Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/63937
D A T A CENTER Wines Till Sold Out Now Topping $50 Million in Sales the owners are confident they'll maintain strong sales in the future. Elliot Arking, the chairman and founder W of the company, told Wines & Vines that in 2006 he lucked out at buying some "op- portunistic" purchases of good Australian wine at low prices. The owner of a wine re- tail shop in New Jersey, Arking had a mod- est website for the store and decided to try selling the wine online. "I was looking for a vehicle to focus and highlight these op- portunities," he said. "That's really the in- spiration for it." At the start, Arking said he sent e-mails out to only a few dozen friends and busi- ness acquaintances. The model—then and now—is simple: One wine is posted online and made available for purchase until it's sold out. Today the website has 135,000 members accessing sales through e-mail, Twitter, Facebook and mobile apps. The quick nature of the sales is some- thing that Arking and his son Jamie Ark- ing, CFO, said their partner wineries find attractive. "It's a rapid marketplace injec- tion of their wines to the consumers," El- liot Arking said. Elliot's brother, Joe, is the company's co-founder and CEO. 'We're not just marketers' All of the wine sold on WTSO is purchased by the Arkings. Elliot Arking said his busi- ness has been successful through building relationships with wineries. "We're very confident about the future because we Wines Till Sold Out Average monthly offers Total for past 12 months Average discount Average flash price Average retail price The Arking family built one of the industry's leading flash sites from a small web endeavor for their New Jersey wine shop. From left: Jamie Arking, CFO; Elliot Arking, chairman and Joe Arking, CEO. understand this business. We're buyers of wine, we're not just marketers." The market may be shifting away from 66 789 51% $22 $45.50 Source: WinesVinesDATA, offers on domestic wines the inventory-clearing days of the reces- sion, and wineries are now more focused on running their own direct-to-consumer programs, but the Arkings are confident they've established WTSO as a legitimate online sales channel. "It's important to un- derstand the way the wineries had a glut, yes, some years ago," Jamie Arking said. "It helped us. That was our foot in the door with wineries." He said that WTSO has now established itself as a way for wineries to move their products quickly and to a national audi- ence. When WTSO makes a purchase, Ark- ing said his staff contacts the winemaker or head of the wine club and tells them at what price they intend to sell the wine and encourage them to offer the same deal to their club members on the same day. "No one is offended, and we've helped distribute the product nationally," he said. Shahin Shahabi, owner of Napa-based Stonehedge Winery, had nothing but praise for WTSO. He said his wines such as the Havens label do quite well on the web- site, where he sells about $200,000 worth of wine per year. "It is a positive thing, it clears out some of the older inventories," he said. "They're very honorable people, they're very good people." Depending on the product, Shahabi said he'd sell to WTSO at wholesale or some- times below his wholesale cost. Shahabi said he's been doing business with the company for three years and likes that his wines are often being offered in the company of some of Napa Valley's top labels. He noted that he's also scooped up some deals on top Italian wines for his per- sonal cellar. WTSO will typically sell between 7,000 and 12,000 bottles per day. According to WinesVinesDATA, the average sale price on WTSO is $22, and the average discount amount is 51%. The site also often posts Wines & Vines MAY 2012 15 ines Till Sold Out (WTSO) reports that it grew to more than $50 mil- lion in total revenue last year, and