Cheers: Amazon To Enter Wine Business

amazon.jpgAmazon is to starting selling wine from its site to US customers.

According to FT.com, Amazon is currently looking to recruit a senior wine buyer who will be responsible for “the acquisition of a massive new product selection.”

Online alcohol sales have been a difficult market in the United States due to the multitude of laws in relation to online alcohol sales in different states. The market though is somewhat easier to enter today than during the first web boom, with the US Supreme Court having ruled that state governments may not prohibit residents from ordering directly from out-of-state wineries in 2005.

Amazon invested $30 million into Wineshopper.com in 1999. The site lasted one year. Sales of wine in the United States totaled $30 billion in 2007.