Wine.com
 | |
| Industry | Online wine retail |
|---|---|
| Founded | San Francisco, California, 1998 |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California |
| Website | wine.com |
Wine.com is a San Francisco based online wine retailer that offers a selection of wines, gift baskets, gift certificates and monthly wine clubs. Wine.com sells over 2 million bottles per year, with a stock of more than 13,000 different bottles of wine, shipping throughout the United States.[1]
History
The company which today is known as Wine.com was originally founded as Virtual Vineyards by Robert Olson in Los Altos, California in 1994 with co-founders Master Sommelier Peter Granoff,[2] and Information Architect Harry Max. Virtual Vineyards sold its first bottle of wine online via its custom-coded, secure, on-line shopping cart January 24, 1995 and went into full product two weeks later[3]. The current Wine.com business was founded by Mike Osborn in Portland, Oregon as eVineyard in 1998.[4] In 1999, David Harmon sold eVineyard to Virtual Vineyards. In 2000, VirtualVineyards.com and WineShopper.com merged under the Wine.com moniker.[5] In the spring of 2001, eVineyard purchased the assets of the combined business prior to their bankruptcy and became known as Wine.com.[6] After being acquired, Wine.com moved its corporate offices to San Francisco, CA.[7] In 2006, Rich Bergsund joined Wine.com as CEO, seeing the company through a financial turnaround.[8] According to Internet Retailer, the company has grown to become the biggest online wine retailer in the United States.[9] Wine.com is majority owned by Baker Capital, a New York–based private equity firm.[10]
In 2010, Wine.com launched WineShopper, a members-only website owned and operated by Wine.com. WineShopper is an "online flash sales site that features deals on limited quantities of wine for up to 72 hours."[11]
Mobile Applications
- In November 2008, Wine.com introduced the Steward-Ship program offering customers one year of unlimited standard shipping with payment of a one-time fee.[12]
- In December 2009, Wine.com launched an iPhone application developed by Wine.com’s iPad app developer-partner Marshall Monroe Magic.[13]
- In November 2010, Wine.com launched an iPad application, featuring a dashboard to view thousands of wine labels, including an interactive geo-location tour of where the wine was produced.[14]
- In November 2011, Wine.com released a mobile site.[15]
References
- ^ "Better Late Than Never: Wine.com Gets A Mobile Website". TechCrunch. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
- ^ "Virtual Vineyards". hbr.org. Retrieved 2018-01-04.
- ^ "What Makes Virtual Vineyards Rule?". Inc.com. 1996-06-15. Retrieved 2018-01-04.
- ^ "The King of Online Wine". Brain Libby. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
- ^ Tedeschi, Bob (7 May 2001). "An Online Vintage, Still Unproved". New York Times. Retrieved 24 August 2012.
- ^ Sinton, Peter (28 April 2001). "Wine.com sold for about $10 million / EVineyard acquires struggling dot-com". SF Gate. Retrieved 24 August 2012.
- ^ "EVineyard follows Winebuyer buy with new Bay Area office". San Francisco Business Times. Retrieved 24 August 2012.
- ^ "Wine.Com Announces 25 Percent Growth, First-Ever Profits And Seventh Straight Year As Top Internet Wine Retailer". Wine Business. Retrieved 27 August 2012.
- ^ Lefevere, Jeff (13 October 2011). "Where to Buy Wine Online: The Top Eight Wine Ecommerce Sites for Unique and Interesting Wines". Forbes. Retrieved 24 August 2012.
- ^ "Is wine.com running on fumes?". Dr. Vino. Retrieved 27 August 2012.
- ^ "Wine.com gets in on the daily deal trend". Internet Retailer. Retrieved 24 August 2012.
- ^ "Wine.com Launches Advanced Personalized Recommendations to Enhance Shopping Experience". Yahoo Finance. Retrieved 24 August 2012.
- ^ "http://iphone.tmcnet.com/topics/iphone/articles/118472-winecom-announces-free-app-ipad.htm". TMCnet. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
{{cite web}}: External link in|title= - ^ "Wine.com for iPad now Available". PadGadget. Retrieved 27 August 2012.
- ^ "Better Late Than Never: Wine.com Gets A Mobile Website". Tech Crunch. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
