E-COMMERCE & WINE WILL BE A REAL BOOM IN THE FUTURE, XAVIER COURT CO-FOUNDER OF SOCIO-VENTE PRIVEE.COM, E-COMMERCE SITE LEADER AND NUMBER 2 IN THE WINE WORLD, TOLD WINENEWS. FROM VINEXPO TOP SITES AND IDENTIKIT OF WINE E-SHOPPERS

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E-commerce is destined for a real boom, even in wine, and Italy will do its part, too. These are the words of Xavier Court, communications manager of new business development at the giant vente-privee.com as told to WineNews at Vinexpo.
Wine e-shoppers are willing to spend more money to buy bottles than those who only buy off-line. They are also more experienced, give wine as gifts more often and they are more open to buying wine from different countries. This is the identikit drawn by vente-privee.com, the giant of online sales in all kinds of merchandise, a community of 18 million members worldwide.
According to the survey of 1.000 participants interviewed in France, Spain, Italy and Germany, cyber shoppers spend on average, for personal consumption, 14 euros more than those who only buy wine off-line, and they spend up to 9 euros more for wines to offer to their guests or give as gifts.
“I am convinced that there will be a real boom in wine e-commerce. It yielded 30 million euros in sales for us in 2012. In China it is already 27% of the wine trade, while in Europe 10% and growing.
Even in Italy”, Xavier Court, partner and co-founder of www.vente-privee.com told Wine News. The number one preference bought online by fans and experts is red wine: 72% have it breathe before serving, and 48% decant it. Further, wine e-shoppers are more likely to buy for their own cellars than off-line buyers (46% versus 23%) and offer wine more often (35% vs. 25%).
Italian, French and Spanish wines are obviously favorites, but e-shoppers are also curious about tasting wines from other countries and on average have tasted wines from at least 6 different nationalities, besides those of the big European producers and particularly from South Africa (84%), Chile (80%) and Argentina (78%).
This confirms a general trend in the wine world, which sees women increasingly involved in purchasing decisions and 49% of women buy wine on-line (35% offline). So, which are the best sites for online wine sales in the world? Number one is www.yesmywine.com, followed by www.vente-privee.com, and the Chines site www.jiuxian.com, as confirmed by the survey of 3.200 users conducted by the Bem-Kedge Business School, who chose the participants according to the 7 key factors for the success of a website: quality of information on wine, variety, aesthetics, ease of navigation, security of transactions and privacy, interactivity and reliability.