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California wine sellers look to kiosks, retail technology to increase sales

North Coast wineries are looking to retail technology to sell more wine, and according to North Bay Business Journal, it's working.

August 25, 2014

North Coast California wineries are looking to retail technology to sell more wine, and according to North Bay Business Journal, it's working.

"We're up 15 percent every month from last year," said Jeff Stevenson, owner of Santa Rosa-based VinoPro, a direct-to-consumer sales, marketing and technology solutions company, in the article.

The lessons they are applying to the wine market have so far included e-commerce, phone sales, Internet sales, smartphone and tablet sales, and a data-collection kiosk.

"Rather than looking at what their neighbors are doing, more wineries are asking what other retailers are doing and how they can do that," said Andrew Kamphuis, chief operations officer of Napa-based WineDirect, a direct-to-consumer sales and technology services provider, in the article.

WineDirect's Apple iOS POS software will soon be available for Google Android users. And in May 2014, VinPro released its Tasting Room Kiosk Solution for data collection, according to a company announcement.

The "plug-and-play" kiosk allows wine sellers to collect customer information by asking four customizable questions, for example:

1.       How many corks are in the bowl?

2.       Name

3.       Phone number

4.       Email address      

The kiosks are designed to increase customer acquistion by obtaining information. Iron Horse Winery, for example, increased its customer database by 1,000, according to the release. After data is entered, it is sent to a server and can be used by companies for quality control checks, customer incentives and satisfaction surveys and promotions intended to sell more wine.