Wine consumers prefer to buy in a shop rather than on the net

Following Monday's posting I now have more details on the consumer survey on French attitudes to buying wine that puts the earlier results into more of a context.

Although the headline emphasised the preference for the internet (14.4%) over wine guides (8.1%) and specialist magazines (4.6%) when deciding what wine to buy, by far the most influential remains the advice your friends (57.3%) followed by advice from wine merchants (41.7%) and 19.8% for on-trade professionals (sommeliers, restaurateurs, etc.). The least influential is general interest magazines (2.6%). Going to producers' wine fairs (16.4%) is quite popular. However, asking nobody’s advice (16.7%) remains a more popular option than surfing the net. It is clear that wine buyers prefer not to pay for advice on what to buy!

1003 people, aged between 18 and 65 and representative of the French population were questioned on line and the survey was carried out between 22nd and 29th January.

The survey has some very interesting findings on what surfers look for and what's important on wine producers websites.

Importance élevée accordée à certains critères d’information sur un site de producteur (Importance given to finding the following information or facility on a producer's site. Listed in order of importance:)

81.9 Trouver de l’information sur le terroir, le vignoble, l’appellation
(Details about the terroir, the vineyards and the appellation.)

81.4 Trouver de l’information sur le prix

(Prices)

78.5 Trouver les coordonnées du producteur lieux de vente

(Contact details and where the wines can be bought.)

72.9 Trouver de l’information sur la gamme des vins

(Details about the range of wines.)

68.4 Trouver de l’information sur les accords mets/vins

(Wine and food matching.)


58.8: Trouver des actualités sur la marque/le domaine

(News about the domaine or the brand.)

58.2 Trouver des fiches techniques de dégustation

(Tasting notes)

58.2 Acheter en ligne directement du producteur

(To be able to buy on line direct from the producer.)

57.1 Trouver de l’information sur le producteur/famille et le patrimoine

(Details about the producer and their family/ heritage.)

55.4 Trouver de l’information sur les techniques d’élaboration

(How the wines are made.)

People are looking for clear basic information: firstly about price and then about the vineyards and appellation. They want to know where the wines can be bought plus wine and food suggestions. Tasting notes or details and how the wine is made are less important.

Importance accordée à certains critères techniques sur un site de producteur

(Facilities on the website etc.)

73,4 L’ergonomie du site/Facilité de navigation

(Ease of finding your way around the site.)

68.9 La qualité des images

(Quality of photos.)

62.7: Les contenus vidéos

(Videos)

61.0 L’opportunité d’échanger avec le producteur

(Chance to chat or exchange emails with the producer.)

51.4: La possibilité de s’inscrire à une newsletter

(Sign up to a newsletter.)

47.5 Le design/L’esthétisme

(Design and aesthetics)

If these results look obvious then it is something that all too many producers forget when designing their sites. People want sites that load quickly and are easy to find your way around. The last thing they want is flashy design – long and tedious intros, etc. Of course ease of navigation is down to good design but it is good, practical design but not flashy and, often expensive, design that gets in the way and turns people away. With the web you often don't notice good design but you certainly notice the bad and it's infuriating!

What people actually buy
Even though a number of people use the net to decide on what wine to buy, they still tend to go to physical shops to buy their wines. 61% of those who do their research on line actually buy the wine from a shop. However, those who do buy on-line, purchase four times as much as in a traditional shop or supermarket and the average price of a bottle is 12.30€ compared to 6.50€.

Importance of wine blogs

Here are some interesting findings I received this afternoon about French wine drinkers using the internet to research what wines to buy. 45% of those who use the internet check on blogs and 87% trust the information they find there. I fancy that this is a very high score for trust-worthiness.

Although the internet is widely used for research, French wine drinkers still prefer to make their purchases in a shop.

**

SOWINE/ SSI Barometer 2010: internet, social networks & wine

The French use online media twice as much as print media to research their wine purchases.

The SOWINE / SSI barometer 2010 shows that new technologies, Internet and social networks play a pivotal role in determining wine consumer behaviour in France.

French consumers are thirsting for information!

Research conducted by SOWINE and SSI shows that 70% of French consumers consider wine to be a "special" product, different from other alcohols, although 63% deem themselves to be new or inexperienced consumers. 78% of respondents consider it necessary to do some research before buying their wine.

The survey also reveals that when preparing a wine purchase, consumers use the Internet as a primary source of information, ahead of purchasing printed guides or press magazines.

Wine and food: the most popular topic among blog readers and forum users

In addition to winemakers' websites, consumers also pay considerable heed to information found on blogs and forums. 45% of readers and users specifically log on to blogs and forums that cover wine and food: 87% trust the information they find there.

Wine purchasers are more active on social networks

The survey shows that wine purchasers are frequent users of social networks (26% more than average), either to find information, advise others, or simply to chat.

Average purchases are almost four times larger on the Internet

The barometer highlights the differences between wine purchasing behaviour online and offline. Average web purchases are almost four times as large as conventional purchases. However, 60% of consumers who research their wine purchases on the Internet actually end up buying in a real shop. This all goes to prove the importance of new technologies in purchasing decisions, wherever the product is finally bought!

SOWINE is a marketing consultancy that specialises in wines, champagnes and spirits.

Press contact:

Sylvain Dadé co-founder & partner SOWINE agency

Tel: +33 (0)1 77 62 39 74 Web www.sowine.com

Just when we thought the French parliament had voted for good sense and agreed to allow wine on the internet, along comes a French senator, Anne-Marie Poyet, with an amendment to the new law – Hôpitaux, patients, santé et territories – now being discussed by the Senate. Her amendment would prohibit advertising of alcohol on the net, with the possibility if it was passed that it would prohibit any mention of wine etc. on the net.

Hopefully this new threat will be voted out by the French Senate.

French text below from Vitisphere:

Publicité pour les boissons alcoolisées sur Internet: les Anti contre-attaquent
La sénatrice centriste Anne-Marie Payet a annoncé qu'elle allait proposer un amendement à la loi "Hôpitaux, patients, santé et territoires", adoptée en mars dernier par l'Assemblée nationale et actuellement en discussion au Sénat."le Sénat n'a pas dit son dernier mot", a déclaré Mme Payet. Ceci afin d'interdire la publicité pour les boissons alcoolisées sur Internet contrairement au dispositif prévu par le texte adopté par l'Assemblée Nationale.

Dans le même temps, un groupe de personnalités et d'associations vient d'adresser au Président de la République une Lettre ouverte demandant l'interdiction de la publicité aussi sur ce média qui n'avait pas été prévu par la loi Evin. Parmi les signataires on pourra s'étonner de trouver l'ancien ministre socialiste Claude Evin qui avait pourtant indiqué le 27 octobre dernier sur France Info qu'il approuvait la position de la ministre de la Santé, Roselyne Bachelot, cette dernière ayant déclaré la veille dans un entretien accordé au figaro.fr «ne pas [s'opposer] à un amendement parlementaire qui actualise la loi Evin en autorisant la publicité sur Internet». Les signataires sont au nombre de 14 pour les associations et 8 pour les individus ; les chiffres peuvent paraître modestes, ils n'ont cependant pas empêché le spécialiste en santé publique Claude Got, signataire, de déclarer avec un certain aplomb que la démarche "témoigne d'un mouvement général désapprobateur face à un texte de loi contradictoire".