Fresh Ideas to Finish 2024 Strong Together in Wine DTC

From the desk of Alison Smith Story, VP of Supplier Relations:

The Labor Day holiday hits, as it did last weekend here in the US, and all of a sudden the end of the year (EOY) is upon us.

As we face the last third of 2024, however, it’s clear that this will be an EOY unlike any other.

Many fall-season Wine Club shipments, maybe even at your winery too, were bumped up on the calendar. Wholesale partners are largely focused on quick and easy warehouse turns with volume wines. And with slower-than-ever-before wine country travel, new Wine Club memberships have also decreased.

What’s a winery to do, as we turn our attention to wins – wherever we can find them – before the calendar turns to 2025?

This is truly the season of our lifetime to be obsessive about our current customers, and to focus like never before on loyal wine customers. 

Here are a few ideas that are on my mind…

• In general, think about holiday offers, corporate gifting, in-home personal tastings and maybe a few EOY winery events.

• Maybe you have a library wine that could be a special Thanksgiving release to some of your customer base, but not to all. Micro-segmenting your lists is a power move right now.

• Target the top-five areas around the country where your best customers live. They’d likely welcome a visit by the winemaker and/or vintner for a Saturday afternoon gathering. 

• Ask your membership if they would enjoy your help with sending holiday gifts this year, complete with a personal touch from the winery. 

These are just a few ideas that work. Your customer and wine data is a treasure trove of “bright ideas.” Dive in, and have some fun with this EOY!

Enolytics is here to help – to “surface” helpful data, to brainstorm ideas, and to put analytics to work for you.  

Be in touch anytime. Let’s finish 2024 strong, together.

– Ali Smith Story