Top 5 Questions asked at January's Trade Shows

Like many of our colleagues and wineries, we attended both the Direct to Consumer Wine Symposium in San Francisco and the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium in Sacramento last month.  We were on-hand to demonstrate our new iPad Point Of Sale (POS) system, and answer questions about Vin65. 

We thought we'd share the top 5 questions, and link to some of our documentation.

Question 5: "Can I sell wine on Facebook?"

Yes, there are a few different ways you can sell wine through Facebook. You can sell wine directly from your existing Facebook fan page or you can sell wine through Facebook’s gifting program.
 
Selling through your existing fan page can be a great way to engage your fans where they are spending their time. Your fans can interact with your brand, buy wines and sign up for clubs or newsletters. All of the orders, contacts, products, inventory, etc. are synced with your website ecommerce so you only need to manage one database. Facebook does not see this data and doesn't take any commission or fees.
 
The Facebook gifting program is setup for Facebook users to gift wines to their Facebook friends for birthdays, anniversaries, etc.. This program is set up for select wineries that use WineDirect fulfillment services. For more information about this, contact WineDirect directly.

Question 4: "How much control of my website's design do I have with a Content Management System (CMS)?"

A Content Management System, or CMS, allows every-day users to change content on websites without knowing complex HTML, CSS and Javascript.  If you don't know what any of those mean, that's ok, you don't need to with a CMS.  Most systems offer a variety of options to import content from programs like Word and Excel, and import photos.

While people typically chose a Content Management Sytem for the flexibility they offer, there is a common fear that with a CMS you will be tied to a handful of designs and relinquish creativity.  This is not true.  While the Vin65 CMS has templates, if you don't like our templates, you can hire a designer to custom design your site on the Vin65 CMS.  We offer "designer" authoring tools that allow a web designer to develop your own custom site.  And, once it is live you can take it from there.  All the content, product, pricing and tasting room updates can be done by you, and you don't have to return to the designer.   So rather than limiting a winery, this actualy frees you up to get the site you want now, but then access and change your content without relying on a design, coder or outside agency in the long-run. 

Question 3: "Are you really from Canada?

Yes! We are a very passionate Canadian technology team based in a town just outside Vancouver, Canada – which is directly north of Seattle. We feel being ‘remote’ from most wineries actually helps us develop our eCommerce tools as we're forced to buy our wine online.  We "eat our own dog food" and buy all of our wine online...just like your customers.

Our parent company, WineDirect, does have a US presence with offices in Napa, American Canyon and Oakland. Technology makes the world small and enables wineries from all over the world to hire a company from any country.

Question 2: "How much does a website from Vin65 cost?"

Usually there are two costs for a website, a monthly fee and a setup fee. The monthly fee for a website on Vin65 is $250.
 
The setup fee varies depending on the design and scope of the project. We have a range of options that start at $0 (templated designs and using your own web designer) and go up from there. A custom website design from Vin65 typically starts at $10,000.
 
We have a few other add-ons like the Facebook app ($50/mo), the Tasting Room iPad App ($50/mo) and the new iPad POS (starting at $100/mo).

You can find all of our pricing options online on the Vin65 website.

Question 1: "I heard about your mobile iPad POS system, why do I need one?"

Mobile POS systems are like having a cash register, or a website ecommerce checkout, anywhere.  These may be particularly helpful for wineries without a tasting room to enables sales of products at tastings and dinners.  But existing wineries with busy tasting rooms also benefit from a mobile check out system for over-flow or off-site events.
 
The key functionality to look for with these mobile systems is the synching with your customer / product database, and the ability to set up different inventory areas to keep your compliance and accounting manager happy.

Do you have a question for us?  Just ask by posting a comment below.