Wine.com Sees Revenues Climb Past The $150 Million Mark

With e-commerce taking on growing importance for the beverage alcohol category, online retailer Wine.com saw revenue leap by $20 million in 2019 to surpass $150 million. The company said results were boosted by a robust holiday selling season, including a 60% increase during the Cyber Weekend period following Thanksgiving.

Wine.com said strong gains in revenue from mobile devices and its membership program StewardShip drove growth last year. Mobile revenues were up 30%, and now account for about one-third of the company’s sales. Within that performance, the Wine.com mobile app saw revenues jump by 60% for the year.

Much of the progress in the mobile segment came from millennial consumers, who comprised one-third of Wine.com’s customer base last year, with their revenue contribution up 36%. The company also noted that its StewardShip program—whose members pay $49 annually and receive free shipping throughout the year—was up 24% compared with 2018 and accounted for the majority of company revenue for the first time.

Wine.com’s strong yearly results come following a report by Rabobank noting that U.S. e-commerce spending on beverage alcohol reached $2.6 billion overall in 2019, but that the industry remains underrepresented in the space compared to other product categories.

Wine.com CEO Rich Bergsund likewise believes wine’s presence in online retail has ample room for further growth looking ahead, especially as the industry looks to court the next generation of consumers. “Wine is less than 3% online and I expect that to grow to 10-15% in the future, like many other retail categories,” he said. Bergsund will discuss the topic “The Future of Online Retailing” at The 44th Annual Impact Marketing Seminar on Thursday, March 5 at New York City’s Pierre Hotel.—Daniel Marsteller

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