By Dawn Dolan
Have wine brands across the industry embraced promoting themselves through the use of mobile apps? Scott Stanchak, who teaches graduate level e-commerce marketing at NYU, and is the Managing Director, Mobile Marketing Strategy, at The New York Times, thinks not.
“I’m not pretending to know more about wine compared to everyone else coming to this session,” says Stanchak. “But I do know mobile. The DTC (direct to consumer) wine industry is worth about $2 billion, but only 2% is coming from online sales.”
Stanchak will be moderating the opening conference session, Unlocking the Digital Sixth Sense: Living in a Mobile World, at the North Coast Wine Industry Expo December 1, 2016.
Stanchak says that 90% of the average person’s time on their smartphone is spent in an app. But brands throughout the wine industry have not been using apps effectively to push their products out.
“Mobile is extremely important”, he notes, “but which apps are the wine consumers spending their time in?” He believes the wineries should find out. As session moderator, the main thing he wants to do is lead the discussion in order to help instill a sense of trust in the use of mobile for wineries.
Also relevant to this is the fact that many, if not most, wineries have not optimized their platforms for ease of use with mobile devices. When asked about the data for purchasing wine through the wineries website, Stanchak acknowledges that it is not happening much yet, but not because of security issues.
“There are so many wineries out there that are not optimized for purchasing behavior. There is no fear of use for the mobile device wine consumer, but there is an issue with ease of use. Things like Apple Pay make it [the monetary transaction] safe and easy. Right now it’s about alleviating the difficulties of experience,” states Stanchak. He also notes that this is not just a challenge for the wine industry, but for other industries as well.
Stanchak is looking forward to his trip to discuss mobile options with the wine country audience at North Coast Wine Industry Expo. The panel he will be moderating features a variety of representatives from applications that the wine aficionado typically opens on their smartphones.
“I’m setting the foundation for the panelist to show how they can grow each winery’s business. The fun part about the panel is that none of the apps represented are competitive,” Stanchak says with a smile in his voice.
“It’s the first session of the day, and I hope that everyone will be excited. I hope it comes across as inspiring, and that the wineries are inspired to take action on mobile. We’ll be trying to help with educating the wineries on how to use mobile.”
Stanchak is encouraged that the industry is progressing in their outlook. “A few years ago no one was talking about mobile. Now almost all wine industry events are talking about mobile. The more we talk the more they will feel comfortable in using the technology that is out there.”
North Coast Wine Industry Expo: Unlocking the Digital Sixth Sense: Living in a Mobile World
