Coming down from the pandemic high
In 2023, the United States was the leading market for alcoholic beverages e-commerce worldwide. Japan, the UK, China, and South Korea rounded up the top five. That year, growth in U.S. alcohol e-commerce sales was estimated at 6.1 percent, a figure that pales in comparison to the meteoric growth of 146 percent experienced in 2020. This indicates that the market for alcohol online is stabilizing post-pandemic.In terms of leading distribution channels for alcoholic beverages, approximately a third of global shoppers reported using online marketplaces such as Amazon and Mercado Libre for product search and pre-purchase browsing in 2023, beating the traditional brick-and-mortar channel that was preferred by just over a fifth of respondents.
Established players versus newcomers: who dominates the alcohol e-commerce market?
In 2022, Australia’s Dan Murphy’s was the leading wine and liquor online store globally, garnering an estimated 462 million U.S. dollars in e-commerce net sales. Two of the biggest alcohol e-commerce players in Australia, Dan Murphy’s and BWS, are both owned by Endeavour Group, a well-established alcoholic beverages retailer.In the wine e-commerce market, Naked Wines reigns supreme, with the UK-based company boasting 354 million British pounds in global revenues in 2023. Naked Wines plc is an online-only wine retailer headquartered in Norwich, United Kingdom, that also operates in the United States and Australia.
Another prominent player in the alcohol e-commerce market is U.S.-based Drizly. Founded in 2012, Drizly is an on-demand alcohol delivery platform that witnessed impressive growth in recent years, with its gross merchandise volume (GMV) increasing from a mere 45 million U.S. dollars in 2016 to more than 1.4 billion dollars in 2022. Drizly was acquired by Uber Technologies for 1.1 billion dollars in February 2021.
