Retailers have realised the importance of online customers, which is why so many of them are revamping their sites for Christmas, writes Joe Breen
If Paddy Keogh could bottle his enthusiasm he would make a fortune. In the meantime he will have to make do with selling wine. Keogh is head and tail of Wines Direct, the independent wine company in Mullingar, which has just relaunched its website, www.winesdirect.ie, in time for Christmas - with lots of eye-catching offers.
Its relaunch coincides with revamps by Wicklow Wine Company (www.wicklowwineco.ie), Nicholson Wine (www.jnwine.com) and O'Briens (www.obrienswines.ie), all of them aimed at capturing online trade before the supermarkets move in. They join www.wineonline.ie, which has been working diligently on the web for some time, and other, newer sites, such as www.winelist.ie and www.vino-directo.com.
They are all following a trend towards online sales underlined by the recent annoucement by Majestic Wine, a leading British retailer, that its web-based operation had grown by more than 40 per cent in the past year - as it has every year since 2000 - to more than 6 per cent of total sales.
Some of the Irish sites operate exclusively on the web, variants on the www.chateauonline.com model, but their high-street competitors are joining them, sensing that, with broadband finally being rolled out in earnest, there is a real opportunity to reach new and old customers, forge new relationships and make new sales.
Simple issues can hinder the development of wine sites, however. Many fail to update their content regularly, for example, which gives visitors the impression that nobody is home. One of the first principles of online marketing is that sites should be up to date and ready to enter a dialogue with a customer. The site of the Donnybrook food-and-wine shop Terroirs (www.terroirs.ie), for example, works well, with content and offers updated regularly. Other issues include currencies: the excellent and informative Irish site for the British wine seller Berry Bros & Rudd (www.bbr.com) gives bottle prices in euro, unlike Oddbins (www.oddbins.com), a company that has Irish shops but no Irish website.
Most importantly of all, these sites generally sell only in cases or half-cases. Many people still find investing in a case of wine a huge leap of faith. For them a mixed case is a blessing, and there is no shortage of them on www.winesdirect.ie, with Paddy Keogh putting his characteristic blás on them: Santa's Selection, at €116 including delivery, contains six well-judged wines to "cover all your wine needs on Christmas Day", although where is the sticky and the port? Order by December 15th and delivery to your door for the big day is guaranteed.