(Wines&Vines) - At ShipCompliant’s annual Direct Sales Seminar today, Kent Nowlin of ShipCompliant and Danny Brager of The Nielsen Co. presented data developed by Wines & Vines and ShipCompliant with Nielsen research about direct-to-consumer sales. The survey confirmed that DtC sales are a robust and growing trade. While comprising only 2% of total wine sales, the segment accounted for 11% of total value. Direct shipments were up 8.2% in volume and 11.5% in value for the year ending in April. DtC sales are very high in value compared to average retail sales, and they’re very important to many small to medium-size wineries and growing at the largest wine producers.