Are You Ready for OND? Top 5 Strategies to Crush It Now

Anyone who has worked in retail will quickly recognize OND as October/November/December—that three-month period when your sales will either make or break your year’s profits. To fully capture these months, focus on both your in-person sales and your DtC shipping orders.

What are you doing to ensure a good OND?

  • Hosting unique wine club events?
  • Promoting specials?
  • Creating appealing gift packs?

How are you promoting these events and specials?

  • Targeted online marketing?
  • Tantalizing direct mail?
  • Professional phone calls?

Top 5 Strategies for OND

  1. Send all former wine club members and tasting room visitors a special offer such as free shipping and a 10% discount on all case purchases or gift packs for the holidays.
  2. Send members a gift (e.g., a branded dishtowel, calendar, wine key, ChirpyTop wine pourer, or silicone wine cap). For your top buyers, consider something more substantial yet still branded, like an insulated wine growler. Include the offer for free shipping and the discount above.
  3. Hold a holiday tasting event for the top 30 wine buyers in your wine club. If you have a large number living in a region outside a 60-mile radius of your tasting room, consider a remote event as well—bring your wines to them.
  4. Hold a holiday tasting event for your top 30 wine buyers who are not in the wine club. These are your unofficial members and ambassadors.
  5. Send out a calendar of your major events for 2020 so people can plan ahead.

Get Started Now

Yes, OND is critical, but so is September. After the slower volume-shipping months of June, July, and August, it’s time to get your customer base revved up again.

And don’t forget to start planning for a bumper March/April, where there’s an historic jump in sales volume and value.

2018 Percent of Total Volume and Value by Month Report

Identical to last year, the 2018 fall season represented 38% of the value of wine shipments during the entire year. (2019 Direct to Consumer Wine Shipping Report by SOVOS and Wines & Vines)

When selling wine, your two most profitable channels are DtC shipping and in-person sales. Events get people to your tasting room, and then it’s your job to sell them wine.

Here in Oregon, wineries are getting creative when it comes to fall events. Rogue Valley’s Irvine & Roberts Vineyards is holding its inaugural Wine Dinner Under the Full Harvest Moon. Just days later, Upper Five Vineyard is hosting its annual Pig & Paella event featuring a preview of fall releases—it sells out every year. In the Illinois Valley, Augustino Estate Vineyard’s Rockin’ R Ranch Treeloon is gearing up for its annual grape stomp and Western barbeque. Umpqua Valley’s Delfino Vineyards is greeting October with a full-blown Oktoberfest, and in the Willamette Valley, Raptor Ridge is hosting the Autumnal Equinox Soirée with a morning of yoga and meditation led by Chef Irene followed by food and wine pairing.

When it comes to promoting gift collections, some wineries are on top of it—like Raptor Ridge and Del Rio Vineyard Estate.

And I can’t count the number of free shipping offers I’ve received from both in- and out-of-the-area wineries!

Getting some ideas?

Good! Just remember that whatever you do, it’s important that everything—from the event/shipping offer itself to how you promote it and how you execute it—is true to your brand. This means messaging, photography, graphics, promotions, and packaging. Have fun with it and crush last year’s numbers.

Happy Harvest!

Note: This is a refresh of a previous blog post with new data and ideas for the upcoming season.
When selling wine, your two most profitable channels are DtC shipping and in-person sales. Click To Tweet

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