Introduction
As if there wasn’t already a trend towards improved digital experiences, COVID rushed it along further and faster.
There’s an incredible level of comfort in buying online today.
It’s not limited to just Amazon or Walmart, either, or the purchase of books, CDs, or computer hardware.
More than 20 million sites offer the direct purchase of goods ranging from groceries to alcohol.
Buyers want experiences that are fast, convenient, and personalized.
That’s why businesses and breweries are embracing and in some cases, taking advantage of a new market in eCommerce.
They’re finding ways to expand their operations, stay top of mind and better meet the demands of their customers.
With it, a new wave of online shopping that’s more sophisticated and more efficient, is allowing businesses to generate added opportunities for revenue.
Why eCommerce Is Important
COVID forced many more companies to embrace eCommerce. And it encouraged more consumers to shop online, too. From Digital Commerce 360, consumers spent $860 billion online in 2020, that’s up 44% compared to the year prior. Additionally, eCommerce sales made up more than 21% of total sales across all industries.
eCommerce can be carried out in a variety of ways.
For the microbreweries, craft breweries, or brewery pubs, marketplaces are convenient ways to present and sell products.
Think of sites like eBay, Etsy, Amazon, and Facebook.
Some can lean on these big platforms that already have tested, proven systems. But there are often fees associated with setup, hosting, and management, and you don’t own the data. Plus, there can be inconsistencies with the fit, meaning not all products make sense for these sites.
Instead, you can manage your own site.
With an owned eCommerce platform, you sacrifice something big: being where the users are (Amazon has tens of millions of dedicated shoppers!).
But on the upside, you have total control over product placement, the sales process, advertising, and customer data.
And that data is gold.
It’s what you will ultimately use to optimize the shopping experience for your buyers and push the products that are in-demand, in season or big revenue drivers for your business.
As a brewery, consider the many types of products you could leverage on your owned eCommerce platform:
- Brews
- Apparel
- Merchandise, i.e. Glasses, Bottle openers, Hats
- Seasonal brews
- Monthly subscriptions
- Gift cards
In moving these products to the web, you can reduce sales time, increase buy-time, improve inventorying and turnaround time, and ultimately push more products out the door to boost your revenue stream.
How To Sell Goods Directly Online
For breweries, it’s important to think through the many ways you can put an eCommerce system to work.
Ask yourself: What can be sold without the involvement of a human resource? (besides packaging and shipping)
Once your catalog of categories and product SKUs have been created, you’ll need to gather supporting information that will help fill out your online store.
It’s important to sync your eCommerce system to your point-of-sale (POS) and inventory management systems to ensure a smooth flow of information from view, to buy, to process, to charge, to ship, to replace.
Information you’ll need to add into the backend of your eCommerce system includes:
- Product name and number
- Specs and other information details
- Pricing
- Product photos
- Videos
- Location for pick-up or shipping information
- Quantity options
The more information, the better. Not only will it help provide a richer online store and help service the customer while he/she is shopping, but many of those product details will provide search engine optimization (SEO) value as well.