Indie Vinos

Indie Vinos will handle all customer service complaints and facilitate their resolution. For damaged products or wrong product orders, we request the winery either replace the wine, honor a product refund or, in the case of the wrong product, request the return of the product and exchange it for the right one (your choice). We will not request the customer return a product that is damaged, as no one benefits from spending money on shipping a product that can’t be re-sold. We realize this requires faith that customers will be honest, and we understand there may be some who take advantage of this. However, we believe that opportunity for creating customer loyalty through unparalleled customer service far outweighs the risk of dishonesty.

You may think this is crazy, but we say, “Embrace it!” Not everyone’s going to like your wine. We all have different tastes and preferences. Interestingly enough, products that have some negative reviews sell more often than products that have no negative reviews. People tend to find mixed reviews more "authentic."

Our solution doesn’t compete with your website sales and marketing strategy but instead augments the online and social media tools you’re already using. If you're small enough that you don't have ecommerce functionality to your website, you can use integrate the Indie Vinos Online Marketplace to assist you in selling your products. To learn more, send a quick email to sales@indievinos.com.

Of course! We'll set up an account with your third-party fulfillment service and communicate directly with them when we receive an order. Because working with a third-party fulfillment service skews our efficiencies, we have to add a flat fee of $6/order. You may choose to pay that fee yourself or have the consumer pay it.

Your availability on the Indie Vinos Online Marketplace will be limited by where you are legally able to ship. We are happy to advise you about the states on which to focus your direct-to-consumer sales efforts. First and foremost, we recommend starting with your own state, if it requires such a permit. Secondly, there are a handful of states that don't require a permit. Keep in mind that a very large percentage of wine purchased and consumed is done so in California.

We don't take any of your wine to hold in inventory. You keep possession of your wine and may at any time change the number of bottles you have allocated for sale through the Indie Vinos Online Marketplace. Just send a quick email to sales@indievinos.com.

You decide how many bottles you want to sell through the Indie Vinos Online Marketplace. If you produce a limited number of cases, you may want to sell a modest percentage of those on the Indie Vinos Online Marketplace so that you have plenty left for the tasting room. Alternatively, you may decide to sell a selection of the wines available in your tasting room rather than your entire portfolio. If you find that you need to change the number of bottles you’ve designated for sale through our site, please contact us as soon as possible so we can update the number in “virtual inventory.”

You set the price of your wines listed for sale on the Indie Vinos Online Marketplace. We have no say in the price of your wines, other than they must be priced no higher than the price at which you sell them on your own website.

The consumer pays shipping fees that we set to be competitive with online wine retailers. We pay any difference between what the consumer pays and our cost, so you pay absolutely nothing in shipping.

We are not licensed as a winery and therefore we are ineligible for a direct shippers' permit. Our model enables us to facilitate the sale of your wine, but does not allow us to ship it.

We highly recommend you provide 2 or more bottles of each of the wines you want to list on the Indie Vinos Online Marketplace. One bottle will be tasted by the Indie Vinos team and used for writing copy, preparing tasting notes, making personal recommendations and promoting your wine. However, because we’re wine agnostic, Indie Vinos will never rate your wines, although we may offer our own tasting notes. The second bottle will be offered to a small group of individuals for our Flight Club tastings. Flight Club tastings are a gathering of a limited number of people (usually 10) who taste your wine and review it on our site. Our Flight Club guests are "ordinary" consumers, social media personalities and wine bloggers. Although we highly recommend you provide samples, it is not a requirement to participate on the Indie Vinos Online Marketplace. We do believe that not being familiar with your wines makes it very difficult for us to promote them passionately, and as such, you should expect diminished results.  

You bet. You can add, pull or swap any of the wines you have listed on the Indie Vinos Online Marketplace at any time. We do, however, advise you give your wine plenty of time to "prove itself," and we discourage you from changing brands so frequently that it confuses the consumer. Remember, there is no limit to the number of wines you can list with us.

We’re wine agnostic, meaning you can choose to sell whichever of your wines you want to sell. We do suggest a mix of varietals, styles, vintages and price points, if possible. A lower-priced bottle of wine is often a good way to introduce consumers to your winery and your craft.  

We are not another a flash site, and frankly we're not fond of them. If you’re not certain what a flash site is, it’s the ability to sell for a limited period of time – usually 12-24 hours unless you sell out more quickly – one product at a deeply discounted price. Generally, wineries engage in flash sites because they need to move inventory. If you experience such a need, gives us a shout, and we can help you with strategies for moving your product. When working with Indie Vinos, you remain in control of your business decisions. You decide how many bottles you want to list with us and at what price you want to sell them. We only require that you always offer the same price on the Indie Vinos Online Marketplace that you offer on your own website.

We distribute 100% of the revenues and sales taxes collected from the sale of your wine through the Indie Vinos Online Marketplace. Right now, we batch processing the distribution of revenues no less frequently than every 30 days. However, we may process more frequently as sales generated through the Indie Vinos Online Marketplace ramp. Currently, the most cost-effective method is to send paper checks. However, we're looking into ways to process disbursement of funds that's easier for everyone.

Our service costs you absolutely nothing until we make a sale. When we make a sale, we charge 15% of the sale (excluding shipping and sales taxes).

You determine which of your wines you want to sell through our site, the price at which you want to sell them, and any promotions you want to offer (e.g. case discounts). We promote the site, driving traffic and rewarding consumer behavior that leads to sales of your wines. Through our site, consumers are able to purchase wines from multiple wineries in a single transaction. Once we receive an order, we advise you that we have received an order, which you can either accept or reject. Assuming you accept the order, we email the order information to you with the shipping labels and the pick sheet. You fill the package with the product ordered, affix the label to the package, and let us know the package is ready to be shipped. Then we send you all proceeds  – except shipping fees – and sales taxes collected.

We have vetted our business model and our operational plan with the one of the country's most reputable beverage law firms. As long as you are legally able to sell wine and you have a direct shippers’ permit for each of the states in which you want to sell (that requires a permit), you can offer your wine for sale on the Indie Vinos website.