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2 2 V I N E YA R D & W I N E RY M A N A G E M E N T | S e p t - O c t 2 015 w w w. v w m m e d i a . c o m has a lot more to do with advance- ments in shipping logistics and a long, hard slog through variations in state liquor regulations. It was a recent visit to Wine. com that McDonald wanted to talk about. He was checking out how the company sold a client's wines. "While I was online (the live cus- tomer service representative) said, 'If you like that, why don't you try this,' and I wound up buying a cou- ple more bottles," McDonald said. "She helped me. I don't know who this person is, but she was really helpful, and I think that chat, like you get in traditional retail environments, is a breakthrough in the online wine shopping process. From a technolo- gy perspective, I don't think anyone does it better than (Wine.com). "They get the product out pretty quickly through seven regional dis- tribution centers, and if you pay the 50 bucks, like Amazon Prime, you get free shipping for a year. If you sap sales from brick and mortar wine shops, just as it has in every other sector. There is nothing a shopper can't have delivered to the door in two days, and the order can be placed in seconds via a comput- er or phone. Marketing maven and found- er of the public relations agency Wine Spoken Here, Tim McDonald, has seen every trend in the wine industry in the last 40 years. What surprises him is how little things have changed. "Technology hardly enters into the sale proposition," he said. "We went from 'We hate screwcaps' to 'We love screw- caps,' and that took 20 years." TECHNOLOGY'S SLOW INGRESS The advent of online retail will be the greatest leap forward in terms of retail technology, even though the technology isn't particu- larly unique to the wine business. It Tim McDonald of Wine Spoken Here predicts that interaction with a live rep- resentative will be a game-changer for online wine sales. Wat e r m a r k L a be l s A DIVISION OF LUSTRE-CAL CORPORATION Unlimited capabilities: QR codes, variable data, custom die-cutting, ice bucket material solutions... 715 S. Guild Ave., Lodi, CA 95240 • 209.370.1616 • info@watermarklabels.com • www.watermarklabels.com Building on Four Decades of Innovative Packaging and Label Solutions MARKET WATCH TIM TEICHGRAEBER