Macaca Mulatta

• Personalized Wine Glasses
• Customized Champagne Flutes
• Etched Wine Glasses
• Wine Accessories
• Custom Etched Wine Glasses
• Fun Wine Glasses
• Custom Wine Glasses
• Wine Gifts
• Engraved Wine Glasses
• Personalized Wine Glass

There are hundreds or thousands of retail web sites that all look and feel as though they were made by the same company. Often they are built around a commonly available website template and are designed to get off the ground and running as quickly as possible for as small an investment as possible. Others are able to incorporate the company’s personality and corporate direction into the web site.

Web-based business owners should realize that while the site must function well and be easy to use for the prospective buyer, every website is also an exercise in branding. The look and feel of the website will be transferred in the customer’s mind to your company as a whole. If the website is plain and functional, your company may be perceived as a commodity reseller as well. Personality and branding is a way to differentiate your company and your website from dozens or hundreds of competitors.

Giving personality to your website doesn’t mean you need to spend a fortune. If you have employees with an artistic bent, then you may be able to handle the branding effort internally for a very reduced expenditure. If not, then a marketing firm or an artist’s services may be required to help.

A good example of a basic retail website that does a good job of showing the fun side of the company’s personality is TheTipsyGrape.com. The Tipsy Grape sells wine related accessories and artwork. The home page offers a menu of the different categories of products offered for sale at TheTipsyGrape.com. Functionality is still king and should not be sacrificed in any circumstance. However, prominent artistic elements such as the prominent rendering of a “tipsy grape” mascot figure at once let visitors to the site know that The Tipsy Grape doesn’t take itself too seriously. The site is dedicated to the lighter side of wine and focuses more on fun and enjoyment that upon wine snobbery.

The assortment of products available from The Tipsy Grape reinforces the lighter side of wine theme. For those that want to learn about wine there are books such as “Wine for Dummies” or board games that offer wine-related trivia questions.

Of course, the serious wine aficionado will also find the wine accessories they seek. Scientific wine preservation kits to prevent oxygenation of an opened bottle, the latest corkscrews, and virtually any other wine accessory that one might want can be ordered through TheTipsyGrape.com. The wine itself, however, must be purchased elsewhere.

The Tipsy Grape is a great example of a website that offers its personality as an added value to its products. In short, it’s fun to shop there.