Furleigh Estate converts four in every ten tasting-room guests into wine club members. That was the number that stopped the room at our recent roundtable with UK wineries, and it framed most of what followed.
A couple of weeks ago, we brought together a group of UK winery owners and DTC teams to talk about what is really driving DTC growth, and what is getting in the way. This post pulls together the seven themes that came up again and again, with a practical “what to do about it” for each.
TL;DR: the wineries feeling most confident about the next few years are the ones that own their customer relationships, from the first tasting to the club renewal. Let’s dive in.
- Wine clubs are still the engine of DTC growth
Almost every winery in the room named the wine club as its most important DTC revenue driver. Beyond recurring revenue, clubs bring predictable cash flow, higher customer lifetime value and a closer relationship with the people who buy your wine. The clubs that work best are built around exclusivity, community and access, not discounts. Depending on the winery, members were described as worth roughly £100 to £2,000 a year, which is why several want to grow membership significantly.
What to do: Ask yourself: what does a member get that nobody else can buy? If the honest answer is “a discount”, rebuild the offer. Think along the lines of first access, member-only events, or time with the people who make the wine. Consider tiers based on what members spend, so your best customers have a reason to spend more over time.
- The best time to sign a member up is when they are still at the winery
Most UK wineries win new customers through tours, tastings and events. The strongest performers turn those visitors into club members on the spot. Furleigh’s four-in-ten conversion is the benchmark, and several others agreed on the reason: once a customer leaves, the chance of completing sign-up drops dramatically. The obstacles are practical: not enough staff or time to finish sign-up properly, and no clear incentive for the team or the customer to complete it.
What to do: Treat joining the club as part of the visit, not a follow-up email. Make sign-up fast enough for a busy tasting room team to offer every time, and give the team a reason to ask. Track your tasting-to-member conversion rate, separating booked tasters from walk-ins, so you know where you stand.
- Customers are buying experiences, not just bottles
A recurring theme was that consumers increasingly buy the experience around the wine. Tastings, glamping, seasonal events, hospitality and face time with the owners were described as more powerful acquisition tools than traditional marketing. The format is shifting too: some wineries are moving from longer tours towards tastings, which turn over faster, are easier to staff and suit current demand. Where tours remain, keeping them small and focused makes upsells easier.
What to do: Think of every experience as the first step in a relationship, not a standalone sale. Make sure each booking captures who the guest is, so the relationship can continue after they go home.
- Owning your customer data changes the economics
The wineries most confident about future growth were the ones capturing customer information, building a CRM and studying customer behaviour. There was strong interest in keeping reservations, commerce, memberships and customer data in a single system. The contrast was striking. Wineries that track their club members closely see annual churn of around 10%. Wineries without that visibility can find themselves replacing most of their club base every year, which makes growth an uphill climb.
What to do: Decide where your customer record lives and make sure every touchpoint (tasting room, reservations, online orders, club) feeds it. You can’t keep members you can’t see.
- English wine has a perception gap, not a quality gap
Several wineries said consumers often need to taste English wine before they will buy it. Quality is no longer the issue, but many buyers still do not place English wine alongside established regions such as Champagne. One of our customers put it neatly: turn up to a party with a £60 bottle of English sparkling wine and you may be seen as stingier than the guest who brought a French Champagne at half the price.
What to do: Make tasting your marketing. Every route that gets a bottle into someone’s glass, from the tasting room to events to gifting, is doing the work that advertising cannot.
- AI search is already changing how customers find wineries
One of the most interesting comments came from Oastbrook, who believes a large share of their new customer discovery now comes through AI-driven search rather than traditional Google Ads. Another winery estimated that about 70% of its new traffic comes from Google and AI, with around 30% from local customers. (These are individual wineries’ estimates, not industry statistics, but they point to a shift worth preparing for.) With foot traffic a challenge for some, SEO, Google visibility and fast response times matter more than ever.
What to do: Make your website the clearest, most current source on your winery. Spell out visit details, prices, club benefits and your story in plain language, and keep them up to date so both people and AI tools can find and repeat them accurately.
- Shipping is still the hard part
Shipping came up as a major pain point across the group. It is expensive, breakage is a constant worry, and Brexit has made shipping to Europe significantly harder. Many UK wineries rely on a patchwork of carriers and workarounds to get wine to customers.
What to do: Build the true cost of delivery, including packaging and breakage, into your pricing and club offers. Where you can, give members other ways to receive their wine, such as collection at the winery or at events.
What this means for you
Rising costs are making even resilient premium buyers more cautious with discretionary spending. In that climate, winning more customers matters less than converting and keeping the ones you already reach.
Three priorities came out of the room:
- Convert visitors into club members before they leave.
- Build a club around access and community, not discounts.
- Own your customer data so you can see, and reduce, churn.
At Commerce7, we work with more than 3,500 wineries worldwide, including an incredible group of wineries in the UK.
Want to work with us as well? Get in touch, and book your personalized demo here.
