USA: Research – US wine: why the orders are flowing in

eVineyard has had to expand another of its fulfillment facilities as its orders keep growing. Sales have increased fourfold since it bought the wine.com URL and customer database from a failed rival in July. As competitors close their doors, eVineyard has needed to grow to cope with their clients and the growing market for online wine buying. Americans spent $72 million buying drinks over the Internet last year and the amount spent is expected to increase by an average of 65% each year until 2005. By then, nearly 3% of the wine sold in the States will be bought online.