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BI Wines & Spirits reveals soaring online sales

Sales from the platform were up 28% to £32m in the past year, according to BI, which claims to be the only two-way market-making screen for fine wine.

The growth had been driven by customers now looking to unlock the value of their wine collection, said the merchant.

The “most significant” development however was the record number of clients using the LiveTrade platform directly both to buy and sell wine back to BI, said the business.

Client-executed trades totaled £6m in 2017, up 200% from last year (2016: £2m), with more than £4m worth of wine sold back to BI by clients, it said.

There was a combination of reasons for the growth in online trading, said MD Gary Boom.

“Many wines have risen in value to such an extent that clients do not feel they can now justify drinking them, while in other cases, collectors have realised that their tastes have changed over the years so they are taking advantage of our platform’s live buying prices in order to execute a quick sale and instantly turn their unwanted wines into cash – which they virtually always reinvest into new wines,” he said.

Established to make fine wine accessible to a broader audience, LiveTrade offers guaranteed buying prices with a 5-8% spread against the selling price compared to other merchants, which BI said typically broke at 10-20% of selling price.

The Company has offices in London, Hong Kong, Singapore and Los Angeles.