Your winery’s website should act as a second storefront.  If built properly, your website will work as a 24 hours a day 7 days a week sales representative.  Your visitors should be able to navigate throughout your website with ease and find everything that they are looking for. As potential customers, they should feel comfortable and safe about giving their purchasing information to you.  In other words, your winery ecommerce solution should be your best salesperson.

Why customers love eCommerce

Having an ecommerce website for your winery that can balance simple and easy navigation with a sense of trust and security can be a game changer. Whether it be wine clubs, individual wine sales, accessories, etc., having a shopping cart that can deliver reliably is important for sales.  Consumers are becoming more technologically savvy. Purchasing products, like wine, online has become a preferred way of shopping. A friend of mine had a great quote,

And who doesn’t like getting presents? 
Also, why prevent your out-of-town visitors from purchasing more of your Syrah they absolutely fell in love with, but only bought a few bottles of while in your tasting room?

In addition to the importance of having an organized website that guides the users to a purchase, what are some important features your winery ecommerce website should have?

• The ability to integrate your inventory software with your shopping cart. The power to have your wine inventory automatically update with every purchase online can and will save you time and money.

• Versatility in your winery shopping cart. Do customers have the option to purchase a case of wine, 6 bottles of wine, or 1 bottle of wine? By presenting multiple options, customers feel they have more control over the purchase and in turn feel more comfortable continuing with a the sale.

• Make visitors feel comfortable and safe. There is nothing worse than giving away your information to an unfamiliar website. Also, no one wants to be re-directed to a completely foreign site to complete a purchase. It is simple, if the users do not trust the website, the will not buy.  Make sure your winery shopping cart has ReCaptcha security, make sure it is SSL certified, and make sure the user stays on your site throughout the whole process. Avoid redirects and limit the pop-ups. Also, confirmation emails after a purchase is very important. Make sure the email contains a receipt and tracking information.

• Feature a well designed shopping cart. As mentioned before, trust is important and by having a well designed and organized shopping cart, consumers assume that the site is legitimate and trustworthy.  Making sure the site looks up-to-date and dependable is crucial for a winery ecommerce website.

For more information about winery ecommerce solutions feel free to contact Hathway.