Small retailers can’t always copy what the big boys are doing – we frequently lack the resources or the data to make it work – but depending on your state’s regulations, you may be able to pull a very effective page out of Amazon’s playbook. [level-members]
In their email marketing, Amazon includes information about shopping for wine tasting essentials, for example. Embedded in that info are links to decanters, glasses, corkscrews and openers, and so on.
Other ideas in this same vein could include recommendations for things like chocolate or flowers or wine guides and books.
Again, you might not be able to sell all of this in your shop, but you can probably display most of it as a way to draw interest. And you can certainly talk about it in your social media and email marketing feeds.
Even better, you might team up with other local merchants to cross promote: you recommend wines to go with the cheeses from your favorite specialty grocer. She recommends cheeses to go with wines from her favorite wine shop.
That’s a win-win way of marketing. [/level-members]