When I Push New Wines to Customers, They Just Refused

 

Write | WBO Morris

Translate and Edit | WBO Kiwi

 

Recently, a number of importers complained that distributor’s declining willingness to adding new wine products.

New products rejected by distributors

 

An importer said it’s difficult to explore new market this year. Many distributors prefer spending money on famous Chinese liquor rather than wine. Due to poor market environment and slow sales condition, they are more cautious in new products selecting.

 

Representative of Argentine Rutini winery also faced the same situation, “It needs long process to introduce new wine to our customers,  many distributors are not willing to try new wines in order to avoid marketing risks.

 

Chen Youjin, a vintner based in Wenzhou analyzed: the reason for customer refusal is basically that there remain many wines in stock, increasing the pressure of adding new SKU.

 

In addition, more new importers emerged this year, which made competition gets more intense, distribution networks gets more fragmented, and distributors gets more critical in buying wines.

 

Over the last year, Chen has made about 2 million sales in total, but he didn’t perform as well as last year statistically.

 

What distributors say

 

Three interviewed distributors confirmed importer’s claims.

 

Li Jianren, distributors in Putian, Fujian province, analyzed, “Generally, we tend to reduce SKU, not select blindly like before, but focus on targeted customer demands. We don’t have enough energy to push when selecting too many categories.”

 

Hu Ying, distributor in Ganzhou, Jiangxi province, said he adds new wines every year, but SKU remains the same. When increasing some categories, he will kick out some dead stock.

 

In particular, the market is more beneficial to Chinese liquor through his observation, inland consumers prefer Chinese liquor than those in coastal areas. So Hu only put his capital in high-end liquors.

 

Xu Xiaotong, distributor in Liaoning province, bought more wines from importer meanwhile reduced some self-imported SKU. He is on the way to transferring from group purchase to retail gradually.

 

However, some distributors insisting on adding more categories with specific marketing points.

 

“Wine list should keep updating with customer needs. To some extent, wine consumer's loyalty is far less than Chinese liquor. Even if there are always-popular products, in order to give customers fresh feeling, we have to provide more alternatives,” said a distributor from Hebei province.

 

How will importers deal with it?

 

Distributers are choosing products with high cost performance, and also highlighting selling points.  Generally, wine priced at CNY100(€12), CNY200（€25）, and CNY300（€38）in retail are the best sellers, according to Bordeaux Vineam.

 

Apart from brand itself, a set of perfect marketing program is significant as well, such as how to promote the brand, how to build offline channels and provide best service.

 

According to Wu Yonglei, people can find many big brands in the market, but many of them do not offer good services, once price become transparent, distributor will quit no matter how famous it is.

 

Wu found that distributors are not as aimless as before, especially their second generations, pursuing more than just wines. They require higher quality level, brand popularity, and importer’s support. These three requirements are indispensable in their eyes.

 

In fact, simplex trade model become outdated, brand building and professional service are necessary in assisting customers when selling wines.