Founded back in November 2009 the U.S. Wine Association is a highly innovative business model that will have a major impact on the online wine and spirits industry. Many wine sellers and buying services operate on a standard rule that any wine purchased from suppliers or vineyards must be marked up at least 30-50% before being sold on the retail market. The only way a wine seller can pass greater discounts on to their customers is to buy the wine in extremely large quantities and receive bulk discounts from suppliers. Wine sellers - both online and offline - are then left in a position where they have to spend much of their time aggressively pushing these wines on their customers. This prevents the seller from actually providing the wine that their customers really want and to be able to sell it at a fair price. This is made worse by the fact that the wine marketplace is driven by short-term fads. The high popularity and demand for the latest "sought after" vintages is driven by a retail market that is changing constantly. No one wine seller operating in the traditional fashion can possibly capture the needs of the customer at any given point. The end result for the wine buying public is that of a retail market saturated with overly inflated wine prices and constrained variety.
We decided to improve on this old business model by implementing the concept of the consumer alcohol buying group. The consumer purchases a yearly subscription for a reasonable price and gains online access to our wine purchasing services. They are then able to purchase any wine they please - items actively listed on our site - at near dealer cost. We do not make a profit on the sales of any wine or spirits on our website. Our income is predominantly derived from membership sales and advertising. Any additional income is utilized to cover the costs of order processing. Sometimes we are not always able to beat the pricing of the occasional online "fire sale" held by some wine sellers but in the long term we are able to provide the customer with substantial savings that are very difficult to obtain otherwise. We also want to make it clear that this is not a wine club where the customer is forced to purchase "expert rated" wines that they did not hand select or the typical deep discounter that can offer discounts only on a limited spectrum of "branded" wines. Our objective is simple and direct: to provide the member with their favorite wines at near dealer cost without preferential treatment to any one wine brand over the other. We seek to do this without making restrictive "special" sales agreements with suppliers or vineyards. This poses certain challenges both logistically and technically. Our current process may not be perfect but we think it is a measurable improvement over the old business models currently used in the industry. We are constantly working to improve our process's to deliver an increasingly productive and rich customer experience.
Following our Beta Launch back in December 2011 we received much customer feedback and decided that it was time to migrate from our old custom built platform to a new server with a new platform that we are currently using. From time to time you will notice many improvements on the site and we are planning to launch a new user interface and improved product display by Fall/Winter 2012. We are confident that we are able to provide a valuable customer experience now and an even better experience in the future. You - the fine wine & spirits enthusiast - who is tired of the old wine sales business models are encouraged to try the U.S. Wine Association by clicking here SIGN UP. Not only will you be able to access your favorite wines & spirits at near dealer cost you will also receive personalized attention from our Member Services department who is always happy to help you.
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