For as long as I’ve been covering the alcohol beverage industry, we’ve been told that women do the bulk of bev/al buying. But a study by Wine Intelligence, a British outfit, says that isn’t so. At least when it comes to wines priced above $20.
While the report looked at shopping in the U.S., UK, Canada, Japan, China and Australia, it found the finding that women spend less on wine than men was particularly true in the U.S. market, where the female share of wine drinkers spending over $20 off-premise fell to 35% (vs 50% incidence in the monthly wine drinking population).
Wine Intelligence speculates this may be because women tend to be more tight-fisted when it comes to spending money in general. It cites a study of the customer base of Stash, an investing app, which seemed to confirm that women are more cautious and sensible with their money and less tolerant of risky or aggressive investing strategies.
“Our US data on wine drinker attitudes consistently shows that, while women appear to know as much about wine as men, they are significantly less confident in that knowledge. As such, they gravitate towards reassurance and safety in their wine choices, and will often opt for a cheaper, tried-and-tested wine over a more expensive and unknown product,” writes Lulie Halstead for Wine Intelligence. She adds:
“I am now beginning to understand the everyday-sexist trope of my husband being handed the wine list in a restaurant, and him receiving more attention from the wine store clerk when we were in New York in the summer (as it happens, conducting qualitative research for the same Premiums report). Consciously or not, retailers and sommeliers alike seem to know who is more likely to boost the transaction value.”
Wine marketers need to work harder to convince women that expensive wine is worth buying, she suggests.