Vinfolio.com

A recent thread titled "Wine-Searcher used for teasers?" appearing on the Mark Squires' Wine Bulletin Board on the eRobertParker site struck a chord with me.

Most wine collectors use one or more of various wine price comparison engines to search for a wine they're interested in buying.  Winesearcher.com is the most popular of them.  A common problem encountered by users is that the wine being advertised is often "just sold yesterday" or otherwise not available when the collector seeks to buy it.  Are retailers engaging in "bait and switch" tactics?

Retailer input is a big part of the problem

1. Data collection by "scraping" - Most data appearing in Winesearcher is collected by "scraping" it from the retailer's web site, meaning a software program "crawls" the retailer site's unique layout and attempts to strip out the relevant information to populate a listing.  This is inherently problematic as every retailer site is different and site layouts get modified periodically.
2. Infrequent update frequency - Winesearcher on average updates a given retailer site "at least once a week."  Ideally it would be daily and it can be if the retailer makes a data feed available to Winesearcher to avoid the site scraping process (which is what Vinfolio does).
3. "Technology-challenged" retailers - Most retailers are small businesses (often rooted in a "bricks-and-mortar" operation) that are slow adopters of new technology that's needed to facilitate online sales.  Tasks like maintaining an accurate real-time inventory are not easy for them (as hard to believe as that may be for an inventory-driven business).
4. Listing of "sold out" wines - Many retailer sites complicate the accurate scraping of data by listing prices for sold out wine.  One search engine competitor of Winesearcher told me he believes that over half of the retailers' sites they scrape do this.
5. Brokered wine - Brokered wine is by definition wine that the retailer is marketing but does not own.  This is very problematic for the collector because there may be many retailers offering the same physical stock of wine from a single wholesaler.  A purchase request must first be confirmed with the supplier which often takes 1-2 business days and the wine may have been sold to someone else in the interim.

What you should expect

1.  "Garbage in, garbage out" - I'm exaggerating to make a point but given the 5 factors noted above, is it really a surprise that advertised wine is often not available when you call?
2. Hot wines - Newly reviewed wine with high scores tends to create a feeding frenzy among collectors looking to buy it.  Given the site update frequency and an "instant" surge in demand, you should expect to hear "sold out" or new higher prices for legitimate reasons.
3. Non-sponsors - Winesearcher charges retailers $3,150 per year for priority display of the retailer's listings in the free version of their site.  If a retailer is spending that much, their interest in maintaining daily, accurate price lists is probably higher than a non-sponsor.  Sponsor names are bolded and non-sponsors are not.  So if you encounter a non-sponsor, I would expect a higher probability of less accurate inventory information.

A recommended strategy for users

1. Subscribe to Winesearcher Pro - As pointed out in a prior post, this is a no-brainer.  Do it as the enhanced features provided are essential for dealing with the inherent data issues already noted.
2. Read price date stamps - Every price is date-stamped.  Older prices are more prone to problems.
3. Report problems - On every results page, Winesearcher has a feedback link for reporting issues with data.  They are very responsive.  For the sake of the community's use of the information, please take a minute to report problems.
4. Exclude merchants - The Pro version of Winesearcher enables you to exclude merchants from being displayed in the results of your searches.  So if you've concluded a particular merchant never has the wine when you inquire, or is unable to ship to you, just exclude them.
5. Developed preferred retailers - There is more to buying wine than the absolute lowest price.  Read another prior post: "Buying smartly from wine retailers."
6. Use Vinfolio's quote request service - If you're having a hard time tracking down a wine, let Vinfolio do it for you.  We accept quote requests on literally any wine.  If we locate it amongst our suppliers or customers who use our free VinCellar online cellar management software, we'll quote you a price with no obligation to proceed.

Ideas for improving Winesearcher and other search engines

1. Develop retailer rating system - The user community can police bad retailer practices.  Most price comparison engines in other sectors provide this capability.
2. Eliminate "sold out" prices - This data is not relevant to any user and contributes greatly to the effort required to actually locate a retailer with the wine to sell. It also skews the validity of the price data displayed as often the lowest prices are the ones where the wine is unavailable.
3. Identify brokered wine to users - Each price should have an attribute which identifies it as a price representing a brokered wine versus a wine that is owned by the retailer and available to sell immediately.  Note that "available to sell" could mean the wine is "in stock" or still on "pre-arrival."  The retailer should have an invoice confirmation from its supplier for wine that is available to sell immediately.  E.g., Vinfolio often sells wine on "pre-arrival" as we start selling it as soon as we've purchased it.
4. Display quantity available - For any retailer providing a data feed to Winesearcher, providing quantity available information is easy to do.  The quantity is obviously accurate only at the time of submission but it still provides an indication of the maximum quantity likely to be available.  While it won't be possible to capture this information from all retailers, those that provide it are likely to get a higher degree of patronage from Winesearcher users.  This should motivate others to work towards making it available.
5. Enable greater filtering of results - Why not let the user filter on the date of the price listing, a new "quantity available" field, or on whether the wine is brokered or available to sell immediately?

 Have other ideas?  Post a comment.