Cocktails and slow sipping straight stuff have taken over. Liquor stole top share on Drizly from longtime leader wine last Spring and hasn’t looked back. Paired with sustained higher sales of mixers, bitters and other cocktail essentials, it’s clear that the rise in at-home cocktail making is more entrenched habit, less fad.
We’ve found new reasons to go bubbly. After nosediving when the pandemic hit, sales of Champagne and other sparkling wines steadily came back and now exceed pre-pandemic levels.
Tequila’s growth is fundamental. Already on the rise when the world changed, tequila stands apart in not booming then settling back like other segments, instead maintaining strong, steady growth throughout the year. It speaks to enduring good times in store for the Mexican export and a rise in straight and rocks consumption (i.e., more than Margaritas).
We’re still stocking up. Basket sizes shot up on Drizly when lockdowns were first imposed, ballooning from $50 to $75 per order from February to March 2020. A year later, the average order has settled in at around $60, driving sustained 17% higher register rings for retailers on the platform.
Online gifting has finally come to alcohol. After spiking by as much as 1,000% during the pandemic’s early peak, sales growth on Drizly soon settled at 350% and has maintained at that level. A big driver was gifting, which grew to 19% of all orders during holiday 2020 after years of hardly hitting the radar.