How does a winery start using data to grow its business? How do you use data to increase wine sales? What are some practical steps for wineries to get started with data? These questions were addressed in a session at last week’s Wine Industry Financial Symposium in Napa. The panel session “Crawl, Walk, Run: How to Start Using Data for Fun and Profit” was facilitated by wine industry expert Andrew Adams, Editor of the Wine Analytics Report.
Here are four takeaways from the session:
1. Google Analytics is Transitioning
Google Analytics, as we know it, will not track website performance after July 1, 2023. After this date, the platform will be obsolete and Google Analytics 4 (GA4) will be the only solution for tracking website activity. This was the most important message from Michelle Kaufmann, Vice President of Communications at the Stoller Wine Group. As an e-commerce professional who believes a winery’s website is the heart of its digital ecosystem, she feels the wine industry should get prepared for this change. GA4 was released in 2020 and provides the next generation of analytics. It uses event-based data from websites and apps and includes predictive capabilities. It also has increased privacy protection. Michelle encourages wineries to reach out to their marketing staff or consultants to strategize the transitions from Google Analytics to GA4 before this summer.
2. Most Important Analysis
According to Jessica Link, President of Davis Estates, the three most important types of data analysis for a winery are visitation, conversion, and attrition rates. For example, wineries should analyze the various customer experiences and their associated sales and conversion rates. She is an advocate of regularly reviewing metrics, especially after implementing a change, and professes to make all decisions based on data. The analysis of tasting room and wine club metrics allows the winery to make many grape-to-bottle predictions and decisions. She also strongly believes surveying your members and customers is important for feedback. For Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) metrics, she encourages wineries to also look at third-party industry data.
3. Tracking Sales by Channel
Michael Bartlett, Vice President of Sales and Marketing Strategy at Rodney Strong Wine Estates talked about the importance of tracking sales through the various distribution channels. To do so, he emphasized keeping the data or metrics simple, such as depletions, shipments, points of distribution, and accounts sold. To get a complete picture, these metrics should be tracked by time, geography, product, and channel. He emphasized the importance of looking at a single unit of measures, such as cases, or bottles, and stratifying your distribution by channel to identify key supporters and opportunities. Michael also identified some key data sources for these metrics.
4. Value of Benchmarking Metrics
Jessica Link also talked about the importance of benchmarking metrics. These metrics use existing data for comparison with future performance. The most common way of benchmarking is to develop baseline metrics and compare yourself each year with those metrics. For example, a winery wishing to grow its sales might use the sales volume of its first metric year as the benchmark for sales in the future. Comparison of the baseline with industry standards or competitors is also common. In the case of Davis Estates, Community Benchmarks metrics were used to determine if tasting fees and bottle prices should be increased. The Community Benchmark dashboards allow subscribers to compare the fees and prices of similar wineries in their region.
