Where Consumers Shop for Alcoholic Drinks

Delivery

This report comes in PPT.

Key findings

Navigating permacrisis

Structural headwinds and lifestyle shifts continue taking a toll, resulting in stagnating performances across the board. While deeply entrenched consumption rituals are slowing down meaningful change, a shift towards affordability credentials, convenience and new digital frontiers can provide opportunities against an otherwise challenging retailing backdrop.

Supermarkets and hypermarkets still the industry’s backbone

While traditional retailing channels continue witnessing underwhelming performances, they still account for the majority of sales and the industry’s inherent traditionalism virtually guarantees them remaining the core bastion of off trade sales, at least in the short to medium term.

Discounters: Permacrisis as an opportunity?

As consumer confidence remains low and macroeconomic risks are skewed to the downside, discounters see the first signs of increased momentum – a momentum that will only accelerate further as premiumisation fatigue and the undercurrents favouring polarisation gather steam. 

E-commerce continues its long, slow climb

The transition into digital realms will be a marathon rather than a sprint. Inherent traditionalism, embedded purchasing and drinking rituals and producer complacency has led to historically low penetration rates for e-commerce . While the pandemic led to a significant spike in sales through that channel and major investments, momentum now appears to normalise and slow.

The US, China , Japan and France lead the rankings in e-commerce 

Already established e-commerce platforms and their proliferation in a country’s wider FMCG industries remain a core indicator for adoption when it comes to alcoholic drinks too. It is in that context that digitally advanced markets like the US – and even more so China- lead the way. However, for the vast majority of markets e-commerce penetration remains relatively niche .