Wineries, bars, and restaurants are closed across the world and people are staying home, but they still want their favorite drinks, and to get them, they are increasingly turning to delivery services.
Drizly, an alcohol e-commerce platform that works with retail partners in over 180 markets across the US to bring on-demand at-home delivery of beer, wine, and spirits to consumers’ doorsteps in under 60 minutes, have experienced accelerated sales growth in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Their year over year average market growth nationally is about 500%, but in the last week, growth occurred at twice the rate of earlier this year, and in just the last four days it increased to three and half times the previous growth rate.
While Drizly is seeing growth across alcoholic beverage categories, wine and spirits seem to be the beverages of choice for weathering the pandemic with growth rates accelerating twice as fast as those of beer.
According to Drizly, new customers spend on average 7-9% more than existing customers, but this gap has decreased slightly to 5-6% over the last few weeks, suggesting that the surge in sales is driven mostly by Drizly customers stocking up and the average order value has increased by approximately 50%. However, that also leaves the possibility that a second wave of new, thirsty consumers confined to their homes will be poised to discover the alcohol delivery option.
Almost every store in Drizly the network remains open and working to satisfy the influx of orders, and Drizly has taken steps to ensure the safety of customers and drivers like encouraging outside spots for delivery completion, contactless ID scanning, and eliminating customer signatures.
A few markets have significantly outperformed the national average, including Brooklyn with 700%-750 year over year growth in the last couple of days, and Baltimore with 900% on Monday and 600% on Tuesday.
In their COVID-19 update, Drizly also acknowledges the possibility that the rapid increase in demand over the coming weeks can cause delivery delays as more people are staying home, but not staying without.
There’s plenty of bad news for businesses suffering under the COVID-19 shutdowns and few that benefit, However, this is good news not only for Drizly, but for a wine industry in need of more ways to get their product into consumer hands in times of crisis, and it’s reassuring to know there’s still a demand.
By Kim Badenfort
