Convenience, choice, value are just three good reasons to buy your wine online. But what does a successful online wine shop require to be successful? A great range of wines is not sufficient to judge the merits of a website.

Like any ecommerce site, an online wine shop needs to provide easy access to its stock (if your customers can’t find it, they can’t buy it), whether that’s by country/region, grape, price, occasion or another category.

Next, key product information should be displayed prominently, from bottle images to tasting notes, food matches. Finally, an easy checkout experience is critical.

While many wine shops have a superb range of wines, it’s the ease of use basics which are letting them down.

Although I’m probably guilty of leaving some great websites out, these are three of the best out there based on the above :

1. Curiouswines.ie

Brothers Michael and Matt Kane launched their website, curiouswines.ie from Bandon in Cork in late 2008 with the ambitious goal of bettering anything else that was out there in the Irish marketplace. In that short space of time, it’s fair to say they’ve achieved that goal with a range of over 300 wines, monthly discounts and free next day delivery.

All this is expertly blended with an easy to use site, a catchy, conversational blog, recently introduced video tastings, customer reviews as well as an established Twitter & Facebook presence.

Critical to the managing director, Michel Kane’s are honesty and integrity, applied to his entire business from pricing, to communications with his customers and relationships with his suppliers.

He adds,

“This is acutely pertinent in the wine industry where we’re bombarded with disingenuous discounting, irresponsible advertising and below-cost selling.

“I also think service has finally seeped into the cultural conscious as something that should be demanded and valued. From day one, we championed fast, free delivery on cases of wine, as well as a 100% guarantee and free returns service

“We’ve built a business in a recession for a recession, but based on solid customer service values that should be there no matter what the economic landscape looks like”.

I’ll drink to that.

  • Online shop: www.curiouswines.ie
  • Blog: www.curiouswines.ie/blog/
  • Twitter: twitter.com/curiouswines

2. Karwigwines.ie

Joe Karwig is a Bremen native and has carved out a niche for all things wine in his adopted home in Carrigaline in Cork. Back in the nineties, Karwig Wines had one of the first online wine shops. Spearheaded by Marketing Manager, Maurice O’Mahony, they’ve relaunched recently.

Provenance is a key thing they want to get across on their site. The old site had a wine name, price and not much else. The new site is a dramatic improvement with bottle images, tasting notes and details of the producer and vineyard. Maurice feels that these details are very important.

“Wine is all about people and place. What makes a wine different? We feel that the soil, the varieties, the winemakers and their outlook are so important. Wine is not just an alcoholic beverage. Wine should reflect its origins, its location and the people who make it. We try to convey that to people”.

  • Online shop: www.karwigwines.ie
  • Blog: karwigwines.wordpress.com
  • Twitter: twitter.com/karwigwines

3. O’Briens Wines

In October 2009 O’Briens redeveloped their site to take advantage of new technology and improve some key areas based on customer feedback.

They’ve also integrated their popular loyalty programme with the website allowing customers to earn and spend loyalty points online. The site is clearly easier to navigate too.

“With over 1,000 wines available it was clear to us that navigation was of prime importance and so we introduced a product filtering system that allows customers locate exactly what they’re looking for”

says Grattan O’Brien, Product Manager and Head of Web Development.

According to O’Brien,

“the obvious disadvantage to trading online is the lack of social interaction and the one on one conversations you can have with us if you come in-store”.

To meet this challenge, plans are already afoot to establish a strong social media presence.

“This will allow us the opportunity to listen more carefully to our customers and react faster to changes and requests. We have also started to work with some of our world winning winemakers who will start blogging for us from their wineries and provide an even greater insight into the journey from their vines to your glass”.

  • Online shop: www.obrienswine.ie
  • Blog: blog.obrienswine.ie
  • Twitter: twitter.com/obrienswine

This article first appeared in the Sunday Tribune, 21st February 2010