Sainsbury's has taken inspiration from Blockbuster and Waterstone's as it tries to boost wine sales.

The retailer is introducing a "Top 10" wine display to its wine aisles, following research showing the majority of wine drinkers were still not confident when picking wine.

"Not only have we drawn on insights from the research, we have also looked at how retailers outside the food sector such as Blockbuster and Waterstone's help their customers make the right selection when confronted by enormous choice," said Warren Anderson, category manager for beers, wines and spirits at the retailer.

Sainsbury's hoped the displays would give shoppers the confidence to be adventurous, he said.

Appearing initially in 378 stores, the displays will reflect a different theme every six-weeks. The first theme is "new wines", which will be followed by "buyers' favourites" at the beginning of June.

Sainsbury's said it expected the initiative to boost spend per bottle and stop shoppers buying on price alone. "We hope to help shoppers broaden their knowledge and become more experimental," said Anderson.

"Alongside the existing guidance and food matching information, we hope this provides another useful way in which to demystify wine and make shopping easier."

Wine sales through Sainsbury's make up 20% of the total grocery wine sales by value according to data exclusive to The Grocer [TNS Worldpanel 52 weeks ending 27 January 2008]. The retailer comes second to Tesco, which has 33% share of the wine market by value but it overtrades in the sector by 21% while Tesco overtrades by 9%.

Still wine sales in the UK off-trade grew 10.9% last year to £3.3bn [TNS Worldpanel 52 w/e 27 January 2008], driven by increasing penetration, shoppers buying more wine more often and the continued popularity of rosé.


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