Wine estate + web 2.0
Using web 2.0 services to build up a wine estate

The situation
at the end of
2005
a wine estate founded in 2001,
§
§ looking to increase its profile and sales,
§ Internet presence since 2002 but rather limited
content…

Our objectives
Build closer relationships with existing and potential
§
customers and provide them with value­added service
§ Raise our profile and increase on­line sales
§ Run our web operations and obtain decision support

The problem!
Devising an Internet strategy with a very low budget
and limited computing knowledge.

A solution:
Thousands of web services are now available and:
§ require little or no computing skills
§ the vast majority are free!

The main web
services used
90% of these services are free!
§

A few examples…

Blog
[ TypePad ]
Helps build a closer, interactive relationship with wine
§
lovers
§ Straightforward publication of content
§ Excellent search engine visibility ­ blogs are
particularly well indexed

Microblog
[ Twitter ]
A more instinctive method of communication,
§
§ Short messages (maximum of 140 characters) about
what is happening at the winery and which we would
not necessarily have put on the blog

Maps
[ Google maps ]
Maps make the site more entertaining for visitors
§
§ Used to show restaurants that stock our wines and
events where web surfers could come and meet us
§ Quite simple to integrate and very well documented

Photos
[ Flickr ]
Posting pictures to go with the web content develops a
§
closer relationship with customers
§ Optimizes indexing and is an additional source of
traffic
§ Very easy to integrate

Dashboard
[ Netvibes ]
A genuine business portal, simple, free and with
§
remote access!
§ In 1 click, it displays your emails, calendar, online
storage (box.net), RSS feeds, bookmarks, etc.
§ Simple Internet tracking system with search widgets

Decision
support
[ Google Analytics ]
Genuine professional­quality decision tool
§
§ Analyzes traffic, level of interest according to
geographical area (used for example for feedback
after exporting wine), performance of the on­line
sales process…

E­commerce
[ Mal’s ]
Completely free
§
§ Very easy to integrate and configure,
§ PayPal interface that accepts secure payments by
credit card without any need for a costly integrated
payment solution

E­commerce
[ eBay ]
We use the auction system to sell \"Discovery
§
boxes\", giving wine lovers the opportunity to try our
wines at a bargain price
§ We benefit from the eBay platform and its traffic, and
accept credit card payments through PayPal

RSSisation!
[ Feedburner,
Feedsweep,
Yahoo! Pipes ]
To satisfy users of personal pages and other content
§
aggregators (consultation methods that are currently
developing very fast)
§ Publishing, indexing and referencing of feeds (Wikio,
Technorati) are also a source of traffic

What are the results?

Exposure
The presentation of our strategy at web 2.0­related
events has led to significant exposure in the press and
on the Internet!

Higher profile
& web traffic
Significantly higher profile in France, Europe, North
§
America and Japan
§ 10­fold increase in web traffic between 2005 and 2007
(end of September)

On­line sales
Still too early to draw firm conclusions (11 months) but
some trends.
We have achieved our objective of creating a new
channel of distribution, because 80% of on­line buyers
are new customers.

… and how much does it
cost?

25.63 €
per month, so less than
the price of one cup of
coffee a day!
Monthly fixed costs (excluding VAT, % on eBay sales and CPC AdWords)
§
• web hosting: 5.90
• Typepad blog: 12.50
• eBay store: 7.23

Domaine des Crès Ricards
34800 Ceyras
www.cresricards.com
Guillaume Foltran
October 2007