2020 for Italian wine shops: Christmas and delivery save, relatively, the turnovers

2020 is behind us, and also for Italian wine shops, whether they are members of Vinarius or not, it is time to draw up a balance sheet about the trend of what has been a year that has asked great sacrifices to the sector. From the end-of-year survey, also extended to non-member wine shops, in order to have a picture as close as possible to reality, emerge “the heavy consequences of the crisis: from the point of view of sales, for more than 46% of those interviewed, 2020 was clearly worse than 2019. Interesting, however, is the data on Christmas, which, for almost 50% of the sample, represented a real breath of fresh air, with sales higher than those of the previous year, demonstrating how much the consumer, unable to go to the restaurant, wanted to consume wine anyway”, comments Andrea Terraneo, president of Vinarius. “Same dynamic if you look at the customer's spending capacity: at Christmas 2020, almost 41% of the sample responded that the consumer's spending capacity was better on the 2019 holidays. If we widen our gaze, however, to the entire 2020s, this trend is reversed and nearly 45% responded that it was worse.”
The research then analyzes the preferences of consumers and shows how the increase of sales concern, in 40% of cases, wines in the price range from 15 to 30 euros, confirming what is the main selling segment of wine shops. Among the products that have found more interest, during Christmas time, stands out Champagne, indicated in 1 answer out of 3, followed by Metodo Classico Italiano (24% of the sample) and finally red wines and distillates for 20% of consumers. For wine shops with pouring machines (34% of wine shops that participated in the survey), 36% declares to have registered an annual drop in sales due to the consequences of Covid-19 restrictions of 40%. At the same time, 58% say they have increased delivery and 35% say they have activated takeaway service for customers.
Very different is the data for classic wine shops without tap (66% of the sample analyzed) for which 2020 brought, in 67% of cases, an increase in turnover of 10%, and more than 30% in 15% of the answers. Also for this type of activity, in 51% of cases the delivery service has been increased, while 33% of the sample declared to have increased the retail service for clients. Generally speaking, there is positive feedback about the topic of digital: 15% of the wine shops surveyed enhanced their presence in social channels or created or developed a website with e-commerce with direct selling.
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“It has been a very complex year, the one that has just ended and that is continuing to put us to the test. Vinarius - comments Andrea Terraneo - continues its commitment alongside Italian wine shops, which are strongly penalized by the measure contained in the latest Dpcm, which prohibits the take-away sale of any beverage after 6 p.m. After the open letter sent to the President of the Council, in the next few days there will be a question to the Senate of the Republic, aimed at clarifying the issue of Ateco codes included in the Dpcm, a situation that is increasing the difficulties of the sector and creating discrimination in retail sales”.