Start A Wine Club - Business Ideas
A wine club offers members inside access to favorite wines from favorite vineyards. Members enjoy access to wine cultural experiences such as tastings and other exclusive events. The wine clubs provide members a series of monthly, quarterly, or semi-annual premium-quality wine shipments and benefits.
Starting a wine club is pretty simple! Invite people you know and the existing customers. You can also advertise starting a wine club in wine enthusiast magazines and online communities.
Starting a wine club requires a great deal of effort, dedication, and most importantly passion.
If you're interested in how to sell wine club, or selling wine club online, you can use this page as a guide for everything you'll need to know.
Key Stats
Startup Costs
| Min Startup Costs | Max Startup Costs | |
|---|---|---|
|
Office Space Expenses |
$0 |
$7,000 |
|
Website Costs |
$213 |
$6,715 |
|
Business Formation Fees |
$550 |
$2,500 |
|
Equipment & Supply Expenses |
$63 |
$200 |
|
Retail Business Expenses |
$1,250 |
$11,650 |
|
Inventory Expenses |
$350 |
$14,750 |
|
Software Expenses |
$150 |
$2,744 |
|
Advertising & Marketing Costs |
$75 |
$5,236 |
|
Total Startup Costs |
$2,651 |
$50,795 |
Successful Businesses
| Business | URL | Rank | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Total Wine |
totalwine.com |
9,009 |
|
|
Buy wine online |
nakedwines.com.au |
84,973 |
|
|
HARVEST HOSTS |
harvesthosts.com |
107,642 |
|
|
Wine Library |
winelibrary.com |
128,189 |
|
|
Wine Insiders |
wineinsiders.com |
141,193 |
|
|
Scout & Cellar |
scoutandcellar.com |
156,829 |
|
|
Half Off Deals: Serving up 50-90% savings on your favorite local restaurants, spas, and more! |
halfoffdeal.com |
161,001 |
|
|
DTC Winery Software and Fulfillment Solutions |
winedirect.com |
171,414 |
|
|
Spec's Wines, Spirits & Finer Foods |
specsonline.com |
172,757 |
|
|
Welcome to Beringer Vineyards |
beringer.com |
245,155 |
|
|
1 Rated Gift of the Month Clubs with Free Shipping from Amazing Clubs |
amazingclubs.com |
295,364 |
Pros & Cons
| Pros | Description |
|---|---|
|
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. |
|
Rewarding work |
Starting a wine club 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 wine club. 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. |
|
High margins |
The gross margins for your wine club are typically around 34%, which is considerably high and allows you to grow your business and manage costs easily. |
| Cons | Description |
|---|---|
|
Crowded Space |
Competition is high when it comes to your wine club, so it's important that you spend a good amount of time analyzing the market and understanding where the demand lies. |
|
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. |
|
Security Issues |
With any Saas business, data loss and security issues may arise throughout your process of building your product. It's critical that you understand exactly what you're responsible for and how to avoid potential issues down the road. |
|
Taxes |
As a wine club, you typically pay self-employment taxes which can be quite high. It's important to understand what you will be paying in taxes each year so you can determine if the work you're taking on is worth it. |
|
No safety net |
Typically, as a wine club, you do not receive a consistent pay-check and instead earn money based on your transactions each month. During the slow periods, you typically take away less since the job is based on commission. It's important to budget accordingly for the slow times. |
|
High overhead expenses |
With starting a wine club, 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. |
Marketing Ideas
-
1
Affiliate Program
Affiliate marketing is a great way to bring in a new revenue stream, especially when you don't sell products or services.
Simply put, an affiliate program is an agreement where a business pays another business or influencer ("the affiliate") a commission for sending traffic and/or sales their way.
The affiliate typically gets a unique link where clicks and conversions can be tracked.
-
2
Direct Sales
Direct sales strategy implies a direct contact between a seller and a consumer without the involvement of any third party. Direct selling is popular in sectors where sellers communicate with their clientele personally. The sales technique occurs at non-store locations which include at home, work, or online.
For direct selling to succeed, hire a few (or many) salespeople to support the sales conversion process. It's critical that you assign them specific roles and responsibilities to nurture the client and provide excellent support.
-
3
Word of mouth
Word of mouth is when a consumers reflects their interest in a company’s product or service in their daily dialogues.
Therefore, word of mouth advertising is essentially a free advertising triggered by the customers experience.
According to Nielsen, 92% of people trust recommendations from friends and family.
Therefore, in today’s hyper-connected world, a single recommendation through a word of mouth can have a huge impact to your business.
Hey! 👋 I'm Pat Walls, the founder of Starter Story.
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