Tuscan wineries most active producers on web

FLORENCE, ITALY – Just 35% of Italian wineries selling on-line, but the most active producers on Web are from Tuscany, a study said. Italian wineries are a mainstay of national exports but as many as 65% of producers of the peninsula’s grapes do not yet sell their wine online.

Among the 35% who have adopted e-commerce, 52% sell their wine through their own websites while 22% use specialised websites such as Svinando, Wineverse, Tannico, Vinix, Winetowine and Winezon, according to the survey of 450 wineries across the country carried out by Grs Research and Strategy for Wine2wine, a branding company of the Verona trade fairs. A further 27% use both their own sites and specialised sites.

The most active producers on the web are in Tuscany, Lombardy, Abruzzo and Sicily and in 42% of cases on-line sales represent just 2-3% of annual turnover while in 21% of firms on-line sales make up more than 10% of the turnover. Lack of focus and know-how, a conflict between e-commerce and traditional sales channels and a preference for direct contact with customers were the main reasons for failure to sell wine on-line though many wineries said they are preparing to launch sales on the web.