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71-73% of millennials drink some form of alcohol. That being the case, it’s no surprise that online wine sellers have gained prevalence in recent times.

With online shopping quickly becoming everyone’s preferred way to buy, online wine sellers are becoming increasingly common.

But don’t run out and buy your next bottle from the first online wine sales website that turns up in an online search. When you‘re ready to buy from online wine sellers, keep these tips in mind to simplify the process.

1. Check Your State’s Alcohol Shipping Laws

This might not be obvious at first, but it’s not legal to ship wine by mail in every state.

Right now, roughly 90% of Americans can have wine shipped to their doors, but you’ll want to check your state’s liquor laws before assuming you’re one of them.

The information isn’t all cut-and-dried, either. In some states, it’s lawful to have wine shipped directly from a winery, but not from a third-party retailer.

Check out the Wine Institute’s website to learn about the law regarding liquor shipping in your state.

2. Find a Good Online Wine Shop

Obviously, you wouldn’t want to buy wine from just any website that turns up when searching online. You want to look for online wine sellers that sell high-quality wine and genuinely care about their customers.

Try to find an online wine shop that offers full guarantees for their products, including safe shipping to your door.

If you’re looking for cheap wine online, then buying from “flash” wine sites is a good idea. “Flash” sites typically buy large amounts of particular kinds of wine at a time, getting that wine at a discount, and then passing a part of the deal on to you.

3. Be Wary of Wine Clubs

While you’re looking for wine sellers online, you might get offers to join different wine clubs. These are wine buying programs that work like a subscription service, sending you a few preselected wines every one or two months.

While these programs can offer wines at very good prices, you never know what kinds of wine you’re getting before it arrives, and you also may not know how good the wine is or where it’s coming from.

On top of this, once you’ve joined a wine club, you have no choice about buying the preselected wines every month—you’re getting the wines they choose for you, every month or two, until you end your subscription.

For these reasons, if you’re looking for cheap wines online, it’s a better idea to use “flash” wine websites.

4. Be Home When it Arrives, or Make Arrangements With the Delivery Service

In most states that allow wine shipping, it’s necessary for an adult to be at home when the shipment arrives, so they can sign to receive the package. FedEx and UPS also will not deliver wine shipments to a neighbor’s home.

If you simply can’t be home when your wine delivery is set to arrive, you can have either FedEx or UPS hold your package for you at their locations. All you need to do is call them with your tracking number.

FedEx will even hold your package for you at any Print and Ship office, at no extra cost. If you’re a member of their MyChoice program, UPS offers a similar service. Then you can simply stop by their location whenever you have the time.

5. Watch Out for the Heat

Summer heat is not wine’s best friend, and it certainly won’t be yours if your wine shipment sits in a delivery truck all day in 95-degree weather.

If local temperatures are over 80 degrees, you should have UPS or FedEx hold your shipment for you at one of their locations (see step four).

In Conclusion

As you can see, buying wine online is totally doable. And if you take the right precautions outline above, you can do it with minimal hassle or expense. And with convenient “flash” wine websites, you can save a lot of money while still getting high-quality wine.

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