StateWays is the only magazine exclusively covering the control state system within the beverage alcohol industry, with annual updates from liquor control commissions and alcohol control boards and yearly fiscal reporting from control jurisdictions
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for any contests, where legal. Using Facebook and Twitter creates a dialogue with customers and prospective customers. Loyalty cards that reward frequent shoppers are a less digital form of socializing with your customers, as is establishing a computer record of every wine or spirit any single customer has purchased in the past. The benefit? It will make sense the first time a forgetful customer asks a staff member not especially schooled in wine if your store still stocks that fabulous garnacha she bought last month. A quick check on her purchasing history, and the customer-store bond is strengthened. Forms of social media, whether reviews on Yelp, promotions on Facebook or Groupon, or sales alerts sent out to followers on Twitter, allow retailers to share crucial information about their stores, their discounts, rare or unusual vintages or bottles, give-aways, events and tastings in a way newspapers and flyers never could. A social media presence requires some planning, time commitment, a sales strategy and monitoring to see what sort of activity works, but given how much stores once spent on advertising in newspapers and other forms of media outreach that tried to connect with customers, the price is right. sold in two ways: alphabetically by country and also grouped around kiosks by theme - wine for seafood, or suitable for gifting, or by flavor profile. Other stores have opted for the so-called progressive list used in restaurants, in which wines are gathered by color, body, density and potency at a range of price points, from lighter intensity, sweet and slightly sweet off wines at a range of price points, to off-dry and delicate wines and whites with more intensity, and then gradually increasing in intensity and fullness to wines with big structure and intensity, such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah, regardless of origin. The key is always to focus on how to best interest the consumer to most easily shop his or her category, and to also spur trial among consumers new to the category. BE SOMETHING SPECIAL S rafting a wine and spirits shop to be easy to navigate has become a compelling strategy. Many stores that stick to a certain segment of the market or feature a narrow selection of products, make the buying experience a relief rather than an intimidating chore. The best-known example of this was the New York City-based Best Cellars, in the 1990s, which started out by organizing wines in eight style categories: fizzy, fresh, soft, luscious, juicy, smooth, big and sweet. With a goal of making shopping for wine as much fun as drinking it, the store style helped change wine and spirits merchandising. Another New York wine shop, Bottlerocket Wine & Spirits, took a different tack, organizing the wines ome stores have expanded their position in craft spirits in anticipation of growth in that category. Other establish departments to showcase locally Some stores opt instead to differentiate themselves by crafting a smaller selection of wines, beers and spirits that they actively promote. Others have taken on theproduced spirits and wines. And some stores source their wines directly from winemakers and keep their stores at a low temperature to maintain quality. There are an endless number of routes to take on the path to stand out from the crowd and attract new customers: staking out the service of selling wines to be paired with foods, or becoming a center for home cocktail enthusiasts, or a regional home for beer enthusiasts. These can be treated as businesses within the overarching store model, but whatever the method, 21st century retailing requires that somehow, someway, your customer thinks of you as a special place and not a way station selling a commodity. As new retail formats arrive to chip away at pieces of your business, it's important for wine and spirits stores to pick their own niche, because SW if not, your competition might do it for you. StateWays I www.stateways.com I September/October 2013 39 MAKE IT EASY C