THE PROWEIN-WINE INTELLIGENCE SURVEY ON DISTRIBUTION TRENDS IN THE WINE WORLD REVEALED "CONVENIENCE STORES", ON LINE MARKETS AND SOME TOP MASS RETAIL CHAINS ARE GROWING.

"Convenience Stores", online markets and consolidating the leadership of a few large-scale distribution chains in some countries, specializing in wine and not, are the main trends in worldwide wine making distribution, revealed the Wine Intelligence (www.wineintelligence.com) and ProWein study at the fair in Dusseldorf (to date, www.prowein.com). “We decided to analyze the off-trade channel because it is the predominant one and it is growing more”, the CEO of Wine Intelligence Richard Halstead, explained to WineNews, “and we focused on the German, US, UK, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, French and Australian markets: eight countries that together total 50% of wine consumption in the world”.
According to the survey, one of the most interesting macro trends in wine trade is the "convenience store", especially in the US, UK, France and Spain. "Especially in the peripheral areas, where so many people live who do not buy larger quantities of products, but target their purchases and buy when they need to”, explained Halstead. “They shop at small stores geared to consumers that choose quickly and buy just what they need at the time. In these cases, brand and product recognition are very important, like the name of the winery, provenance and origin of the variety . This type of channel needs to send a simple and clear message”.
Then there is the growth of online sales and particularly the "direct-to-consumer" sales. “This is an increasingly important channel, which provides high levels of expertise, and sometimes even more choice than classic retail stores”, explained Halstead, “and it is growing because we all have cell phones, so it is less intimidating to buy online rather than on the shelf. Sure, there is the problem of the physical distance from the product that you choose, and it is an important aspect for an emotional product like wine, but if you trust the site from which you buy, difficulties cease to exist. The sense of community prevails - seeing what other viewers think about wines - and often purchases are 15-20% higher than those who buy off line, because the audience is more committed wine fans”.
But there are also countries, like Australia or Italy, where "the dominance of a few large chains is confirmed. People are moving more and more from small shops to supermarkets and large chain wineries. This is what happens at the "aggregate" level. But the Wine Intelligence-ProWein survey also analyzed the individual markets and summarized the "high-lights".
In Germany, for instance, supermarkets and hard discount stores are increasing while wine and specialty stores are suffering and direct selling at the wineries is declining.
In the UK, on the other hand, convenience stores are growing because supermarkets and hypermarkets are declining and probably will reduce the space available to wine, while the "hard-discount revolution" has not so far touched the world of Bacchus. Direct-to-home selling is growing, mainly because supermarkets such as Tesco are offering this service. Something similar is happening also in the US, the number one market in the world, but the situation is more varied because the laws regulating wine and spirits sales are different in every state.
In France, instead, the domination of hypermarkets and big chains such as Carrefour and Auchan are growing and developing the convenience store format to cope with the consumers’ economic difficulties. Wineries are suffering, while "click to collect", the part of online commerce that promotes exciting special offers or "wine clubs", so fans can stock their own cellars.
The situation in Spain is interesting. The local supermarkets and convenience stores are gaining in market shares, while large hypermarkets in the suburbs are in decline because people have less money to buy large quantity and only buy what they can and need day to day. In Italy big supermarket chains are growing, which in recent years have invested heavily in wine supplies, at the expense of small shops and wine bars. The weight of hard discount stores, however, is increasing on the wine market.
On the other side of the world in Australia, supermarket chains such as Coles and Woolworths are virtually monopolizing the market, and have also hooked into the growth trend of "direct-to-home".
The situation in Japan is stable with the dominance of supermarkets and hypermarkets