I attribute the increased sales to the Bloomberg story and the remarkably eloquent interviews it quotes.
Seriously, congratulations to Todd, Brig, the vendors, and everyone else that makes Berserker Day a wonderful event!
What? You were here? How come I missed you? 
Checking at your website now, I’ll get the '13 cab franc 
$10,100
Interesting. Average double the mean. Highly concentrated sales.
1 Like
One sided distribution, I think it woulld be expected that average would be fair bit larger than median.
-Al
Would expect top 20-25% would represent 75-80% of sales.
1 Like
Congrats to all the teams making this possible! Great result!
I’m quite new to WB & BD so my opinion is very likely irrelevant, but I will leave it here anyway :):
I think this number could be a lot higher ($4M+) with drastic simplification measures pointed out by a few folks in some comments above. If those things are implemented, it’s going to be a lot easier to attract non-Berserkers. I’m curious to know how many people succeeded in getting a friend / family member who has never seen this forum before to buy something during BD by simply sending them the link to the master BD thread? I might be completely wrong, but I would guess 90% would get back to you saying “Wtf is this? Are you crazy? How do I find / buy wine here?”. Remember: most customers don’t have time/patience to explore stuff. So either they are hooked in the first 2 min, or they go on with their day…
Anyway, I’m happy I made some purchases this year, and am looking forward to trying the wines from producers I’ve never tried before! Thanks all!
2 Likes
100% correct, those were just my personal observations.
Ummmm me too! I still have most everything up and free shipping thru SuperBowl!!!
3 Likes
Here’s another unsolicited idea.
Newbie playoffs. At some point early during the year. Have newbies submit a single wine of their production, turn these into full cases and sell as a mixed case. Then have buyers vote, and winner gets a guaranteed spot at BD.
I have no clue if this is even legal, but a mixed case of newbie wines would be a fun offer.
1 Like
For both of the past two berserker days i have had three friends (non-berserkers) participate and enjoy themselves. We even split a case this year of a wine one of them bought last year from a newbie that we all loved.
Anecdotal point of one, I know.
3 Likes
Congratulations to Todd, Brig and everyone involved - well done!
2 Likes
Seems logistically complex, but I would love to buy a mixed case of different newbie wineries.
Great idea and the feedback from the sellers is there are issues of legality and complexity
1 Like
While Todd and the BD team are rightfully proud of the year-over-year growth I think there is an upper limit. Speaking only for myself, I see BD as a celebration of this community, with opportunities for buyers to get great deals and sellers to expand their customer exposure. With that perspective, dollars transacted is a metric but not the only driver. I have no beef with making offers easier to understand and with engaging newbies but I think the interaction is the soul of the event.
Edited to add: Apologies for Reply failure - intended to reply to Vitor rather than Ann
3 Likes
The sales number is fun, a yard stick so to speak, and easy for people to comprehend.
But you are correct, the goal has been to be impactful to the sellers and their business. It was happening when sales were $500K and it’s happening at $2M. We are just trying to be smarter all the time and the feedback is very important. Lots of improvements will be implemented for BD16. Auctions, Newbies, Offer structure, etc.
Lots of off the record stories shared by wineries about how important berserkerday is or has been to their individual situation. Sometimes it’s a life raft and sometimes it’s a launching pad. The best stories are when it’s both.
To VitorC point about $4M, I think berserkerday will get there. I remember when $1M was an OMG moment.
The beauty of VitorC optimism is with the current quality over quantity strategy, call it the BD100, doubling sales to $4M isn’t twice as beneficial to the BD100, it’s probably 3x or 4x.
1 Like
top 25% in BD15 represent 65% of sales, not far off
1 Like
That’s good news, the 80-20 rule is not something we want to see. We are trying to float all boats.
A few non wine offers really skew that number today. Hello meat.
There are also continued “startup cost” for Newbies. It takes a few berserkerday for them to ramp up so they weigh down the numbers initially. That’s fine, we’re investing in them.
1 Like
Absolutely - getting the word out (which should NOT be difficult, as it’s such a fantastic and unique event) is always the struggle, The Bloomberg ‘feature’ netted a TOTAL of 12 referral links - TWELVE! Insane, what a waste.
Buyers and sellers have been better about sharing on social media, but still, the message of how and what it is proves to be tough. It’s NOT easy to explain (though @Jason_L did an awesome job in the ‘BerserkerDay Secondary Value’ thread) - at least not succinctly. Sure, we could probably quickly get to $4mil if a good news source picked it up, but then we’d have an issue with supply as well. At present we have a smart mix of supply and demand…more buyers means I’d have to increase supply, obviously (which won’t be an issue)
This truly fuels my passion for the event. Heard one this year, just prior to BD15, from a LONGTIME seller, one of the VIPs, who admitted they couldn’t have made it to their 20th anniversary last year, blew my mind, truly (shared with Brig, too). We all are making a HUGE difference in the lives/businesses of many tiny producers, and that’s really freakin’ awesome.
9 Likes
Huge round of applause to literally everyone.
As BD seller, this was my second year and I just love the community. My business is only 2 years and a month old and legitimately the orders have made a noteworthy impact both financially and emotionally. I’m really excited to share new product next year.
As a buyer, I have just as much fun. Shipping is very expensive and I understand that some BD deals might not save me much more than shipping cost. For context, it costs me about $16 to ship two tiny Bennuaine glasses (and I subsidize as standard practice), so shipping 6 or 12 bottles of wine sounds terrible. Such a margin destroyer. For me, if a seller has come to BD and the offer is at the very least comparable to buying in store, I’ll do it to show my support. Better to buy direct if they’ve made the effort.
Can’t wait for BD16!! 
4 Likes