First Transaction-Based Market Study on Direct-to-Consumer Wine Shipments Shows Small but Vital Channel Is Essential to Wineries
With consumer and media support for direct-to-consumer wine shipments at an all-time high in response to the wholesalers’ monopoly protection bill, H.R. 5034, a new market study sheds light on the actual size of direct-to-consumer wine sales and the vital importance of this channel to consumers and America’s 6,700 family wineries.
This is the first study based on three million actual transactions conducted by Ship Compliant with Wines & Vines Industry Database, indicating that 2.6 million cases were shipped direct-to-consumer or about 1% of the total annual U.S. wine sales of 251 million 9-liter cases. But 2.6 million cases, sold at quite high average prices, still add up to a lot of business. The study shows that wineries with sales of 49,999 cases or less sold nearly 1.8 of the 2.6 million cases. These cases represent a significant percentage of winery revenues, particularly for smaller wineries which do much of their business through this channel.
Wineries in all 50 states attract 27 million tourists annually and generate tasting room sales and taxes paid to local, state and federal governments. U.S. wineries create 1.1 million jobs in America and have a $162 billion economic impact on the American economy.
To view the report visit ShipCompliant/Wines & Vines Direct-to-Consumer Research (PDF)
