Wine marketing & sales tips for the 2021 Holiday season

Traditionally most wines are sold from September to December. In the US, wine sales start to rise for the Thanksgiving celebration, while in parts of Europe, with the celebration of St. Martin’s Day, and ends after the New Year on both continents. While the peak sale period is right before the start of the Christmas-New Year holiday season.

Although the holidays are still a month and a half away, it’s crucial to sell as much as possible before the start of the Holiday season. This year especially, due to the latest news on the lack of shipping containers, and the rise of covid cases. Namely, logistical bottlenecks can cause delays in orders.

For this reason, we are sharing a few marketing and sales tips to help you boost wine sales for the 2021 Holiday season:

1. Prepare and promote Christmas themed gift sets, wrappings, and wine packaging

First thing first, to ensure great sales for the Holidays season, you may want to prepare Christmas-themed gift sets, wrappings, or wine packaging. Complimenting wine with other products or wrapping it in a lovely gift wrap can help boost sales as it will differentiate your products from the competitors. All you want is to stand out from the crowd and grab wine buyers’ attention at retail and online. If you haven’t offered any gift wrapping or package yet, you may want to try first with just one (niche) option and see how it goes. For example, you could prepare packages or sets designed particularly as business gifts and market them to local businesses.

Christmas themed gift sets, wrappings, and wine packaging
Christmas-themed gift sets, wrappings, wine packaging, and gift cards are great for boosting sales during the Holiday season.

Read also: 13 Marketing tips to sell more wine during the Holiday season

2. Make use of your social media channels

Social media are the number one driver of sales for many businesses. Unfortunately, this is not the case for wineries (apart from a few exceptions). Based on a survey of 500 winery websites by Salisbury Creative Group, most wineries have a lot of place for improvement in online sales, particularly in connecting their website with social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. Social media are great for promoting wine and showcasing gift wraps or gift packages of your winery. In the past years, also TikTok has proven its worth. Namely, several wine brands are already successfully using it to promote themselves.

To make the most out of the social media profiles this Christmas holidays season, “dress them up” into the Holiday theme, showcase your gift wraps or gift packages and promote wines on it. Make use of platforms’ ability to share short videos. Videos can be promotional, educational, and/or informative. You can also host live online wine tastings event on several social media platforms. 

If you have your online store, make sure to connect it with social media platforms such as Facebook to enable purchasing your wine products directly from Facebook and Instagram posts. 

social media wine sales
Examples of successful social media campaigns of different wine brands. Let social media become your winery’s number one driver of sales.

3. Sale wine online

Coronavirus pandemic has changed our shopping habits. Now more people than ever, across the globe, buy wine online. Therefore selling wine online is a must.
Wine consumers have pointed out several reasons why they prefer to purchase wine online, such as: no work hours limit, doorstep delivery, online wine guide based on their preferences, and comments from other wine buyers on the taste and quality, and a possibility to purchase wine from new regions and of different grape varieties. Therefore, when selling wine online, it’s important to offer buyers what they want and adjust the buying experience based on customer preferences. You can sell through your own online store or opt for established wine e-commerce; we have already addressed both options here.

sale-wine-online
Photo (WineDirect): Offer your wines through an online wine store.

Read also: Wine sales during pandemic

4. Offer sales and/or free shipping

People often expect discounts or at least free shipping when purchasing online around the Holiday season. Depending on the region you come from, you may want to offer sales only on special days during the Holiday season. If you sell on the US market, there are two days you should be prepared for – Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
When it comes to shipping costs, they are often a drawback from the purchase, especially as wine bottles are heavy, and thus shipping can be expensive. Therefore, offer free shipping or lower the shipping costs during the Holiday season, or even better opt for free shipping right before the Holiday season, and thus ensure earlier wine orders and on-time delivery.

wine-christmas-sales
Discounts and free shipping can help you boost sales, especially for early orders.

 


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