-COVID levels to $3.5 billion, and forecasts show wine revenue increasing by almost 25 percent by 2027. With direct-to-consumer wine sales accounting for nearly 70 percent of an average winery’s sales, taking advantage of this growing channel is critical. Premium wineries have already increased their online sales from two percent in 2019 to nine percent in 2022. However, the online sales opportunity is significant to small to medium-sized wineries feeling pinched between falling consumption and rising costs ― especially given declining sales in other channels. That means having a modern, up-to-date website with a smooth transition from general winery pages to online retail stores without the dig

Afternoon Brief, September 13th

Fred Franzia Has Died: Fred died early this morning at his Redwood home in Denair, California, with family by his side. He was 79 years old...

Afternoon Brief, June 30th

Wine Treading Water in US Market: Spirits are winning when it comes to the huge US market, but there are some hopeful signs for wine...

Season 4 of “V Is for Vino” Wine Show Premiers on June 24th

7 New Episodes Explore Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, and Chicago CHICAGO, IL — June 24, 2022 —Wine, food, and travel TV show V is for Vino, premiered its much anticipated 4th Season […]

Afternoon Brief, May 6th

Washington Wine Allocates Nearly $1 Million to Wine Research for Upcoming Year: The broad research projects aim to improve wine quality by tackling high priority vineyard and winery issues...

Wine TV Show “V Is for Vino” Signs Partnership with ReachTV, America’s Largest Airport Television Network 

Chicago, IL — May 6th, 2022 — V is for Vino and ReachTV announced a partnership that will see the wine, travel, and food TV show aired across ReachTV’s 2500+ screens in 90 commercial […]