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Internet not a suitable tool for wine sales, says Vinexpo CEO
June 30, 2009
By Jane Anson
Vinexpo CEO Robert Beynat has dismissed the internet as a commercial tool for wine.
Speaking at the closing conference of the Bordeaux wine fair last week, Beynat said the web will 'never be anything other than a marginal circuit for sales.'
He had been asked about the rise of new media as a business channel replacing traditional trade fairs.
'The internet is not the right medium for the sale of wines and spirits, it is not a real alternative to traditional sales circuits and will never reach more than around 8% of the market.'
This contradicts a survey published by the Bordeaux Management School, also released during Vinexpo, that found sales of wine online in France have grown 30% in the last year alone.
Beynat was also dismissive of a question regarding the 'fringe' events that have caused so much controversy at this year's Vinexpo.
'We would like to avoid the off events,' he said, 'but anyone can hire any venue if it is outside the hours of the fair.'
Besides the Italissima event, other non-official Vinexpo events include lunches at chateaux such as Cheval Blanc, and tastings of wines at numerous venues around the region.
The official figures were 43,261 visitors up to Thursday night from 135 countries, with final figures expected to be around 45,000, a drop of 10% from the 2007 Vinexpo.
Visitors from Russia, Korea and Taiwan were particularly low compared with two years ago.
There were 1250 journalists from 54 different countries, and 2,600 exhibitors from 48 countries.
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Wow, that's quite a statement !
I do think it is erroneous to say such a thing …not only sales are up with online customers on our negociants' websites, it shows that there are now about 200 sites selling wines in France and online sales currently represent approximately 100 million euros but magazine like Decanter, I believe, have a huge worldwide readership, much larger than their paper version. Information about wine is readily available at one's finger tips!
In addition, a ton of blogs discussing wines, trends, vineyards etc. have bloomed on the net , making wineries, winemakers and gatekeepers actual trend setters!
So I beg to differ Mr Beynat, I think the future of wine , just like any other 'industry' lies in the Internet, even though, true, the net will never replace a real wine merchant, live wine tastings and appreciation with 'gusto' ! But refusing to admit that it IS the future is just like saying - 100 years ago- that electricity will never work!
Corinne Conroy, Chateau Brane-Cantenac, Margaux, France
I wonder what part of the wine Market M. Beynat is looking at.
It is true that research shows that most wine is drunk within such a small time frame from purchase to glass, one has to wonder if it is being drunk in the car on the way home. However, even in this sector as we see online shopping from supermarkets grow, we will see internet wine purchases growing on the back of it.
In the fine wine section the internet is the perfect medium. The benefits to the customer are searching for particular wine, looking for the best price, if they are interested in researching the wine and if wine is going to be cellared and delivery time is no issue. The internet allows the merchant to operate with lower overheads and be more competitive, to get more information out there and market their business in a more cost effective way. There is therefore clearly a benefit to customer and merchant, the laws of economics will do the rest.
In many areas the French wine trade has been very traditional in its thinking, which has opened the door to the New World and led to the current state of affairs in Bordeaux. It is a shame to see this thought process continuing and would be a tragedy to see Bordeaux wake up in ten years to see they had missed the boat again.
James Roeves, Treignac, France
Well , well , well .
I guess our friend Mr Beynat was too busy fighting with the Italians and missed the last 10 years of cyber dealing ...
Nicola Allison, Chateau du Seuil
Robert Beynat may want to look at what is happening with web 2.0 and the influence it has over our lives. The next generation of wine drinkers get almost all their media and information from the web and associated social networking tools.
To say that the web will never be anything but a marginal circuit for sales suggests that he is stuck in the old paradigm of traditional distributor - wholesaler - to customer wine trade. It might be suggested that is what Vinexpo is all about.
The way forward for wineries to engage their customers is direct; using the web as the medium to talk about their wines, their people and their passion.
Perhaps Robert Beynat thinks the world is flat as well?
Dr Cam O'Beirne, Margaret River, Australia
Over time there have been some classic statements made such as:
The world is definitely Flat.
The sun revolves around the Earth.
Man will never fly through the sky.
I believe that Monsieur Beynat's statement will in a short space of time
join that same category.
Dan Traucki, Australia
Unfortunate comments from the Vinexpo CEO. Perhaps, he is allergic to technology …
Although online shopping still faces some obstacles like the perceived risks involved in the transactions, consumer´s trust and Internet infrastructure, this alternative channel has evidently developed very quickly during the last years (and it is likely to grow even more). One of the most important modern consumer trends: convenience, is largely satisfied by purchasing online.
Besides, the effects of the Internet in the wine industry should also be observed when analysing the behaviour of “off-line” consumers that may have made their purchasing decision after browsing in the web (wine blogs, online magazines, advertising, etc.) and felt more comfortable buying in a physical retail store.
Cristian Goich, Chile
I doubt very much that he's really that con at all and wouldn't of course endorse anything that might undermine his little Vinexpo empire and the huge amount of money his company no doubt makes from it, allegedly. Vive la tradition!
Richard M James
Coming from the country that invented the Maginot Line and whose most interesting wine trade group is the quasi-terrorist KRAV, comments like Mr. Beyat's do not surprise me. When French wine production is surpassed by Argentina or Hungary maybe they will start getting it.
Brendan Chudik, San Francsico
I would inquire what planet Vinexpo CEO Robert Beynat is habituating these days? Obviously his concerns and interests are in a bricks and mortar wine event that is used by buyers and sellers of wine to meet and develop business relationships, he does not address the enormous carbon footprint and hassle factor of that such an event creates for both staging it as well as participating in it. Alternatives to this type of massive scene might just be found both in the internet in general as well as through the social media and business networks that are part of the internet of this 21st Century.
In the late 20th century I participated in numerous Vinexpo's as a supplier and found the event both exciting and frustrating [especially the 1989 meltdown] but ascertained that for a small, high quality, producer from the new world that it was not a cost effective way to promote our wines or to convey our message. Today the internet as opened possibilities to maintain and refine important business relationships as well as to expand sales for many wineries, especially to a new generation of trade buyers and millennial consumers.
John Skupny
If Mr Beynat reflects the attitude of key players in Bordeaux or the rest of France and is not just expressing his own misguided opinions, then this is very worrying! The opportunity to communicate and sell directly to consumers is precisely what a region with a fragmented production structure such as Bordeaux needs – what other means exists for those thousands of small producers tell their unique and attractive stories? The French wine industry in general and Bordeaux in particular has to understand that this kind of detached and aloof ignorance about the realities of life in the 21st century only serves to reinforce the prejudices which some 'anglo-saxons' have against the French/Bordeaux wine industry. His eccentric views mean that some will see most of Bordeaux as an irrelevance and consumers will move on without them...
Simon Waller
Robert Beynart makes a bold statement. As a long established retailer, amongst other things we sell wine glasses. We viewed the Internet from the outset as a friend which would help to build business and in these more challenging times allow us to survive. Online sales have grown from a fairly static 10% of our turnover since 2000 to currently 30% and the graph is still upward.
The internet is not only used to buy product but for research too. Research is a two way thing, as Manufacturers can receive reviews and public opinion which in turn leads to increased sales through focused marketing.
If a wine is well reviewed then the sales will inevitably grow and people will try to locate it, the internet will become one of the first points of call.
Ignore the internet at your peril, it is not just a sales channel, it is also one of your strongest marketing tools and should form part of a Marketing Strategy that would also include traditional techniques. It will not take long for the internet to receive an increased share of the spend
Nigel Havens, Essex, UK
Great Statement,
It's already on the door of my refrigerator, just after 1993
"The Internet? We are not interested in it" and 1995 "The
internet is just a passing fad."
Tomaso, Italy
Mr. Beynat is entitled to defend his trade fair industry but his comments reflect much resentment to change.
Much the like French wine industry, Mr. Beynat needs to comprehend that in today's world it's consumers that dictate the rules, not tradition.
Alvaro Covarrubias Lara, Chile
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