The Big Picture:
Tasting Room Impact
The tasting room remains one of the most important revenue drivers in winery DTC.
Point of sale (POS) accounts for 36.6% of total direct-to-consumer revenue, making it the second largest channel overall.
While wine clubs represent the largest share at 38.8%, the tasting room plays a critical role in driving direct purchases and connecting wineries with customers in person.
Percent of DTC revenue generated by Point of Sale (POS)
Percent of DTC revenue generated by Wine Clubs
Percent of DTC revenue generated by Ecommerce
Percent of DTC revenue generated by Inbound Orders
While the tasting room represents a large share of revenue, its impact becomes even clearer when looking at transaction volume.
More than 55% of all DTC transactions occur at the POS, making it the most frequent point of purchase for winery customers. This means the tasting room is where most customer interactions actually happen, even if other channels occasionally drive larger individual purchases.
Because the tasting room sees such a high volume of transactions, it also plays a major role in customer acquisition.
Nearly half of all new customer records (47%) are created through POS transactions, compared to 36% from the web and 17% from inbound channels. For many wineries, the tasting room represents the first moment a guest becomes a known customer in their database.
Capturing guest information during this visit is critical, as it creates the foundation for future marketing, club enrollment, and repeat purchases.
That customer activity is also heavily concentrated around weekends.
Saturday alone accounts for 28.6% of all POS sales volume, making it by far the busiest day of the week. Friday and Sunday also see elevated activity, creating a strong weekend peak for tasting room traffic.
Weekdays see lower but steady activity. These patterns show just how important weekends are for tasting rooms, when the majority of customer visits and purchases take place.
Actionable Insights:
Staff your strongest experiences around weekend demand For wineries that have a tasting room, more than 60% of POS sales volume happens Friday through Sunday, with Saturday alone accounting for 28.6%. The guests most likely to buy, join a club, and come back are walking in on your busiest days. Make sure your best hosts and most compelling experiences are there to meet them.
Use quieter weekdays for deeper conversations Weekday traffic is lower but more evenly distributed, which creates a natural opportunity for longer, more personal interactions. These visits are well suited for introducing club membership, sharing the winery story, and building the kind of relationship that brings guests back.
Treat every transaction as an acquisition opportunity 47% of all new customer records are created at the POS, making the tasting room one of the most powerful acquisition channels a winery has. Simple habits like searching for an existing profile or collecting an email at checkout can dramatically improve long-term marketing reach.
Grow the basket through recommendations, not pressure Because the tasting room drives the majority of DTC transactions, small increases in bottles per order add up quickly. A well-timed staff recommendation or a curated bundle option can naturally move guests from one bottle to several.