Wine: The last virgin land of the American electric Dealer

Beijing Time October 29 news, foreign media today published an article said, in the current e-commerce booming and pervasive, wine sales is still a no-go area.

With the large scale of Internet users, effective delivery mechanism, pet food and cotton textiles have become an attractive e-commerce business. But so far, the sale of wine through the internet has struggled, mainly because the federal and state government regulations on alcohol sales have made it extremely difficult for businesses to bring wine directly to consumers ' doorstep.

In this respect, the wine sales site Wine.com CEO Richie Bergsand (Rich bergsund), because the site has put wine in the food gift basket with the mail to consumers and was fined New York State. According to New York State regulations, food and alcohol must be shipped separately. To meet the state's regulations, wine.com had to establish 7 separate cargo terminals.

Wine.com was founded in 1998, and this year's revenues are expected to reach $80 million trillion, up from $67 million last year. But behind this, Wine.com spent more than 10 years, and even went through bankruptcy embarrassment. In the worst case, wine.com had only enough money left to run for a week, and was forced to lay off 1/3.

Bergsand said: "There are many advantages to selling wine online, such as consumers have a lot of choice space, but many factors limit the sale of wine online: such as regulations, shipping costs, and even weather conditions have impact." ”

To meet the Government's regulations, wine.com spends about 2 million dollars a year, including licences, legal costs and cargo station management. "Every state has its own rules," said Tigny Lau Dini Rao, vice president of Lot18 products at New York's wine-shopping flash site. ”

In regions such as California and Washington, where there are no restrictions on the number of wines sent directly to consumers each year, Utah State and Kentucky State may face heavy fines or even imprisonment. In states like Florida, wines are not allowed to be transported.

In Texas, drinks with more than 16% alcohol are not allowed to be mailed. In addition, there are relevant laws and regulations, to mail wine, need to be 21 years old and older adults sign.

All these restrictions make the online sales of the wine not as satisfactory as the E-commerce boom. Data show that in the first 12 months to July this year, the United States direct arrival of the consumer wine sales of 1.35 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for the wine market size of 28 billion U.S. dollars 4.8%. Excluding wine club consumption and the number ordered by telephone, the internet sales of wine are less than 1% of the overall market size.

Meanwhile, online retail sales are expected to account for 12% of overall retail sales this year, compared with 3% in 2007. Online retail sales are expected to reach $96 billion trillion this year during the Christmas shopping season, an increase of 12% per cent year-on-year.

Many companies have tried to enter the online wine market, but in the end they ended up failing. Faced with huge operating-cost pressures, wine.com was forced to sell assets to rivals Evineyard,2004 in 2001 to regain their grip on Baker Capital.

Even the E-commerce giant, Amazon, is no exception. 1999, Amazon invested in wine sales website Wineshopper, resulting in losses of about 30 million dollars. Amazon's efforts in the market were hit again in 2009, with new Vine Antananarivo, its partner, temporarily suspended for financial problems.

But Amazon has not given up. This September, Amazon contacted about 100 Californian wine manufacturers to discuss the sale of wine on the Amazon.com website.

This time, Amazon wants to reduce trouble by requiring wine makers to take charge of shipping issues. Initially, the service will be launched in 13 states, allowing businesses to send wine directly to consumers, according to people familiar with the matter.

Violations of the wine mailing regulations will result in fines, temporary and even permanent suspension of operating licences, as these provisions primarily protect the interests of local wine dealers.

Peter Sisson, founder of Wineshopper.com, says there are too many restrictions on selling wine online Peter Hissen. Hyson said: "Wine is a whim to buy goods, for example, on the way to dinner." But the consignee must be over 21 years old, which means that the wine must first be sent to the company and then carried home, which is against the original intention of the purchase. ”

Scott Meadows, general manager of Silenus Vintners, a well-known Californian winery, said: "Many consumers come to us and enjoy our wines." But we're sorry to say we can't send wine to your state. We had to push off a lot of business because of the rules. ”

Princeton University writer Li Changrui, Chang-rae Lee, says he buys 7 bottles to 8 bottles of wine a year from the Internet because there are more options available on the site than in local stores. Once, a wine sales website can not directly to the goods to him, can only be sent to his friends, after their own to fetch.

Li Changrui said: "There is too much red tape to buy wine on the internet, and it would be better if it were more open." ”