WTN Blog

Action Plan to Boost Late-Season Sales and Order Flow.

All orders need to be in to WTN Services by close of business Friday to ensure holiday delivery if shipping ground in CA and NY. If shipping expedieted or 2 day all order must be to WTN Services by close of business Monday Dec. 21st in order to process for delivery prior to Christmas.

Tips and trending…

1. The trend of late ordering will continue this season. In fact, if it’s at all like holiday 2008, the third and fourth weeks of Dec will dictate the success of your entire season and year. Therefore, be ready to take orders up to the final hour! Christmas falls on a Friday this year, so you can heavily promote “there’s still time to order” on your homepage and emails up to Wed, Dec 23.

2. Review your historical ROAS (return on advertising spend) and rank each program’s December results from best to worst. Are there any opportunities to shift funds from a lower ROAS program to a higher one? For example, if an additional $5K or $10K spent on paid search marketing will generate a higher return than a late-season mailing you have planned, you may be better off to cancel the mailing, and shift the money to your paid search program. Even if the mailing is printed, you may be better off not mailing it, saving the postage money, and redeploying the funds to another channel. Run the numbers to see.

3. If you have extra staff in your call center, use them for an outbound calling program.

   1. Pull a list of all buyers who had purchased by this time last holiday season but have yet to order this season. Sort them by the dollar volume of their holiday 2008 purchases. Start calling from the top of the list and work your way down. Let the customer know you are here to help them take care of their gifting needs. Have their prior year gift list handy and offer to email or fax it to them. Alert them to your best specials and discounts. Create a few exclusive offers just for this group of customers.

   2. Pull a list of your top buyers and call them with exclusive offers and specials.

   3. Call all new buyers one week after they place their first order. Thank them for their business, ask if they were satisfied with the service and give them a great deal to place a second order.

4. Extend employee discounts to family and friends.

5. Customers will be looking for lower-priced gifts this year. Create a page on your website of gifts under $X. Send an email featuring X gifts for under $X (the amount will vary depending on your product line and price points). Offer these items as add-on’s or up-sells for phone orders. Test “gourmet gifts under $X” as one of your paid search ad groups.

6. Review your inventory position. If you based inventory levels on your original sales plan, you may be sitting on more stock than you will need. It’s far easier to sell off inventory in the season than afterward.

   1. Get aggressive now with markdowns and use the web-specials section of your site to promote them.

   2. Use highly targeted promotional emails to lower inventory. Don’t send all emails to all customers. You will have much better success generating additional sales, lowering overstocks and not being branded as a spammer if you target your emails to specific groups of customers. For example, if you are overstocked on olive oil, send an email to past olive oil buyers with a great deal on olive oil.

   3. Offer extra discounts on overstocks to your top customers and position it as an “exclusive best-customer sale.”

   4. If you have any self-purchasers who are ordering at this time of year, insert clearance flyers inside their boxes. Note: do not put sale flyers or clearance inserts inside gift-recipients’ boxes!

   5. If you purchased finished goods from a manufacturer, see if you can return any unsold items. Even if they hit you with a 10% to 20% restocking fee, it will probably be better for you to return the goods than to sit on them until next holiday season.

7. If you wholesale to other retailers, get creative to help them sell more of your products—offer extended payment terms (if you have sufficient capital and they are creditworthy), pay all or part of the freight, give them case-pack or volume discounts on smaller orders.

8. Use the revised bookings forecast we discussed earlier to rerun pro forma income statements and cash-flow projections for the season and for the year. Take a hard look at your projected cash position. Will you have enough cash on hand and from other sources to make it through the spring-summer 2010 seasons? If not, start working now to line up additional financing.

Remember to keep pitching, promoting, mailing, emailing and marketing. Consumers will be ordering later this season than ever. Be in their mailbox, inbox and on their search engine results page when they are ready to buy.

Tip Assistance Courtesy of the The 5th Food Group and Catalog Solutions, LLC

WTN Services is again proud to participate in Wine 2.0 in New York. We are equally happy that many of our clients have made the trek to participate. At this event you will see such great brands as Heritage Link Wines, Porter Family, Hahn, Rodney Strong and others, pouring great wines, for the New York market. WTN Services is proud to have a strong partnership with a diverse group of brands that truely represent the great diversity of the wine industry represented at this key event in New York.

Additionally WTN Services will be introducing the soft launch of our business to business wine platform for the retail segment of limited products to a very targeted list of states. While others speak of their concepts of direct to trade, we are quietly committed to building a secondary distribution channel taking advantage of key wholesale partners that have a passion for strategic partnership that will drive sales to our clients in a very targeted fashion that creates a longer term win for all parties. Consistent with our core values is to create a win for all parties -the wineries, the secondary wholesale channel, the retailers with additional access points as main reason for all of our being- the consumer.

Innovation and investment now and over the long-run is our commitment to growing a variety of sales opportunities for our clients.

We are thrilled with the innovative launches bringing a portion of our portfolio of fulfillment partner brands and secondary brands of wine into new markets we have introduced over the last 30 days…

www.1800baskets.com a select group of great wines for gifting

http://www.winesforautism.com/ a site dedicated to providing quality wines at a value price to a national audience with a percentage of the proceeds going to major charities benefiting autism care and research.

www.geerwade.com a new look and feel coming and an expanding offering of branded quality and value wines and select private label wines highly rated of fantastic quality.

More to come, stay tuned!

Due to the anticipated increased traffic and security measures associated with the 2009 Presidential Inauguration, local and federal authorities are requiring that transportation carriers modify their operations.

UPS will make every effort to provide service as conditions in and around the Washington D.C. area allow. To ensure we are in compliance with the requirements mandated by federal and local authorities, WTN via UPS iand Fed Ex s making the following changes to our partnered package and LTL freight operations in Washington D.C. and the surrounding areas:

Monday, January 19 (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day)

While UPS will be able to serve much of the Washington D.C. area, the following ZIP Codes will not have pickup or delivery and the UPS and Fed Ex Service Guarantee will not apply:
20001-20006
20024
20036
20037

Service delays or disruptions may be experienced in surrounding areas due to expected business closures and traffic constraints. UPS  and Fed Ex service guarantees may not apply.

Tuesday, January 20 (Inauguration Day)

There will be no pickup or delivery service for all District of Columbia ZIP Codes. The UPS and Fed Ex Service Guarantee will not apply for shipments affected by the Inauguration event in Washington D.C.

Service delays or disruptions may be experienced in surrounding areas, including Maryland and Virginia due to expected business closures and traffic constraints.

Wednesday, January 21

Normal delivery and pickup services are scheduled to resume.

Additional street closings and other transportation disruptions could affect our operations. A map of restricted areas and road closures is available at:

http://www.secretservice.gov/presidential_inaugural.shtml

An interesting article that was published discusses the Glitz of Celebrity Wines.

 http://calibre.mworld.com/m/m.w?lp=GetStory&id=296572731

Interesting fact of note…

“Gaining marketing leverage from celebrities as diverse as film director Francis Ford Coppola, former NFL coach Mike Ditka, professional golfer Greg Norman and recent releases from Martha Stewart and Paul Newman, celebrity wines are on the rise. Celebrity wines are up nearly 19 percent in grocery store sales since last year and represent 0.9 percent ($41.8 million) of total wine sales. Celebrity spirits sales show the same growth rate (19 percent) in grocery stores and represent 0.3 percent ($7.5 million) of the total spirits category. In liquor stores, celebrity spirits are growing at an even faster rate, showing a nearly 21 percent increase since last year, compared to celebrity wines’ liquor store growth rate of 8 percent.”

It would be very interesting to track these same trends as specific to internet marketing and or winery or online wine retailer sales.

• Make sure every wine sales associate is friendly and welcoming from beginning to end of the experience either online via email, live chat, in person through the tasting room or via the phone.  The commitment  to make customer service the top priority and create a memorable experience is what will retain customers during uncertain economic times or during times of change such as an election year 08.
• Increased product knowledge of wines and wine products sold and the tools for sales are essential. WTN Services will be hosting our series of Best in Class Services workshops Janurary 14th and 15th. Our Winery clients wishing to send folks to these classes need to email cedwards@winetasting.com to attend the classes hosted by 1800Flowers Director of Training & Leadership Development hosted in Napa this year.
• Provide the assortment and the memory that customers want. The particulars of the new millenials are teaching us that consumers want an assortment of experiences to tie to their wine purchase. They do not want just another high end cabernet but an experience that is tied to their wants, needs and desires to be unique.

 Basics yes but basics matter in an economy that is iffy and memories are what bring customers back. Make the consumers experience a pleasureable memory and they will keep coming back.

Online purchasing is becoming more and more mainstream as consumers become more and more comfortable with online purchases. Specific to the wine industry wine retailers and wineries that had aggressive online marketing plans are feeling the joy of this holiday season. 

An interesting learning about the normalization of online sales that could apply to the wine industry comes from Europe from a group called the Interactive Media in Retail Group.   

They claim there are steps of sales normalization over the internet.  

 “Online retail will grow in quality too, becoming an integral part of mainstream consumer’s habits.” They define quality as driven by…  

• “Inclusivity people of all abilities are online shopping  

• Normalization online shopping will become integral to normal everyday life  

• Diversification online shopping will extend to a wider range of offerings  

• Sophistication online shopping services to become easier, quicker, safer and more valuable  

• Exclusivity a rise in specialist boutiques, offering more niche and exclusive products”  

The definitions or drivers of quality listed above would seem to apply to the wine industry as well. Some thoughts to consider as you continue to build your online wine programs and continuity shopping opportunities specific to wine branding.

A survey by the Click Wine Group in 2006 (the folks who brought the world Fat bastard, by some accounts the fifth most popular French wine) found that 43 percent of wine drinkers say they feel intimidated about choosing wines, 36 percent think wine labels are confusing, and 42 percent think wine experts actually try to make wine harder to understand.

A few of the more successful brand managers have partnered with their club managers and web leaders and fulfillment companies in an attempt to take the intimidation out of wine drinking.  Some have made collateral materials of clubs easier to understand and share with friends, some have worked with fulfillment on club packaging and client messaging ensuring that the speaking of wines and communications to clients are in more layman’s language. These initiatives specific to wine have driven increased sales by focusing on the simplicity of wine. Club and brand managers have found an increase in customer loyalty to their sites and clubs when the intimidation and confusion factor is removed. A consumer feels safe with your brand and becomes a repeat buyer and extends the length of club purchases when they feel confident and not confused.

What actions have you taken to cut the intimidation factor from purchasing your wine products? What is your action plan to drive new wine sales through less confusion and more consumer loyalty? Have you discussed options with all partners that impact the customer touch look and feel? Thoughts to consider as we enter a new year…
 

Given increased expenses for fuel and uncertainty about the economy more, more consumers and business decision makers are traveling less. More are making more purchases and informed decisions via the internet and targeted or segemented internet marketing. According to a recent survey by Minnesota Opinion Research, “The Internet is the best way for advertisers to market to business decision-makers.” According to the poll of nearly 1,000 people, “60% agreeing the Web was persuasive.” Fifty percent said it “influenced them to make a purchase.” 

How does this apply to the wine industry? Targeted email campaigns specific to corporate gifting, employee rewards and other B2B related offerings specific to wine and wine related items might be suggested to increase traffic to your web store. Think creative and put the web to work for you to build sales today and in the future.

A Shifting Wine Marketplace…
 
There is an emerging shift in the way consumers explore, learn and consider the purchase of wine. WTN Services is witnessing a trend of significantly more wine being purchased via the web, through email campaigns and from referrals thanks to interest driven by the use of new media or as some term it-Web 2.0. 
 
WTN Services partnered with Inertia Beverage Company is exploring the emerging trends. Our account management teams are encouraging our winery partners to take tactical advantage of the web opportunities for growth. Act and review your past sales trends then partner with us, from concept to order fulfillment to message, market and grow sales and profits together.
 
Take note of behaviors. The consumer has more control over the advertising or messaging he or she wishes to view due to the increased use of devices such asTiVo with television, spam blockers with the internet and bypassing much print marketing all together. Websites are flooded with wine offerings. The category of direct to consumer wine sales is growing by leaps and bounds but there is more market segmentation. Consumers feel there are too many choices or that wine is confusing. 
 
The successful winery or wine retailer must engage the consumer to explore their brand and make it easy to “buy now.” With such abundance in choice, and often little product variance in terms of quality and price some brands have become commoditized without ever realizing what has hit them.
 
Wine marketers focusing on creating loyalty for their brands will not survive in this new marketplace without a review in strategy, creativity, taking a chance to succeed, daring to act and not fearing the occasional failure with a campaign or project.
 
Successful wineries and wine retailers that focus on their customers wants and experiences specific to…