Amazon Buys Into Online Wine Seller

SAN FRANCISCO — Amazon.com invested $30 million and will provide marketing support for a new Web site selling wine to consumers over the Internet.

WineShopper.com, which opened for business Tuesday in California, said that it gave Amazon a 45% stake in the company, and that it sold a smaller piece to venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers for $14 million.

Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said his company is backing WineShopper because it can provide an immense variety of wines for knowledgeable consumers as well as objective information--from Wine Spectator and other publications--to less sophisticated consumers.

San Francisco-based WineShopper will tie together a network of wholesalers, retailers and wineries, said Chief Executive Peter Sisson, a former analyst at Montgomery Securities.

WineShopper’s primary competition, 5-year-old Wine.com in Napa, Calif., selects and warehouses its own wines. Wine.com spokeswoman Laura Grams said WineShopper’s business strategy will hurt the customer experience. But Bezos said “wholesalers are already optimized for daily delivery” because they have to keep replenishing retailers with limited space.

The two companies are also taking different approaches to byzantine state regulations.

Wine.com ships to consumers in 42 states. In the coming months, WineShopper will ship to consumers in 30 states. In some cases, consumers will have to go to participating retailers to pick up their shipments, Sisson said.