eBay Uncorks New Wine Marketplace

It wasn’t even a few years ago that mentioning selling liquor anywhere but in a bar or a liquor store would have gotten you laughed out of the appropriate venue. However, getting into the online wine game circa 2016 means there’s a little bit of ground to make up on the several other names that got there first.

As if more than one place to buy wine online wasn’t enough, CNET is reporting that eBay has launched its own digital wine marketplace, complete with more than 11,000 listings of a variety of vintages. eBay partnered with online alcohol distribution startup Drync to launch to the service, one of the many like companies driving the boom market of on-demand alcohol deliveries.

For Alyssa Steele, the eBay executive spearheading the new wine marketplace, it’s another way for eBay to expand its reach in a world where Amazon-like, one-stop shops set the rules.

“It’s a great opportunity for eBay to harness the power of the marketplace to offer customers more selection and listings,” Steele told CNET.

Choice is everything even in niche markets, though, and for every consumer that isn’t impressed by a Day 1 selection of 11,000 wines, eBay has plans to double that number within the first three months of the service. That won’t hurt the long process of building a reputation in online alcohol sales, but Drync CEO Brad Rosen is optimistic that the whole industry is reaching a tipping point that could lead to tidal waves of activity.

“This launch of wine on eBay … is the pivotal moment when we’ll see the mainstream eCommerce of wine,” Rosen told CNET. “And I think that’s huge, because it’s one of the holdout industries to take advantage of the Internet.”