Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/70673
D A T A CENTER Leading Flash Sales Sites Identified Discount, time-urgent websites draw loyalty from consumers and wineries wine lovers, and they've attracted fans among wineries, too. The wine hobbyist's interest is clear: Get wines at attractive prices and also have the thrill of the chase to acquire something special. For wineries, however, the primary appeal "F is to unload unsold wine quickly without seeming to compromise the usual pricing among regular customers. Some wineries also believe that flash sites allow them to reach new wine drinkers—hopefully to return for more, and preferably at the regular prices. Because of wineries' interests in this new direct sales channel, Wines & Vines has initiated a major program to monitor and evaluate these sites and their successes as well as record everything in WinesVines- DATA. This program will include month- ly coverage of the channel in the print magazine, reporting the number of wines offered, prices, discount percentages, typi- cal wines offered, etc. Greater depth will be available online to subscribers only at winesandvines.com/flash. Six sites seem to dominate the action, but they're very different in character and opera- tion. Most fundamentally, they divide into li- censed retailers on one hand and on the oth- er flash sites that say they act as advertising media for various wineries' products. Some release only one wine per day, or at a time, while others feature a number of options. 318 wines in December During the month of December, these six sites offered 318 wines at average dis- counts ranging from 29% by The Wine Spies to 53% by Wine Woot, according to WinesVinesDATA. Their web traffic was as low as 7,000 pageviews for The Wine Spies and as high as 555,000 for Wine Woot, re- ports Compete.com. Wine Woot has developed a passionate user community since starting in 2006, but others are strictly retailers, some bare bones: Wines Til Sold Out refuses to iden- tify its affiliation on its website and will only talk to customers via e-mail. The wines offered differ, too. Most sites feature imported and U.S. wines, but Wine Woot is strictly domestic. Likewise, some discount deeply and may offer private la- 14 Wines & Vines FeBRUARY 201 1 lash" websites that sell wines at deep discounts for short times have become the darlings of many bels while others stick to name brands and tout the wine's quality and ratings more than minimal price. Most sites include rat- ings from various sources, though some may not be independent. Some other flash websites offer occasional wines, like Rue La La, an invitation-only site associated with Wine Woot, and even winer- ies themselves are trying the technique. Here's a quick summary of each site Wines & Vines has identified as a leader. More details are found in the tables ac- companying this article on page 16. Cinderella Wine is the flash outlet for Gary Vaynerchuk's popular Wine Library retail store in New Jersey and Internet TV em- earlier this year. Its average offered price in December was $32, a 39% discount from winery retail. Wines offered have included some from California wineries DeLoach, Raymond, Foley and Cornerstone. WineShopper offers one to five products at a time, with five to six offers usually live at any one time. It is affiliated with Wine.com and touts heavy discounting from known brands, which are balanced between imports and domestic wines. Its principals are CEO Rich Bergsund and founder Mike Osborn. It is a licensed re- tailer based in San Francisco. Its average offered price in December was $22, a 37% discount. Domestic wines offered recently pire. The company is licensed as a retailer and says it sources wine only from distrib- utors. Cinderella started with one wine per day, but now it generally releases one at noon and one at 9 p.m. Monday through Friday. Cinderella seems to sell mostly im- ports, though vice president of operations Brandon Warnke says Cinderella is just looking for good deals. Its average offered price was $31, and the average discount from the winery price was 47%. Some of the wines it has sold recently include Napa Valley wineries HdV and Alpha Omega, considered high-end brands. Lot 18 is a venture of Philip James, founder of Snooth.com, which calls itself the world's largest wine website, and Kevin Fortuna, a veteran technology entrepreneur. It is based in New York City with a procurement team in the California wine country. It acts as an advertising site and leaves shipping to its winery partners. It recently completed a $3 million round of funding led by FirstMark Capital, a New York City-based venture capital firm after a $500,000 seed round have included St. Supéry, Mumm Napa, Hahn, Round Pond, Raymond, Beaulieu and Robert Mondavi. The Wine Spies offer one wine per day, al- most all from California. This independent flash site is based in Santa Rosa, Calif., handles its own logistics and has a retail license. Its principals and co-founders are Jason Seeber and Brandon Stauber, who bill themselves as Agent Red and Agent White. Their average offered price in De- cember was $29, a 29% discount from the original price. Wines Til Sold Out is affiliated with Roger Wilco liquor store in Pennsauken, N.J. It offers one wine from around the world at a time for 30%-70% off suggested retail, shipping included. It typically offers up to four wines per day. The CEO is Joe Arking. Jonathan Newman, who served for years as chairman of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, the largest buyer of wine and spirits in the United States, advises the company and supplies wine but has no fi- nancial stake in the site.