It is reported that from the total annual wine sales figure, more than 40% accounts for the consumption by millennials.

Millennials are a generation that grew up in a society where wine is more than just appreciated. They have seen the shelves filled with imported wines in grocery stores. They have seen more modern culture than baby boomers did. Therefore, their interest in wine has grown more than just drinking.

What sets this generation apart from the previous generation is curiosity. They are keen about knowing their wine in-depth. They tend to know every little detail of their favorite wine such as where it comes from, how it is made and who produces it, etc. They like to get their wine when and where they want without going anywhere. Their approach to wine is quite different than baby boomers which is forcing winemakers and wine merchants to change the way they sell wine.

Millennials are influenced by new technologies. The old traditions of doing things do not matter to them as much as the elder generation. This has led to the rise of a number of wine shopping and delivery apps on mobiles and other check-in apps. Vivino, a personal wine guide, scans wine labels and provides every detail of that wine. People can locate nearby stores and order wine online using this app. Wine-Searcher, a search engine with more than 8 million wines, lets the users know about the global availability of the wine and redirects them to e-commerce sites to purchase those wines. There exists a number of similar apps (such as Delectable, Cor.kz, Crushed, Wine Ring, and Hello Vino, etc.) which help millennials to stay connected with wine despite their busy schedule and make their wine purchase easy.

Social media is the best platform to reach millennials as they are highly active on and influenced by social media apps. With this in mind, wineries have considered that the best way to market their wines to millennials is through social media. Wineries, creating their original content on their social media accounts, are enhancing their inbound marketing and effectively engaging with the millennials.

How exactly are they influencing wine selling?

Millennials tend to look for their wine online before purchasing, hence, most wineries are implementing new mobile visual technologies. They are using more captivating graphics in their websites, and, to reach every millennial using mobile, they are making their websites responsive in a layout. They are employing e-commerce into their websites to sell their wines around the world. They are also getting their visibility on social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and more. In a nutshell, winemakers and wine merchants are putting their efforts to touch the millennials digitally as that is where they are most present.

What will help winemakers and wine merchants?

The first thing to understand about the millennials is their preferences. As compared to baby boomers, millennials consume less alcohol and in a different way. They are more precise in their wine selection and more conscious about what they are giving to their body. This has, somehow, resulted in the boost in the organic wine market. While selecting a wine from the shelf or internet, millennials first look for the bottle’s appearance. The meaning a packaging label conveys matters a lot to them while the selection process. Implementing new packaging methods will help wineries indeed. As we discussed earlier, before purchasing, they will look for the wine online for hours or days. They will check all product descriptions, recommendations, tips, reviews, stories and forums associated with it, to make sure what they are planning to purchase is indeed a worth product. So, getting all this information up-to-date on the website, mobile apps and social accounts will make a lot of difference in wine selling.

It is clear that the days of getting a few basic wine varietals to serve every consumer are now gone. These millennials are pretty keen to do adventurous things, experiments with their wines and having fun. So, the key to marketing to millennials is to provide them as what they want, how they want and when they want.