A recent research report from Roy Morgan assessed the buying habits of retail alcohol purchases versus online alcohol purchases across Australia.
The report indicated that 71 percent of Australian adults who bought alcohol in an average four weeks sighted ‘good value’ as one of the most important purchasing factors, a figure which jumps to 80 percent among online consumers.
The survey also indicated that 47 percent of retail shoppers and 56 percent of online consumers saw ‘good range’ as the second most important factor. The largest gap was found to be on the issue of price. Online shoppers were 70 percent more likely to view low prices as an important factor.
The majority (56 percent) of wine buyers sight price as a purchasing factor, compared with just a third of all alcohol buyers (33 percent).
“These survey results show just how different online shoppers are from traditional alcohol shoppers, with value and range particularly important to those who buy online,” said Warren Reid, group account manager – consumer products, Roy Morgan.
“The shift to online purchasing for Alcohol has—like Grocery—been much slower than for other retail categories. But recently some of the biggest liquor retailers have overhauled their websites to woo customers online with bundle deals and bulk buying offers.
“Wine prices are important to more online buyers than are beer prices. The online wine market is clearly where big barn liquor retailers such as Dan Murphys and First Choice will have to compete more effectively, especially as mainstream consumers start to adopt online as their channel of choice for buying alcohol.
“But this raises very real questions for premium wine brands: is there a risk of devaluing a brand by it being stocked in a ‘discount’ environment?”