Vinfolio.com

• You are kept updated as to what's new and current market pricing levels
• Limited quantity wines can be quickly ordered before they sell out
• You can unsubscribe any time or set up an Outlook rule to autofile emails into a folder for later reading
• They're easy to delete

Elements contributing to a "high annoyance factor"

• Some retailers resort to hype and hucksterism in every email
• Many offers provide little value-added or context for the wines promoted (including creating needless inbox clutter with nothing but single-wine email offers)

You have a choice

Antispam legislation requires email solicitations to provide the ability to "unsubscribe" in every email. The complainers know this but they still complain rather than just opt out. The fact that most stay subscribed is a tacit admission that they get some value from the emails and are reluctant to go to the extreme of stopping them altogether for fear of missing good buying opportunities.

The real problem stems from the fact that wine consumers range from the serious wine collector to the casual wine drinker who have different inherently different interest levels in wine. This translates into different tolerance levels for receiving wine-related promotions in email or other forms.

What's the solution?

The solution for a retailer is to care enough about meeting the needs of his different customer types to provide a variety of alternatives to cater to every preference.

Here 's what Vinfolio does with its email offers and why:

• Daily frequency - We generally limit ourselves to one email offer per day and provide an option to receive just a weekly California-only email. We think this frequency strikes the right balance between different interests when combined with other alternatives we provide (see below).
• Value-added content - Our emails are generally thematic around a producer, region, varietal, or type of wine (e.g., bubbly or port) to provide greater context for making a buying decision. Offers are typically 5-10 wines but can be less or more. Scores and full text reviews are provided. Additional background on the vintage or producer is often added to provide an educational component.
• Ordering links provided - Our emails allow you to click on "Order Now" or "Add" buttons which take you to our site and initiate the ordering process to provide greater convenience to the buyer.

We also provide various alternatives to email offers if you choose to opt out:

• Offers archived on site - You can always view an archive of offers whenever you wish.
• Browse our wine store by offer - One method of browsing is to select wine grouped by what appeared in a prior offer. See the left side navigation of our wine store page.
• RSS "feeds" - This is the best solution. RSS feeds provide real-time notification of inventory additions grouped into either predefined wine categories or matched to totally personalized criteria tailored to your particular wine interests. You decide which feeds to subscribe to (or create) and can unsubscribe any time. You also can combine feeds from multiple sources into your "reader" which provides further convenience in grouping related content from different sources. Learn more by visiting our RSS page. Vinfolio is among a handful of wine retailers who currently offer this capability.

Bottom line: Wine collectors are discriminating individuals by nature and used to getting what they want, which extends to defining how they wish wine retailers to market to them. You should demand more choices from your preferred retailers or simply try us.