Expands Reach of International Brands Competing in the Ever-Growing U.S. DtC Wine Market; Improves Access to the World’s Best Wines for U.S. Collectors and Connoisseurs
Washington, D.C., September 6, 2023 – Today, VinConnect Inc. (www.vinconnect.com) launched three new European winery DtC programs, taking its total number of winery partners to 80. New additions included renowned estates such as Tua Rita from Tuscany, CVNE from Rioja, and Enrico Serafino from Piemonte. Since its founding 12 years ago, VinConnect has become the essential partner helping European wineries create and implement Direct-to-Consumer (DtC) sales programs, which are so important to succeeding in the U.S. market. By managing all logistics, compliance and marketing as well as helping wineries collect customer data to build their own direct relationships, VinConnect allows imported wines to overcome the challenges of the U.S. 3-tier system. VinConnect has shown 27% growth annualized over the past 5 years and now serves a total of more than 16,000 consumers.
The Importance of Direct-to-Consumer
Direct-to-Consumer (DtC) has driven growth in U.S. retail wine sales over the past ten years, with DtC sales increasing an average of 11% each year over that period. As consolidation in the U.S. distribution tier continues, this model becomes ever more strategically important, and as a result wineries throughout the world have been embracing it. VinConnect has been at the forefront of bringing DtC sales and marketing services to the international fine wine community since 2011, pioneering the ability for international wineries to build DtC channels in the U.S. that compete with domestic estates.
Today, it remains ahead of the curve, allowing them to build brand loyalty in the same way that American wineries do by owning their own messaging, customer relationships, and customer data.
“We are seeing ever-growing investments in winery hospitality, online presence, and social media efforts throughout Europe, as wineries seek to build ever-stronger direct connections with their most passionate customers,” says Kevin Sidders, Founder and President of VinConnect. “We offer our winery partners the ability to connect and transact with those customers beyond their first point of contact, maintaining their relationships and making it easy for their customers to continue to access the wines they love.”
For U.S. wine enthusiasts and connoisseurs, the benefits are familiar – the ability to maintain a direct relationship with their favorite wineries, and a convenient means to learn more about and purchase the wines they are most passionate about collecting and consuming.
How it Works
Following the marketing innovations of U.S. wineries in recent decades, international wineries are increasingly embracing the opportunity to communicate directly with and sell directly to consumers, whether via email, online, at events, or at the cellar door. VinConnect’s marketing, strategy, logistics and compliance services allow international wineries to extend those programs to consumers in the U.S., typically their largest and most competitive market.
VinConnect creates custom programs for each of its winery partners, depending on their objectives, resources, and capabilities. They help wineries to gather data from various marketing interactions – hospitality, events, social media – and build lists of customers interested in their wines. Email marketing allows the wineries to communicate directly with consumers, and VinConnect helps them take that relationship a step further by powering the ability to transact and fulfill in the U.S. In addition, the transactional data from sales can be leveraged by the wineries to tailor additional marketing efforts to their audience. Through this direct marketing, wineries build stronger relationships with their most passionate U.S. customers, and in doing so drive significant additional sales to them through traditional channels as well.
Critical Significance Evidenced During Covid
The Covid lockdowns had a dramatic impact on many top imported wineries, who often rely heavily on placements in top restaurants for driving sales and brand visibility for their wines. When that channel disappeared during Covid, many looked to initiate DtC programs to replace some of the lost sales and marketing visibility in the U.S. market. As a result, VinConnect’s business exploded during Covid, with dozens of wineries initiating new DtC programs through the VinConnect platform.
VinConnect’s 80 winery partners include estates from the world’s top wine regions, including Champagne Philipponnat, Château Léoville-Poyferré in Bordeaux, Laurent Ponsot in Burgundy, Domaine du Pégau in Chateauneuf-de-Pape, Domaine Vernay in the northern Rhone, Trimbach in Alsace, Massolino in Barolo, Fontodi in Tuscany, Alois Lageder in Alto Adige, Mastroberardino in Campania, Passopisciaro in Sicily, ARTADI in Spain, Dr. Loosen in Germany, Chateau Musar in Lebanon, and dozens more.
