Office Space Expenses

$0

$7,000

Employee & Freelancer Expenses

$151

$352

Website Costs

$223

$7,215

Business Formation Fees

$5,600

$20,400

Inventory Expenses

$350

$9,750

Training & Education Expenses

$0

$1,000

Software Expenses

$162

$3,094

Advertising & Marketing Costs

$0

$1,900

Food Business Expenses

$300

$1,400

Total Startup Costs

$6,786

$52,111

Wine Enthusiast

winemag.com

37,867

Wine Folly

winefolly.com

39,002

Wine Business

winebusiness.com

82,930

The Midwest's Wine, Spirits & Beer Store

binnys.com

92,544

WineBid

winebid.com

105,476

Splash Wines

splashwines.com

109,328

ABC Fine Wine & Spirits

abcfws.com

139,472

Last Bottle

lastbottlewines.com

144,979

Astor Wines & Spirits

astorwines.com

146,559

Waitrose Cellar

waitrosecellar.com

163,038

Buy Wine Online in Australia @ Just Wines

justwines.com.au

172,193

Flexibility

You can put as much time into the business as you'd like. If you like the work and have some initial experience, you can start small and manage all aspects of the business on your own.

Ability to start your business from home

It's not necessary to have a physical storefront or office space to get your business started. You can do everything from the comfort of your own home, at least in the beginning!

Rewarding work

Starting a online wine business can be really rewarding work. After all, you are solving an immediate issue for your customer and you're working on something you truly care about.

Scalable

With businesses and processes changing daily, there will always be demand for new features, products and services for your business. Additionally, there are several different business models and pricing tiers you can implement that will allow you to reach all types of customers.

Meaningful business connections

You never know who you will meet as a online wine business. This could be the start of an incredible business opportunity!

High customer retention rates

Once a customer invests in your product, they've invested their time and energy to utilize your product/service which is highly valuable to them. Typically, your product or service becomes indispensable to your customer.

Finding The Right Supplier

Most businesses in this space go the supplier/manufacturer route, which isn't a bad thing! However, finding the right supplier can take a lot of time, energy and trial/error. If done properly, this process can save you months (if not years) of time and energy. More on this below in the "finding a supplier" section.

Motivation of employees

If you plan to have a sales/content team on board, finding creative ways to motivate them can be a challenge. It's important that you're able to offer great incentives and a good work environment for your employees.

Niche Market

A niche business is not necessarily a bad thing, in fact, it can be the key to your success. However, it can be more challenging and time consuming to find the perfect niche market and target audience.

High overhead expenses

With starting an online wine business, there are overhead expenses that come with selling a physical product. You will want to make sure you strategically budget for these overhead costs. We discuss this more in the startup costs section below.

You may need to charge sales tax

If you are selling your products in various states, you may be required to charge sales tax. Although this may not impact your financials specifically, it can be a headache to create a process and procedure for this. To learn more about sales tax, check out this article

Time commitment

With starting an online wine business, all responsibilities and decisions are in your hands. Although this is not necessarily a negative thing, work life can take over at times. This can place a strain on friends and family and add to the pressure of launching a new business.