A wine merchant, also called a wine retailer, buys wine from growers and shippers in order to sell it at a retail price in his/her own area. Wine merchants are often buyers, importers, or retail managers in a large wine-selling business. The daily work of a wine merchant includes ordering and displaying stock, negotiating prices and receiving payments, recruiting and training staff, and checking production standards etc. One may also work as a small independent wine merchant in which case one buys and sells wine with his/her own advertising program.

Educational Qualification and Basic Requirements

The only basic requirement for becoming a wine merchant is being an adult i.e. 18 years of age or above. Graduates have the option to start as a management trainee with a reputed or emerging company, moving on to becoming an assistant manager, and finally getting the position of a manager. A driving license, extensive knowledge of various wine varieties, and a good command of English is important in all cases; knowledge of other languages is considered an additional qualification. For being an independent wine merchant, however, the primary element of success is a good advertisement program that attracts a large number of customers.

Online Advertising for Wine Merchants

The Internet is a great source of promoting one's business and a wine merchant can make good use of it for attaining success. Creating an impressive website of his/her business comes foremost in getting wide attention and purchase orders. Therefore, a wine merchant should either be good at web designing or should hire a skilled web designer who can create a customer-friendly website for the merchant's wine-selling business. The site should allow a customer to be able to browse the product details (along with color photos and prices) and place an order without any glitch or consuming too much time. One important factor to consider is an FAQ page that carries brief but informative answers to the possible questions the customers might feel like asking, i.e. where do you ship, what charges are involved, how long it takes to get the product delivered etc. Showing one's postal address and phone number as well as e-mail is important since many customers prefer to place orders by phone or via e-mail. Another helpful feature on the website is a 'search' button that allows a visitor to search for a particular product without rummaging through all the products. Finally, updating the website regularly is very important since wine business is as competitive as any business and adding the latest products and offers can bring in a significant amount of profit.