International ranking: Wine.com topples Amazon.com to take top spot as best wine website
Surprisingly, it is Wine.com – a long-standing American player in the online wine market – which takes 1st place in the 6th edition of the e-Performance Barometer international ranking, overtaking fellow American site and general retailer Amazon.com, which finishes in 2nd place this year. Another specialist wine site comes in 3rd in the 2017 international ranking: the Chinese site Yesmywine.com, up four places from the previous edition.
The top French site www.vente-privee.com falls 2 places this year compared to its performance in 2015 to rank 7th internationally, but retains its top position in the French ranking. It also takes 1st place in the French general retailer ranking for wine sales, coming in ahead of two well-established mass retailers: Auchan and Carrefour. In turn, lavinia.fr takes 1st place in the French specialist retailer ranking.
A market that has reached maturity after more than 10 years of strong growth
After more than ten years of double-digit growth, the online retail market for wine has now entered a mature phase. Whilst our forecasts in 2015 predicted a French market with a value of €1.5bn for 2016, the final 2017 figure is only expected to reach €1.4bn, or 9.4% of total online wine sales,
On a global level, 2016 saw online wine sales reach 9.8 billion dollars. Over 10 billion dollars is expected for 2017, which will account for around 5% of total wine market sales. The market should continue to grow, helped notably by the expansion of e-commerce and wine consumption in Asia.
Wine and spirits management: an area of expertise for KEDGE
The e-Performance Barometer survey was developed in partnership with Rayon Boissons, with the expertise held by KEDGE in e-commerce and wine and spirits management. This expertise is reflected in the training and research programmes offered by the KEDGE Wine & Spirits Academy.
An executive summary is also available on sale in English: www.eperformance-barometer.com
Over 2,300 internet users from 9 different countries (France, Spain, Italy, Germany, the UK, Australia, the USA, Canada and China) analysed 23 sites. Each site was evaluated by a sample of 100 internet users which was representative of the population in each country who use the Internet to shop for wine. The rankings created are therefore based on the ratings of genuine internet users, who represent potential customers of the sites surveyed. The majority of the sample was male (73%), from a high income group (50%) with a high net annual household income (61% over €30,000), and matched the profile of people who buy wine online.
