The wine industry is beautiful, creative, fun, and brutally competitive. With most consumers beginning their search journey online, standing out amongst the competition has become critical. A winery’s online store is the perfect place to increase DTC wine sales. But how does a brand maximize their potential here? Here’s a few ways to make your winery website work for you.
User Experience
This is the first piece to the perfect winery website puzzle because the moment users land on your website, the experience begins. Users ask themselves three questions: Am I in the right place? How do I feel about this? And what do I do next? The best wine websites create an excellent user experience by answering each question.
Am I in the right place? Use imagery and text that immediately reveals where the user is. Use a clear logo in the menu, a main photo or video in the header that visually represents the brand, and large text that users can instantaneously read.
How do I feel about this? Your winery website design should shine here. Use crystal clear imagery and on-brand design elements. Follow current website design practices – whitespace, bold text, animations, and clean, modern design. Outdated websites give users the feeling that the brand may no longer be active or isn’t trustworthy.
What do I do next? Each page should have a clear goal and the content should guide users to that goal. After a user read through (or likely skimmed) your page, where should they go? Should they buy wine, join the club, or visit your tasting room? Maybe you want them to call you or sign up for your newsletter. Ensure your buttons are clear and attractive (action-oriented colors, animation on hover). Use UX page layout guides to point the reader’s eyes to different parts of the page.
Branding
Look at your current website. Now look at your biggest competitor’s website. Do either websites evoke an identity based on imagery, font, and colors? If you removed the logo on each site, could you still feel each brand’s personality? Or do they blend in with each other? With thousands of wineries in the U.S. alone, having a strong brand presence is a must.
When it comes to photos, choose authentic imagery and steer clear of stock photos that users will find on other websites. Wine is a lifestyle. Show consumers what their lives could look like with your wine. Checkout our winery photography if you need help here. For the text content, find your brand voice and showcase it. What would it sound like if your founder, winemaker, employees, and biggest fans talk about the wine? Capture that tone and create unique text that will speak to users.
Ecommerce Strategy
The money-maker. Your online wine store may function, but does it outperform? When users shop online, they expect an easy journey from browsing products, to adding to cart, to checkout. Ideally, your DTC winery website design company has found the best method to integrate your winery software – WineDirect, Commerce7, AMS, eCellar, VineSpring, etc. – into your custom website. While each integration creates a different result, you can still follow best ecommerce practices to optimize your conversion rate.
Ensure the shopping experience looks perfect on mobile. This is where most users will be, so make it a priority. Make sure the shop loads quickly, the cart is easily accessible, and the checkout process doesn’t involve too many clicks or an endless scroll. If you have a lot of wines, create varietal, vintage, and other categories that make it easy to search through products. Add all necessary info on the product pages and include “related products” to encourage more add to carts.
Make Your Website Work for YOU
The road to maximizing DTC online sales is never-ending. There are always updates that can be made to improve the user’s shopping journey on your website, but that just means endless potential for your winery! If the above guidelines seem challenging, partner with a stellar wine marketing agency so you can drive DTC sales and see positive business growth.