OPINION: How do you get the right pricing for wine?

“No no no no price-marked wines”.

This is how Bintesh Amin responded to fellow retailer Jatinder Sahota’s idea, voiced on Twitter, that price-marked wine was a ‘good move’ and that other brands should follow the lead of Isla Negra’s £5 bottle of Merlot.

The battle of the Kent boys is an interesting one, particularly given that in the last issue of Retail Express there was a feature on price-marked packs. In this feature, five retailers pretty much agree that price-marking is “very important”. Indeed, Sunita Kanji says that for her, the most expensive, non-PMP wines, are “collecting dust on the shelves”.

“Is it a margin or a perception thing?,” we asked Binny. His response was simple: “It’s a cheap wine thing”. Jatinder said that, for him, price-marked wine would drive more volume sales.

Price needs to be one of five or six things you need to compete on, not the only thing. If you’re competing only on price then you are setting yourself up for a fall

So, should you be price-marking wine?

Wine is like craft beer, right? The customers are more discerning and price isn’t important. Wine drinkers know what they want, they know what is good, and they will buy what they like.

On the other hand, your shoppers are more focused on price than ever. Why should wine be exempt from the same thinking as other categories?

Price needs to be one of five or six things you need to compete on, not the only thing. If you’re competing only on price then you are setting yourself up for a fall.

I think that wine is a driver into your store – and, as such, I think that having a range to choose from that is easy to browse and makes sense to the shopper is the key thing. Customers are becoming more educated by the day about what they like, so if a key brand launches a price-mark, that could be that great driver.

Sid Sidhu weighed into the debate online. “Why not have both?,” he asked, signing off his Tweet with the hashtag #choice.

That’s the crucial thing here. Make sure what you see as #choice matches that of the people who will put their money into your till.