Whilst your intuition might be telling you to hold onto your bottles for a little longer, the summer months are actually a great time to get the most out of selling your wine. But why is this? Here’s an interview with Lionel Cuenca, co-founder of iDealwine.
Let’s start with he most pressing question, what impact has the pandemic had on wine-selling? Have private sellers been able to find buyers recently?
This period has been somewhat out of the ordinary, of course, and we were surprised to see that it was excellent in terms of selling, since the rate of unsold bottles has been extremely low. Only around 20% of lots went unsold in each sale, an impressive score considering we didn’t reduce prices. All of this is linked to a massive wave of new buyers who, with a little more time on their hands, discovered our online auctions during the lockdown. Plus, our sellers have undoubtedly benefited from the fact that traditional auction houses have had to pause their activity during this time; some of their customers will have turned to online platforms in order to keep bidding. And you’ll be pleased to hear that these new customers have are still taking an interest in our catalogues!
Summer is here, with holidays just around the corner for lots of us, meaning we expect a general drop in economic activity, at last in France. How might this be an opportunity for sellers?
This is a period when the amount of wine on offer is traditionally less than the demand. Whilst demand is lower at this point than in other seasons, it remains high enough to exert a certain pressure on prices. This is why the summer months often see notably high prices for some bottles. And as I’ve already evoked, lots of traditional auction houses close during the summer. This means that rare wines can only really be acquired via online auctions, bringing more people to our platform.
This phenomenon has been amplified in recent years by the increasing diversity of our bidders, especially in terms of their location. The impact of the summer season felt in France does not necessarily extend to other countries at the same time, meaning that demand doesn’t drop at the same rate as supply. This of course leads to some really good price estimates.
What exactly does iDealwine do for its sellers?
Everything that we usually offer our sellers is the same during the summer! Promotional emails for their wines, publicity via social media, notifications, Google ads, visibility on comparison sites like Wine-Searcher, as well as banners on specialist sites and in the written press. We do as much as we can! And we have several options for getting your wines to our warehouse.
So why doesn’t everybody sell their wines during the summer?
Clichés are difficult to break and people often assume that this is the least preferable time to sell wine. Often, sellers themselves aren’t around during the summer, but since we’ve made the process so safe and simple, this shouldn’t put anyone off. The general drop in supply also means that each lot is more visible!
Interested in selling your wine? Head to this page
