Online auctions by Catawiki, wine grows as spending value but fewer bottles are purchased

Auctions, including online auctions, are often a chance to find a particularly valuable, long sought-after piece, something special to keep or give as a gift without grinding miles, just a click away. And this applies, more than many other products, to wine as well, despite the fact that 2023 was a complicated year with inflation “biting” people’s purchasing power. A fact, however, that has not held back the online auction market, which is becoming an increasingly popular way to buy, and sell, specialty items, with numbers growing in both value and volume. Confirming this trend is Catawiki, a benchmark in Europe for the category, with more than 75,000 items up for auction and 600 auctions, each week, in different categories.
Wine ranked fourth among the main categories, by expenditure, of Italians (+4%), amounting to more than 7 million euros, behind only watches, the fastest growing (+33%), jewelry (-9%), modern and contemporary art (+2%). For the number of objects, however, wine is in second place, but down 9%, only decorative objects do, however, better (+14%). Thus, in 2023, more “expensive” wine was purchased, but a smaller number of bottles than in 2022.
Results, in general, that have been on the rise with more than 3 million items sold on the portal globally, 20% over 2022 with more than 40% of new users participating in an online auction by bidding for the first time. The most popular categories for new bidders were diverse: from the glittering world of gold bullion, to fashion accessories including sneakers and designer bags, to pop culture memorabilia. Italy confirmed itself as the top market in terms of spending among the key countries where Catawiki is present.