Consumer purchasing online has been growing consistently every year and that trend also includes the alcohol industry. Just under 75 percent of consumers are categorized as regular buyers of alcoholic beverages. 12 percent of those consumers have made an alcoholic beverage purchase online in the past six months, according to Nielsen’s Harris Poll. The wine category showed the highest percentage of online purchases at 42 percent, followed closely by spirits at 35 percent, and beer at 29 percent.
Online alcoholic beverage purchases tend to skew younger with an average age of only 39, 77 percent were male and 71 percent were employed full time. The largest region of online purchases came from the Northeast at 31 percent.
As more e-commerce channels are made available and online barriers to alcoholic beverage sales lessen, online purchasing of alcohol is expected to grow rapidly
Source: Wine & Spirits Daily, March 2017