E-commerce and wine: after the boom in 2020, growth continues in 2021, at a rate of +40%

Protagonist of a real boom in 2020, driven by lockdowns, wine e-commerce, protagonist of the chronicles of the past months, continued to grow in 2021 which, especially in summer, marked the reopening of the restaurant industry. Of course, the growth rates could not and have not been the same for a channel that is still a minority one, in Italy, worth 4% of the overall wine market, according to the “Wine Report” by Cross Border Growth Capital and Vino.com. And yet, the fact that for many consumers, buying online has become a good habit, especially for wines in the medium-high price range, is reflected in the increase in turnover of many of the most important “pure players” on the Italian scene, with increases, on average, of +40% in turnover in 2021 compared to 2020. This is the case, for example, of Vino.com, a company founded by Andrea Nardi Dei, which in 2021 has reached €43 million in turnover, up +45%, with 3.6 million bottles delivered. This result is also due to growth abroad, which now accounts for 25% of the company’s turnover. The company has ridden the recovery of sparkling wines, with names such as Prosecco and Champagne growing by 60% on the platform. In addition to Italy, the company operates directly in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, Monaco and Sweden, and plans to expand further. Callmewine.com follows the same growth trend: after closing 2020 at €12 million, in 2021 it scored a further +40%, reaching €20 million. This was an important result for the platform which, at the end of 2020, was 60% acquired by Italmobiliare from the Pesenti family (with an investment of 13 million euro). The turnover of Bernabei.it, on the other hand, reached 37 million euros, an increase of 42%. Not a 100% “pure player”, but, the company explains to WineNews, retail sales represent a truly marginal share.
“The implementation of the RUN+ delivery method within 30 minutes and at the ideal temperature (launched just six months ago and now active in the cities of Rome, Milan, Bologna and Turin), which makes use of the logistics level of the retail outlets, has been both a driving force and a result of the growth of online. Today, in fact”, explains Bernabei, “the two channels are perfectly integrated, in an overall strategy framed under the lighthouse of omnichannel marketing. With regard to the denominations, there has been significant growth in the main classic methods (Oltrepò Pavese +406%, Trentodoc +100%, Franciacorta +65%), Prosecco Valdobbiadene (+477%) and red wines such as Amarone della Valpolicella (+134%), Sagrantino di Montefalco (+102%) and Alto Adige Doc (+40%)”.
But 2021 was also a year of consolidation and growth for Xtrawine, one of Italy’s longest-running wine e-commerce businesses, whose majority stake was acquired in July 2021 by the Made in Italy Fund, the private equity fund promoted and managed by Quadrivio & Pambianco. The balance sheet for the year just ended for Xtrawine, which has also opened platforms in Hong Kong and China, reached 13.6 million euros, with 26% growth in total turnover, +15% in orders, with 900,000 bottles sold overall, an average price per bottle of 15.95, and an “average cart” of 229 euros, up +9.8% year-on-year. Among the best-selling wines, reports Xtrawine, the great red denominations stand out, such as Amarone della Valpolicella, Barolo and IGT Toscana, while the palm of best-selling label on the portal goes to Tenuta Il Poggione’s Brunello di Montalcino 2016.
But there are also younger companies that are growing, such as Etilika, which has been in business for just over two years, as CEO Michele Trotta explains: “ee closed 2021 at 3.8 million euros, +40% on 2020, with an average cart of 148 euros and an average value per bottle of 19.8 euros. 88% of our turnover comes from orders in which the average value of the bottles ordered exceeds 10 euros, with a catalog, net of sparkling wines and spirits, that is exclusively Italian. There were no particular differences between the most popular appellations in 2021 or 2022. Among the reds, apart from the "usual knowns" such as Brunello di Montalcino, Barolo, Bolgheri and Amarone della Valpolicella, we had excellent numbers for Puglia (Primitivo and Negroamaro). Among the whites, there were interesting numbers with Vermentino (Sardinia did very well), Sauvignon, Gewurztraminer in the mid-range and Sicily in the more popular price range. In general, “natural” wines continue to grow, while in the case of sparkling wines, especially in the last quarter of the year, we had difficulty even finding Franciacorta and Champagne”.
Missing from the roll call, among others, are the figures for Tannico, which, in 2020, had closed a balance sheet at €37 million, up +82% on 2019, and which has been at the center of several operations: after having seen Gruppo Campari enter the capital at 49% in June 2020 and having acquired the French portal Venteàlapropriété, in May 2021, the reality led by Ceo Marco Magnocavallo, in July 2021, entered the joint venture created by Campari and Moët Hennessy, the wine division of the luxury giant Lvmh. And also those of Winelivery, which, in 2020, reached €7.5 million, with a boom of +600% compared to 2019. With both realities that, as yet, have not released their data. But the growth trend and the signals coming from the channel are clear, as Andrea Nardi Dei, founder and CEO of Vino.com, explains to WineNews: “wine and spirits e-commerce is a channel that is increasingly complementary to traditional distribution, as demonstrated by the trend in 2021, after the exploit of 2020 driven by lockdowns. It is a purchasing channel that consumers are using more and more, above all, in the presence of services, tools, content and engaging experiences capable of supporting the choice of a wine or a spirit”.