Wine sales through the e-commerce sites of major Italian retailers and pure players such as Amazon grew by 351% in value and 310% in volume in the first half of this year, compared to the same period last year.
The figures comes from the latest Nomisma Wine Monitor Report on sales in the off-trade channel in Italy, produced in collaboration with NielsenIQ.
Although e-commerce accounts for just 2% of total wine sales in the off-trade channel, the figures indicate that more and more shoppers are turning to online channels to source wine.
The entire off-trade channel saw wine sales increase in the period, according to the data (+10% in hypermarkets and supermarkets, +2% for discounters) while there was also a recovery in Cash&Carry (+18%) following the progressive reopening of bars and restaurants.
This recovery is further confirmed by the 45% growth achieved in the second quarter of 2021 compared to the previous quarter as restrictions loosened.
Spending More Online
According to the data, consumers shopping online for wine are likely to spend more than those purchasing wine in-store.
While in Italian large-scale retail outlets, PDO wines account for around 40% of the quantity of wine purchased (H1 2021), when it comes to online orders, that percentage is 54%.
While sparkling wines account for 12% of the volume of wine purchased through traditional retail channels, in the e-commerce channel their weight reaches 16%.
Elsewhere, Champagne and Metodo Classico sparkling wine sales account for 12% of online purchases compared to 8% of in-store sales, while sales of organic wines are also double those of in-store.
© 2021 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest Drinks news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
