2023 Direct-to-Consumer Wine Survey: Report, Results and Benchmarks
Key takeaways
01
Visitation is notably off during the past year. Should we be worried?
Our belief is the trend has more to do with normalization post-COVID. We anticipate an increase in 2024.
02
By-appointment tastings appear permanent.
By-appointment tastings, which many feared prior to mandated COVID restrictions, have now been widely adopted.
03
Relying solely on the tasting room as your only means of attracting club members is a sub-optimal strategy.
The industry needs to wean itself from the overdependence and chokepoint of the tasting room. Acquisition of club members via digital methods is one method to do so, and a growing trend for successful DTC companies.
Digital memberships soar
Relying solely on the tasting room as the near exclusive source of attracting wine consumers is a risk. The recent COVID pandemic highlighted this issue even further. The wine industry has responded. Moving forward, tracking and driving growth in club memberships outside of the tasting room should be a goal of all wineries with clubs.
By-appointment model dominates
Prior to COVID, the majority of winery owners held to the belief that changing from the walk-in model to the by-appointment model would lead to a potential loss of customers. Many owners found improved revenues during COVID employing the by-appointment model, or a hybrid. By-appointment tastings provide more information and better control over staffing size. It gives a tasting room employee information about the customer ahead of an appointment making a cold opportunity, a warm one. The pure walk-in model represents just 27% of tasting rooms now.
Tasting room purchases explode in last decade
Just ten years ago, nearly one-quarter of all tasting rooms did not charge tasting fees, and the average tasting room purchase was pedestrian by today’s standards. Napa, for instance, has grown nearly 200% over the past decade in average tasting room purchases, and many other regions have grown near 150%. That is clearly a mark of success.
Visitation declines bear watching
Visitation and sales at tasting rooms experienced negative growth from May 2022 to May 2023. Is this a concern? COVID restrictions started to be lifted in 2021 making wine tasting a popular tourist activity. It was unlikely that the success of 2021 could be replicated in 2022. Although it is something to monitor, we believe that the lower sales and visitation in 2023 are more a reflection of travelers making up for deferred events like weddings, graduations, and vacations. We anticipate an increase in visitation in 2024.
Direct-to-Consumer Wine Survey Report Virtual Event 2023
The report findings were discussed during a live virtual event featuring Rob McMillan, EVP and founder, SVB Wine Division. Industry experts joining him included Jessica Kogan, Chief Growth and Experience Officer at Vintage Wine Estates; Andrew Walleck, Chief Operating Officer at Wine Access; and Susan DeMatei, President and Founder of WineGlass Marketing.
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Written by SVB's Rob McMillan
As one of the US wine industry’s top voices, Rob assesses current market conditions and provides unique trends forecasts in two notable reports: The Annual Direct-to-Consumer Wine Survey: Report, Results and Benchmarks and the Annual State of the US Wine Industry Report. Project Lead: Morgan Johnson
