Yes, Andrew, you are right. A thought and suggestion to add:

1) I think it is important for wineries to remember that an underlying reason for sending a confirmation email is to establish a channel for two-way communication between customer and winery.

2) Customers should have choices as to how wineries push or pull information. For example, Customer Jack may prefer to receive shipping confirmation and to reply with feedback via Twitter DM; Customer Jill may prefer the same interaction via text message, a more immediate channel. I bet customer life-time value and feedback will increase.

@Raghav, thanks for your comment. While I agree it would be nice if customers had a choice as to how wineries push messages or information to them, it becomes a management issue.

Do you really want to ask them more questions during checkout (ie Do you want to have your order sent by IM or Twitter - and then ask them for their twitter handle and cell number??) Then do you want your customers having to login to manage these settings?? I agree the idea is great, but its a few more questions in a checkout when the real question is what is your credit card number :)

I absolutely agree with those three points. Ebay/Paypal does it so why can't the wineries do it? I get very aggravated when a site asks me tons of questions before I can even check out. The worst is that lengthy marketing poll with flashy pop-up windows at the end. I like the least amount of questions when I buy... but feedback from customers after they receive their orders is essential. There could be a simple rating system (number of stars) for people to check. They don't even have to write unless their overall experience was terrible...

As you know, we're still in our infancy, but I love doing the follow-up with customers. I enjoy the reaction when they figure out who you are and what you want. I can say most are genuinely delighted with the attention. Often, but not always, it results in another sale.