Wine Retailing

The National Grocers Association has just released its 2010 Consumer Survey Report, which was completed in association with ConAgra Foods and SupermarketGuru. It is a good report identifying what is most important to American food shoppers.

There are a few interesting finds in the report surrounding social media and the internet generally. First, shoppers do not care much about online buying. Only 14% stated that an online buying service available from their grocery store was important. It does not factor into their choice of a food store. Only 38% said that self-checkout was important to them.

99% stated that a clean, neat store is important. 96% said low prices are important. 97% said accurate shelf tags are important.  No surprises here, but it is a good reminder that the basics are important, and that shoppers are unforgiving when it comes to neatness and accuracy of information.

82% of shoppers said they use social networking to gather or exchange information about foods including new products, nutrition and recipes. This applies to older as well as younger shoppers. This is another reminder of the importance of retailers being present in the social media sites.

The most common source of nutritional information is the internet, with 75% of consumers using it for information. What surprised me was where the internet ranked in terms of trustworthiness.  While no source of information enjoyed a high level of trust, the internet ranked the highest.  30% of consumers considered the internet to be the most truthful.  This figure is twice as high as the next most trusted source of nutritional information – doctors!

What does all this mean for wine retailers? Well, these food shoppers are also wine shoppers.  The survey results remind us that the basics – clean stores, accurate information are critical, but are table stakes. Wine retailers who provide accurate information online and who are active in social media will get the attention (and the dollars) from today’s consumers.

Author: Louis Lamoureux – CEO, BuyersVine. louis@buyersvine.com

Nielsen has recently reported that American adults spend an average of 66 hours per month on the web.  This figure has approximately doubled since 2006, and continues to climb rapidly. It is interesting that this additional time has not taken time away from television – which continues to rise slowly and currently stands at approximately 144 hours per month.  In the same manner that TV did not impact radio, it looks like the internet is not impacting television.

Even though time spent on internet is still significantly less than time spent watching TV, businesses spend more money advertising on Google than on the entire amount spent on television. Clearly, an internet presence is of value.

Nielsen also reports that the fastest growing segment of internet usage is on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter. Time spent on social media sites is up 210% in 2009 over 2008. In December, 142 million adults in the US spent an average of 6 hours on such sites.  This figure has risen from approximately 2 hours just two years ago in 2007.

What does this mean for sellers of wine? Be there. If you do not have a significant presence online, that growing population will not find you online.  Also, the cost of the internet is incredible low. In fact, you can establish a presence on the social media sites at no cost.  In his book “Crush It”, Gary Vaynerchuk describes how he helped grow his family’s wine store from four to fifty million dollars in eight years – but at a cost of millions of dollars of advertising in traditional media. He compares that to the $15,000 he has spent to-date on his video blog – which has generated even greater value for himself and the store.

Bottom line: The internet usage is still growing rapidly. Being there is effective and inexpensive.  Are you there yet?

Author: Louis Lamoureux – CEO, BuyersVine. louis@buyersvine.com