Industry vs. Non Industry & The Internet

Posted by Tom Wark on Apr 30, 2008

One of the most unique aspects of the just closed "Electronic Wine Survey" is the association of the respondents to the wine and food industry. Of the 266 respondents, fully 54% identify themselves as working in, producing a product for, or publishing information related to the wine or food industries. I don’t know if other blogs have this kind of high percentage of industry folks, but I doubt it’s too many.

This begs the question, how is the relationship with the Internet and wine different for industry-associated folks than those not associated with the industry.

To start with, those associated with the industry are far more interested in looking to the Internet for Wine Business Information than those not associated with it. 82% of industry associated respondents said they look to the Internet for wine business news, while only 30% of those not identified with the wine industry only "business news" as what they look to the Internet for. What do non-industry associated respondents want from the Internet? Wine Reviews. 82% of these respondents cited wine reviews as what they look for on the Internet. This makes perfect sense. On the other hand, it means I’m not serving half those who come to this blog.

It also turns out that folks associated with the industry show more
appreciation for wine information published in print publications than
non-industry respondents do, while non-industry respondents have
greater respect for Internet-based wine information. This strikes me as
intuitively rational given the relative importance print publications
maintain in helping to sell and market wines.

As for buyng wine online, only 56% of industry-related respondents say they purchase wine online,
while 66% of non-industry respondents claim to purchase wine online.

Non industry respondents also buy more wine on-line. 20% of this group reported buying 50% or more of their wine from online sources, while industry only 10% of industry respondents reported buying 50% of their wine online.

And it turns out that when industry respondents do buy wine online they are FAR more likely to buy their wine from a retail wine website than non-industry respondents. Industry folks reported buying from retailer web sites 42% of the time vs 27% of the time from winery websites. Non industry respondents buy from retailer and winery websites in equal amounts.

Another interesting discovery about the differences between
industry-associated respondents and non-industry respondents is the
number of different websites they buy wine from. Non-industry
associated respondents buy wine from a wider variety of websites. 28%
of non-industry associated respondents said they purchased wine from 5
or more websites in the past twelve months while only 15% of
industry-related respondents were so promiscuous in their online buying
habits. I can’t quite figure out why this would be other than
perhaps prejudice of association. It has been suggested that
industry-related respondents likely have unique access to wines that
are obtained off line. It may have something to do with the fact that
industry-associated folks are somewhat less likely to actually buy wine
online.

Now, here is one of the findings I found MOST interesting. When considering the downside of online wine buying, it appears that folks in the wine industry have more trouble navigating websites. 33% of industry respondents had complaints with online wine site navigation while only 23% of non-industry members had the same complaint. Meanwhile, 13% of industry respondents had complaints about checkout difficulties while only 7% of non-industry respondents had the same complaint.

What exactly does this mean? I suppose you could say they are less accustomed to buying wine online and therefore perhaps less familiar with the process. But let’s face it, it’s not brain surgery.

Finally, there is this nugget. Non-wine industry respondents make more money than industry members. Hmmm!?!

RECAP:
–Industry Respondents (IR) Look to the Net for Business News
–Non Industry Respondents (NIR) Look to the Net for Wine Reviews

–IR Have More Appreciation for Printed Wine News than NIR

–NIR Purchase More Wine On-line Than IR

–NIR Purchase a Larger Percentage of Their Wine On-line

–IR Are Much More Likely To buy From On-line Retailers than NIR

–NIR Use A Wider Variety of Websites To Procure Their Wines than NIR Do

–IR Have More Difficulty Navigating Wine Websites Than NIR Do.

–NIR Make More Money Than IR