There’s room for more than one in online wine selling

The landscape for selling wine online has changed dramatically in the last 12 months. In the latest development, one of the few remaining companies, e-Vineyard, snapped up the ailing Wine.com. Lesley Berglund, president and CEO of Winetasting.com, which runs a cooperative web site featuring products from 50 partner wineries, says there’s plenty of room for both players because eVineyard targets new wine buyers, while Winetasting.com sells to wine enthusiasts.

“EVineyard is like a big front door where people start learning about wines and buying,” says Berglund. “Once consumers get into the wine-buying process, those who become enthusiasts like to find the source, or the winery. And we provide the source.”

Unlike Winetasting.com, which is a cooperative online network of wineries that sells high-end wines to regular wine-buying consumers, eVineyard works with distributors to sell premium wines to a mass market. The average ticket for eVineyard is about $100 per purchase, while Winetasting’s average is more than $300.