In a world where tradition meets disruption, wine brands face a stark choice: adapt or wither on the vine. Family legacies built over generations now stand at a crossroads where the stakes couldn't be higher. They're not just fighting for quarterly profits—they're preserving legacies while trying to secure their future.
The answer? Direct-to-consumer sales—your most powerful weapon in the battle for survival and growth.
DTC wine is the fastest-growing segment of global alcohol sales, with a 5.4% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) projected in the next three years, compared to the offline wine market’s CAGR of just 1.9%. Direct online wine sales gives wineries a way to connect directly with customers while giving them more control over their future.
But there’s a problem. In an industry where heritage spans centuries and competition is fierce, established wineries find themselves trapped by commerce platforms that weren't built for their complex reality. These legacy systems—often as old as their youngest vines—come with crushing costs and technical limitations that make innovation nearly impossible. What should be a straightforward evolution becomes a technological quagmire of compliance requirements, disjointed customer experiences, and inflexible systems that can't handle wineries’ vast product portfolios across multiple sales channels.
But when done right, a DTC channel can provide a struggling winery with a much-needed lifeline—higher margins, better brand control, access to valuable customer data, and the ability to offer exclusive wine clubs.
In this article, we explore how brands can implement a winning DTC wine strategy, step by step. We’ll also look closely at both the benefits and drawbacks of selling directly to consumers, and how choosing the right ecommerce partner can streamline regulatory compliance and make it easier to get started.
The benefits of selling wine DTC
For both new and well-established wineries, there are a lot of strategic upsides for launching a DTC channel.
Create a new stream of revenue with a growing online market
The DTC market gives wine brands a huge opportunity to drive new revenue. Sales of alcohol online are growing, and wine is the leading category: in 2024, it accounted for 53% of North America’s online alcohol sales. Online wine sales in North America are projected to continue to grow at a 5.6% CAGR over the next five years, more than double the 2.5% growth of the overall market.
This growth has been driven in part by easing regulations. It’s now easier than ever for wineries to embrace new DTC distribution models that offer more control over pricing, branding, and customer relationships.
This is especially true for premium and higher-priced wines. DTC channels offer stronger margins and more control, which is critical when selling limited releases or rare vintages. Instead of relying on traditional distributors or retailers, wineries can reach consumers who actively seek exclusive, curated experiences.
Through DTC, wineries can run targeted promotions, offer product bundles to offset shipping costs, and curate selections that align with seasonal or collector demand. Apps like DRINKS can also help optimize the business model. For wineries selling at scale, the savings are real. A brand moving 100,000 cases through DTC can reduce excise tax costs by an average of $191,000 per year.
This model works, and many brands are embracing it today. Etude Wines sells bottles ranging from $90 to $300 each through their Shopify storefront. Sotheby’s Wine offers vintages reaching $20,000 per bottle. Ludwig’s and Fogarty Wine, while not vineyards themselves, both use Shopify to sell premium selections that exceed $600 per bottle. These aren’t everyday purchases. They’re intentional, high-value transactions—and DTC is what makes them possible at scale.
Connect directly with customers to drive loyalty and transform marketing strategies
Through DTC sales, wine brands can build direct relationships with their customers rather than going through distributors. When leveraged well, this connection can fuel brand loyalty, repeat business, and even develop brand advocates. But this connection must be nurtured and fostered through personalized buying experiences, tailored marketing, exclusive offers, and curated product lines.
DTC wine success is built on the right marketing activities. And those activities rely on first-party customer data. By selling directly, wineries can collect information about purchasing patterns, customer preferences, and how they like to engage with the brand. This data can then be used as a foundation for a wide range of marketing tactics, such as:
- Personalized product recommendations
- Targeted offers and discounts
- Flash sales and events
- Curated product bundles
- Social media, email, and ad retargeting campaigns
- Exclusive events and popups
- Wine clubs and bundled offerings (we’ll dive into this more later on)
Instead of relying on third-party retailers to tell their story, brands that sell DTC can craft their own digital experiences with innovative ecommerce websites. By using immersive storytelling, a winery can share what makes them stand apart as a brand, and invite customers to be part of a unique brand experience.
Reach new markets, innovate offerings, and gain industry experience
DTC sales are a powerful way to reach niche audiences and build deep customer relationships. With traditional retail, customers often miss out on premium, limited-release, and rare wines.
Selling directly removes that barrier. Wineries can offer high-end products online to consumers actively seeking premium experiences. Because the winery owns the channel, they control the story, pricing, and how the product is presented. They can also offer in-person events like tasting rooms, popups, and other unique experiences.
For many wineries, a large share of revenue comes from their wine club. And most signups still happen in person. Some see over 90% of members join during vineyard visits, where the experience creates a lasting impression.
Ecommerce extends that connection by turning a one-time visit into an ongoing relationship. Whether a customer first discovers the brand at the cellar door, online, or through word of mouth, the digital experience gives them a reason to stay and to buy again.
It also opens new ways to grow. With Shopify Collective, wineries can expand their product offerings without adding operational complexity. They can partner with other brands to sell wine glasses, openers, and other accessories, without holding the inventory themselves. The result is a richer experience for customers and new revenue streams for the business.
The challenges of selling DTC wine
While the benefits of DTC are clear, wineries must still navigate several challenges to drive success with direct sales.
A web of regulations to navigate
To launch a DTC wine channel, a wine brand must contend with a maze of regulations. Excise taxes, import duties, and cross-border shipping restrictions differ not just by country but also by state or province—and they change frequently. Staying compliant requires ongoing monitoring, and the seller is fully responsible for the cost and responsibility of managing these shifting rules. They must know what can and cannot be shipped. Without the right know-how it’s easy for a DTC strategy to fail before it even begins.
For enterprise wineries, the challenge is even greater. They must navigate not only varying state or provincial laws but also a complex network of national, regional, and local regulations. The more markets they enter, the more intricate compliance becomes, often requiring dedicated legal and operational teams in-house. Without the right infrastructure, scaling a DTC wine business across jurisdictions can quickly become a logistical nightmare.
Wine club retailer Firstleaf ships boxes of wine to customers across the United States every month. Their business is thriving, but they have a ton of regulations to navigate. Making sure they follow the right rules for every customer and every shipment is tough: laws vary not just by state but by timeframe, recipient, and even the winery sending the product. Some states restrict the number of wine shipments monthly, while others do so quarterly or annually. In some cases, the number of bottles is capped per person or per address. And it's not just about what gets shipped—certain wines are off-limits entirely based on factors like alcohol content.
To simplify this tangled web of rules, Firstleaf built a compliance backbone on Shopify that tracks every customer's shipment history over time, across multiple wineries. Today, they have the tools they need to ensure every single order stays inside legal boundaries, without slowing the growth of their business.
It’s important to note that the right ecommerce partner can streamline and simplify compliance with easy-to-use solutions and integrations. Later on, we’ll dive into how platforms like Shopify and apps in their ecosystem make compliance manageable for wine retailers of every size.
Logistics and shipping challenges
Shipping and logistics remain some of the biggest hurdles for wineries selling direct-to-consumer (DTC). High shipping costs must either be absorbed or passed on to the consumer, making it hard to sell lower-priced wines at a profit.
Temperature control adds another layer of complexity. Without proper safeguards, wines risk spoilage in transit, particularly in areas with extreme temperatures. Brands must also ensure proper age verification is completed at both checkout and delivery.
Beyond logistics, regulatory hurdles can create barriers for DTC sales. In the United States, the three-tier system—separating producers, distributors, and retailers—limits how wineries can sell directly to consumers. When these distribution channels are bypassed, wineries must navigate compliance laws that vary by state, and in some cases need to maintain relationships with distributors.
However, these hurdles aren’t impossible to overcome when launching a DTC wine channel. We’ll explore later how Shopify and Shopify apps can be used to automate, simplify, and streamline shipping and logistics.
A competitive market with shifting demographics
The DTC wine market is expanding, but so is the competition. With more brands entering the space, wineries must do more than have an online shop. They need a unique brand experience to stand out. Wineries must be able to execute sophisticated, personalized, and bold marketing strategies to stand apart from the competition and drive DTC success.
At the same time, shifting consumer behaviors are also impacting the industry as a whole. Younger generations, particularly Gen Z, are drinking less alcohol. That means DTC success will require innovation. Whether it’s diversifying product lines with lower-alcohol or nonalcoholic options, emphasizing sustainability, or creating unique brand experiences, success will require trying new approaches to reach a changing customer base.
How to make your DTC wine expansion a success
Use the right ecommerce platform to ease the regulatory burden
Platforms like Shopify can make navigating compliance a lot easier for wine brands. Through Shopify’s partnership and seamless integration with DRINKS, a real-time alcohol tax and compliance app, merchants can let technology do the heavy lifting. With Shopify + DRINKS, wineries can:
- Automate compliance with hundreds of preconfigured rules
- Ensure all applicable taxes and fees, including excise, alcohol, CRV, and more, are accurately captured at checkout
- Integrate with POS systems to verify compliance and apply the correct alcohol tax for every order, depending on the state
Shopify’s ecosystem of ready-to-integrate apps can support merchants in managing:
- Advertising restrictions
- Shipping boundaries
- Age verification requirements
Wine Insiders, an online wine retailer, replatformed to Shopify to improve their DTC experience. They used the DRINKS app to incorporate real-time tax and compliance automation into their checkout. Other apps in the Shopify ecosystem allowed them to easily launch and manage a wine club. With Shopify’s ecosystem at their fingertips, Wine Insiders leveled up their marketing to include personalized emails, SMS, and post-purchase campaigns to drive engagement.
The results were impressive: Wine Insiders saw a 73% increase in conversion rate, 15% increase in average order value, and a 22% boost to their repurchase rate.
“Migrating an ecommerce powerhouse like Wine Insiders is a lightning bolt moment for the alcohol industry, highlighting that Shopify is safe, streamlined, and scalable for the largest, most sophisticated merchants,” said Louis Amoroso, president of Wine Insiders.
Offer wine clubs
The subscription economy has taken off. Over the next four years, subscription revenue is expected to soar 68% to nearly $1 trillion. Food and beverage subscriptions are especially popular: an Attest survey found that 51.3% of respondents were interested in one, and 37% already had one.
Within that broader market, wine subscriptions are growing fast. By 2033, revenue from wine clubs is projected to grow at a 20.7% CAGR, reaching $3.9 billion.
This presents a major opportunity for wineries, especially those navigating retail and distribution headwinds. A well-executed wine club can drive recurring revenue, build a loyal membership base, and offer high-margin value through limited releases, personalized selections, and exclusive perks.
But many wineries are held back by outdated systems. Managing thousands of members, processing recurring payments, and handling allocations often turns into a logistical headache. Consumers get clunky, inflexible experiences. Back-end teams struggle with manual work, glitches, and fulfillment delays.
That’s why wineries are turning to Shopify. With apps like Recharge, Winehub, and Bloom Commerce, they can offer flexible, premium selection experiences for customers while automating fulfillment at scale—no manual batch runs, no error-prone workflows.
Alpha Box & Dice, an Australian winery, dreamed of a modern, streamlined DTC wine club, but their custom website required extensive data entry. After migrating to Shopify, they streamlined their order system, using Recharge to power recurring payments and manage memberships. It wasn’t long before their subscription service took off—with monthly subscribersgrowing by 700%. The impact on revenue was immediate: a 38% increase in wine club sales and a 40% boost in overall DTC revenue.
"With Shopify Plus, everything feels integrated and like one product, giving our customers a world-class digital experience online," said Jared Brown, head of digital at Alpha Box & Dice.
Embrace user-generated content and community-driven marketing
When marketing new DTC buying experiences, especially wine clubs, including social proof can be game-changing. Alcoholic beverages are inherently social, making wine a natural fit for user-generated content (UGC) and community-driven marketing. Social proof marketing can come in the form of reviews, testimonials, user-shared recipes, and more, and can have a big impact on buying decisions.
Brands should include UGC across their website and digital channels by embedding video reviews, ratings, and customer stories. To allow buyers to act fast when influenced by social proof, brands should make sure mobile ordering is easy, and include accelerated checkout options like Shop Pay.
Kent Street Cellars embraced UGC as a core part of their DTC marketing strategy. To engage wine enthusiasts, they added the REVIEWS.io app to their Shopify store to collect both company and product reviews. Today their wines have an average product rating of 4.83, with over 2,300 reviews collected, reinforcing their reputation and customer trust. These reviews gave potential buyers clear social proof that the brand’s products are well-liked, fueling the growth of their curated selection of rare wines and spirits.
Attract younger consumers with premium brand experiences
Younger consumers aren’t drinking as much as older generations. But when they indulge, they demand high-end experiences and exceptional products. That’s why brands should embrace a drink-better-but-less strategy in their DTC channel: offering premium, limited-release, and rare wines for sale online.
To generate buzz and demand about premium products, wineries will need a robust digital approach. To elevate perceived value, products should only be available through exclusive access, accompanied by rich storytelling and personalized recommendations and offers. Younger buyers also expect seamless omnichannel experiences, so these all must be delivered seamlessly across every channel: in-store, online, social media, email, and more.
A unified ecommerce platform can be a big help when a brand needs to create exclusive experiences and drive demand for premium products. By moving to Shopify, Rémy Cointreau seamlessly integrated their ecommerce and POS systems, providing an innovative experience for younger buyers interacting with a heritage brand experience. In just one year, the company launched 15 branded online stores across key markets like France, the UK, and Germany.
Using Shopify’s unified POS and ecommerce back end, the team at Rémy Cointreau can centrally manage and streamline both in-store and online luxury shopping experiences. Today, the team can launch popup shops that provide an immersive brand experience effortlessly, reaching key markets at optimal times. Shopify gives them the agility they need to adapt to a changing market with ease.
“In a matter of seconds, we can support new ideas,” said Pasqual Ortuño Núñez, group IT digital director for Rémy Cointreau.
They’re not alone. Today, premium wine sellers like Robert Mondavi Winery, The Prisoner, Etude Wines, Rosenblum Cellars, Evoke Winery, Betz Family Winery, Sotheby’s Wine, Redneck Wine Company, Pali Wine Co, and Cellar.com all run on Shopify. Many use Shopify POS to unify their customer experience and provide tailored, unique brand experiences—online and in person.
Personalize the brand experience
To make a DTC wine channel successful, brands must provide a tailored customer experience. With a direct connection to their customers, wineries can gather data about when, where, and how their buyers like to make purchases. Equipped with this knowledge, brands can personalize experiences directly to buyer preferences, such as curated wine recommendations and VIP membership perks.
Nocking Point Wines is a digital-first wine brand, and knows the importance of connecting with their buyers. Their first ecommerce website took valuable time away from crafting their brand experience due to technical headaches. After moving to Shopify, they can now easily add features and functionality to bolster the brand’s strategy, without the high technical costs they used to experience. Shopify also helps them quickly launch personalized marketing strategies, and they have seen a 3x conversion increase with retargeting and emails.
“It doesn’t fall on me to work with developers to build out our own roadmap, and spend way too much time and money on a platform. We should be focused on customers, creating awesome wines, and developing content and telling stories. Shopify has freed me up, and us up, to go back to doing what we do best. And, frankly, it's saved us a lot of money,” said Andrew Harding, founder of Nocking Point Wines.
Personalization isn’t just for small to midsize wine merchants. Platforms like Shopify allow large brands to use AI and predictive analytics to analyze buying behaviors across massive customer bases. By delivering truly individualized recommendations at scale, these brands can elevate engagement and maximize CLV across millions of customers.
Finding the right ecommerce partner for your DTC wine strategy
To succeed in DTC wine sales, brands need an ecommerce platform that meets their unique challenges and opportunities. When evaluating platforms, wineries should focus on these key factors:
#1. Make sure the provider simplifies compliance
Selling wine online makes compliance non-negotiable. Ecommerce platforms should integrate seamlessly with compliance solutions that manage tax calculations, shipping restrictions, and legal requirements across multiple jurisdictions. Platforms that provide real-time updates on regulatory changes help merchants remain compliant in every market.
Customizable compliance workflows are another critical feature. Ideally, they should be configurable without IT support. Platforms like Shopify enable brands to integrate age verification and other safeguards directly into the checkout process, ensuring compliance before a sale is completed.
To take a DTC wine strategy global, be sure to choose a platform with a robust ecosystem of global compliance integration. Shopify’s app store offers solutions like Avalara for managing international tax and shipping regulations. The platform should also have advanced reporting and audit capabilities to make sure wineries can track compliance with legal requirements.
#2. Consider how they support DTC requirements
To choose the right ecommerce platform for a DTC wine strategy, it’s important to make sure it supports key functionality without high technical overhead.
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Wine subscription and club functionality
To enable brands to launch and manage wine clubs, the platform should have built-in features or strong integrations for subscription management, recurring billing, personalized recommendations, and product bundling. Apps in the Shopify ecosystem, like Bloom, Awtomic, or Winehub, offer robust subscription management, making it easier to run wine clubs with automated billing and personalized offerings.
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Personalized marketing support
A successful DTC wine channel relies on a highly personalized marketing strategy. The right platform should make it easy to enable tailored product recommendations and marketing automation.
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Seamless CRM and ERP integrations
The right platform should integrate easily with CRM systems to allow brands to easily manage customer relationships and track interactions. Shopify offers integrations with popular CRM systems through its app store, making it seamless and simple to connect critical systems. Shopify’s API can also be used to connect to ERP, CRM, and order management systems.
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Unified capabilities
For wineries with tasting rooms, retail partnerships, or popup events, the platform should support robust omnichannel capabilities from a unified, user-friendly back end. For example, Shopify’s unified POS system syncs inventory and customer profiles across all sales points, ensuring accurate stock levels and personalized service.
Wine retailer Vin Chicago used to have five disconnected systems across their ecommerce and brick-and-mortar stores. It was impossible for customers to see available stock across stores, and managing disparate systems took too much time and effort. By switching to Shopify’s unified platform, they reduced software costs by 20%, and synchronized orders and inventory across locations. They also gained complete visibility of each customers' purchase history whether online or in-store, allowing them to better understand customer preferences and provide more personalized service. A few weeks after launching on Shopify they had their biggest sales day of the year, and they saw 20% year-over-year growth.
#3. Choose a platform that can scale at peak times
If a DTC channel takes off, it’s critical that the ecommerce platform be ready to scale, or brands risk losing business and impacting viability. The platform’s infrastructure should be fast and reliable, able to support massive traffic spikes, high sales volumes, and extensive product catalogs without compromising performance.
Shopify is built for scalability, accommodating businesses of all sizes—from small-scale producers to global wine conglomerates with dozens of wineries. Its infrastructure ensures reliable uptime and seamless performance during peak periods, minimizing disruptions to large-scale operations. Shopify also provides advanced security features and compliance certifications, protecting sensitive customer and business data across global markets.
#4. Evaluate ease of use, merchant support, and ecosystem size
To support compliance, personalized marketing, subscriptions, and other core components of a successful DTC wine strategy, a platform needs a strong ecosystem of third-party apps and integrations. With more than 10,000 apps, the Shopify app store provides business owners a wide range of prebuilt integrations that easily extend core platform functionality, including numerous apps specific to the alcohol industry.
To make sure a DTC wine launch isn’t derailed by high technical costs, a platform should be user-friendly for both businesses and customers while offering reliable merchant support. Shopify is recognized for its intuitive interface and extensive support resources, helping brands build and deliver sophisticated storefronts without costly technical overhead.
For established wineries migrating from legacy systems like WineDirect, Commerce7, or in-house solutions, Shopify’s migration experts and tools can make sure the transition is fast and seamless. Ultimately, the right platform provider will allow its customers to focus on growth and innovation instead of technical project management.
#5. Calculate the total cost of ownership and ROI
The cost of the platform should not seriously impact potential revenue from a DTC channel. That’s why brands should consider the total cost of ownership (TCO) when selecting a provider. This requires understanding every cost associated with the platform, as well as the cost of adding new functionality and ongoing maintenance. If any part of the functionality needs to be custom-built, be sure to account for up-front and ongoing developer costs.
Shopify provides flexible pricing plans tailored to different business sizes and needs. Wineries and merchants can compare their plan’s costs with projected revenue to determine ROI, factoring in efficiencies gained from automation, streamlined operations, and enhanced customer experiences.
To calculate your current total cost of ownership (TCO) and see how it compares to Shopify, use our free TCO calculator.
A platform ready to drive DTC wine success
Many types of businesses are facing headwinds due to changing demographics and economic factors, and wine brands today are no exception. Selling wine directly to consumers can help a brand adapt and survive. DTC wine channels can also strengthen a brand, increase revenue, and build lasting customer relationships.
Success with DTC wine does require strategically maneuvering challenges such as regulatory compliance, logistics, and shifting consumer behavior. But the right ecommerce platform can simplify these complexities and empower wineries to build a thriving new channel.
No matter where a winery is in their DTC wine journey, whether it’s launching their first wine club or scaling DTC operations, Shopify is here to help. Wine brands can benefit from Shopify’s robust infrastructure, expert support, streamlined integrations, and proven success with leading wine brands and retailers. Shopify’s ecosystem — with tools like Winehub to serve as a technical foundation, and DRINKS to simplify tax and compliance — gives wineries the flexibility to streamline operations, enhance customer engagement, and grow revenue.
Talk to our sales team today to learn how Shopify can power your DTC wine strategy.
DTC Wine FAQ
What is DTC wine?
DTC (direct-to-consumer) wine refers to wineries selling their products directly to customers rather than through distributors or retailers. This model allows wineries to build stronger customer relationships, offer exclusive customer experiences such as wine clubs, and capture higher profit margins.
What are the best DTC wine brands?
Several top wineries and wine retailers have successfully built strong DTC channels, including Wine Insiders, Alpha Box & Dice, Vin Chicago, and Nocking Point Wines. These brands use ecommerce platforms like Shopify to power their online stores, subscriptions, and personalized marketing strategies.
What is DTC alcohol?
DTC alcohol sales refer to any alcoholic beverage—wine, beer, or spirits—sold directly to consumers via online stores, exclusive clubs, or subscription models. This model bypasses traditional distribution networks, allowing brands to offer exclusive products, streamline operations, and engage more closely with their customer base.
Is Shopify a Commerce7 and WineDirect alternative?
Yes. Shopify is a strong alternative to Commerce7 and WineDirect, especially for wine and alcohol retailers looking for more flexibility and growth potential. Shopify offers a modern, scalable platform with a robust app ecosystem, extensive customization options, and proven success among wine brands already selling DTC. For retailers aiming to improve customer experience, streamline operations, and expand online sales, Shopify provides a powerful foundation.
