Wine cataloger, Liquor by Wire, Chicago, announced that sales generated from its Internet site www.liquorbywire.com during the month of December increased 600 percent compared to the same time period in 1997. Overall, sales increased 41 percent while the total number of customers increased by 34 percent compared to 1997.
According to Steve Olsher, vice president of Liquor by Wire, the average order size increased from $280 in 1997 to $295 in 1998. The average online order increased as well from $95 during 1997 to $120 in 1998.
Olsher credits the boost in sales to the company's increased presence on the Web, along with an increase in the number of direct mail pieces it distributed throughout the year. In 1998 Liquor by Wire obtained exclusive rights to the keywords “liquor” and “champagne” on eight of the nine top search engines including AltaVista, Lycos, HotBot, Infoseek, Excite, AOL Netfind, Webcrawler and Netscape. During 1998 it also sent 500,000 catalogs and combined with an increase in the number of brochures, postcards and newsletters, Liquor by Wire increased its number of direct mail pieces by 20 percent.
Liquor by Wire specializes in providing gift delivery services for both consumers and corporations.
In other news, Liquor by Wire recently acquired the domain names www.liquor.com and www.bourbon.com. At this time both sites are directing consumers to Liquor by Wire while they are under construction.
Olsher said Liquor.com will eventually become its own site specializing in “personal consumption” as opposed to Liquor by Wire, which specializes in gifts. The launch date is scheduled for March 1, and it will be launched as a no-frills alcohol beverage delivery service. The Bourbon.com domain name will most likely either be sold or leased, he said.
The first market for operation will be Chicago, then New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Miami.
