Here’s my wine eCommerce review analysis, I’ve done it by
- finding a representative sample of eCommerce and internet marketing solutions
- rating them based on a criteria outlined in this previous post
- weighting and ranking them to come up with some suggested rankings.
Just my honest opinion
Note they are just suggestions and my honest opinion. I may have made some mistakes. If that’s the case then please let me know and I’ll immediately correct them. The analysis was done in mid Nov-09.
If you disagree (or agree!) please post your comments below. If you represent an eCommerce company then please identify yourself so I can assume the post is accurate. I’m happy to update this as I receive information.
Conflict of interest
Lastly some disclosure (to be completely transparent).
I’ve spent so much time making my own wine eCommerce business work that I’ve decided to launch my own process to show others how to do it. It shows you how to do it yourself. Or, if you’re uncomfortable with web software or don’t have the time, I provide an option where my company does it for you as a service.
All the software I use is available for free: magento ecommerce and various Google tools. Which saves your budget for marketing (which is perhaps becoming the overall point of MyLocalWineStore.com?).
Also please note I’m not an affiliate (i.e. salesperson) for any of this software.
I prefer Pinot Noir, take size 10 shoes and my favorite color is black… too much disclosure? Let’s get down to business.
Wine eCommerce and SEM Ranking
Summary
In essence if the company is a wine specialist or has strong marketing ability then it’s ranked high. If it provides general eCommerce first and then SEM as an extra then it ranks lower.
I may be a little too skeptical about local web developers and local SEM (Search Engine Marketing consultants) – perhaps your local one is much better than average. I’ve written a post about local web developers (I feel a little sorry for them to be honest).
All of them could do better in parts. But that is another post, or maybe even another website.
Lastly I haven’t rated my own service MyLocalWineStore.com, which would be rated the highest of course 
. What I’ve done is to help smaller businesses sell wine online as affordably as possible. Frankly if you’re a larger company go for one of the ones below, if you’re a smaller company then check out Service for more info.
The wine eCommerce Ranking table
| Ranking: 1=poor, 5=great, 0=n/a | SME Basic Generalist | SME Adv. Generalist | Winery Specialist | shopping compar- ison site |
local web dev. |
large web dev. | large SEM | local SEM |
| ********** | ********** | ********** | ********** | ********** | ********** | ********** | ********** | ********** |
| Pricing: | ||||||||
| Website Monthly Price | 5 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 0 |
| Website Setup Fee |
4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| Transaction Fee | 5 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| SEM Marketing Fee | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Set up: | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 0 |
| New Traffic: | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 4 |
| User Experience: | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 0 |
| Catalog: | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 0 |
| Shopping Cart: | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 0 |
| Order Management: | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 0 |
| Reporting: | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 4 |
| Repeat Purchase: | 3 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 2 |
| Support: | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
| >Simple Total | 46 | 41 | 48 | 45 | 41 | 47 | 47 | 20 |
| Simple Total Ranking | 5 | 10 | 1 | 7 | 10 | 3 | 3 | 12 |
| Weighted Total | 3.3 | 3.2 | 3.5 | 3.4 | 2.9 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 1.2 |
| Weighted Total Ranking | 7 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 11 | 5 | 1 | 12 |
Notes/Key:
SME (Small Medium Enterprise) Basic Generalist – e.g. Volusion or Yahoo
SME Adv. Generalist – e.g. MivaMerchant
Winery Specialist – e.g. eWinerySolutions, vin65
shopping comparison site – e.g. snooth or winezap
large web dev. (developer) – e.g. IBM Webscope or Varien Magento Enterprise
large SEM – a big PPC and SEO agency with min spend of $20,000 per month on adwords
local SEM – a small PPC or SEO agency that charges an hourly rate
“**********” are just spacers in row 2 not star ratings
(I updated this post in Mar-10)
What experiences have you had?
Related posts:
Pingback: Web Designers: the Traditional Development Model
Pingback: internetpromotingsite.info
Pingback: Web Designers: the Traditional Development Model
Pingback: wine eCommerce and SEM: Ranking Criteria
Pingback: Wine, Landing Page Optimization, and Lady Gaga vs Lady Thatcher | MyLocalWineStore