Who buys wine in Italy on the Internet? Surprisingly Boomers and Generation X beat young people

Wine sales, for some time now, have also been running online, a phenomenon that has boomed in the days of lockdown, but which was something concrete even before, taking advantage of typical characteristics of web shopping: and thus, speed, convenience, availability of choice. Online shopping has always been present in the lives of digital natives, and yet, and this may come as a bit of a surprise, they are not the ones who buy the most, with regard to wine, in these channels, and this is also the case in Italy. True, Millennials consumers (and thus those born between 1981 and 1996) will be key to the future of wine e-commerce but not at this time according to a recent study by Iwsr (International Wine & Spirits Research), which provides data and insights for the alcoholic beverage industry.
Guy Wolfe, head of e-commerce insights Iwsr, revealed to UK magazine “The Drink Business” that it is actually “older” drinkers who dominate online alcohol purchases, and this is in many of the wealthier economies, driven by their increasing familiarity with digital technology. “In Australia, Italy, France, the United Kingdom and Spain, for example, Boomers and Generation X now account for more than 60% of online wine buyers”. Boomers are those born between 1946 and 1964, and thus is between 60 and 78 years old, while Gen X was born between 1965 and 1980 (44-59 years old). However, there are some markets where younger consumers drive online sales. “Millennials and Gen Z of legal age represent the majority of buyers in China (80%) and Brazil (64%),” Wolfe said. The United States, on the other hand, falls right in the middle with 435 of online wine buyers belonging to Millennials, with the remaining 57% of e-commerce sales made by Boomers and Gen X. But online wine sales, overall, are declining globally.