A vintage year for Amazon?

At the start of the year, rumors appeared in the press that Amazon might be making a strategic move into wine sales in the U.S. after the online giant was seen to be recruiting a senior wine buyer. Recent wine industry reports indicate that Amazon is now a lot further down the line.

by Helen Leggatt

amazon%20logo.gif Is there anything that Amazon won’t sell? Various wine industry websites are reporting that Amazon’s plans to enter into U.S. wine sales are nearing completion. Reuters reports wine sales will begin “by early October” and workshops to teach wineries how to sell on Amazon have begun.

“They have been working for a while on this wine project. Now they are signing up the wineries,” said Terry Hall, communications director for Napa Valley Vintners, to Reuters. “They’re fast-tracking it right now.”

Only U.S.-produced wine will be sold initially, with an estimated 5,000 unique wines available at launch. With more than 5,000 wineries in the U.S., and at least one in every state, Amazon has no shortage of suppliers.

The online retailer will be working with New Vine Logistics, a Napa-based company that handles wine fulfillment, to ship to around 26 U.S. states.

The move gives smaller wineries greater exposure, but some argue that selling wines via Amazon is too impersonal and a harder environment in which to get across a brand experience, a vital part of a consumer's decision-making process.