Wine is the best selling alcoholic beverage in the world, and China is the world leader

There are many people predicting that in the next few years China will become the number one wine market in the world. In the meantime, the “Celestial Emprie” has already snatched up a record - global leadership for online purchases of alcoholic beverages. In just a few short years, China has reached and outdone the most advanced countries for wine, beer and spirits markets, to equal online sales of the US, France and the United Kingdom. According to the IWSR- International Wine & Spirits Research study, at a growth of 15% per year, the Chinese market for spirits has reached the figure of 6.1 billion dollars, four times the value spent in the US, and three times that of France and the United Kingdom.
Therefore, e-commerce has been confirmed as one of the preferred ways to reach Chinese consumers (according to various sources, already more than 30% of foreign wine purchased in China is bought online), even though the overall picture, which is true for everything concerning the great Asian country, is not simple.
For example, the e-commerce market for spirits in China is very limited, and there are only two players, the Tmall platform and the JD platform that divide over 70% of the total. However, the online beverage business channel is growing rapidly globally, consumption wise, in some of the most important countries. In the US, for instance, and even though it represents only 1% of domestic purchases, its growth is constant and boasts double figures, driven both by consumer demand and also by simplifying the rules governing trade between States.
It is a very dynamic segment in France, as well, where online sales are worth 9% of the total, thanks to investments of distribution giants such as E. Leclerc and Carrefour, as well as to a small army of over 400 specialized sites.
And business is doing well in the United Kingdom, too, where the big players in the sector are chains like Tesco and Asda, and where specialized retailers like Majestic or The Wine Society are growing rapidly. The channel still has room to grow a lot, when you consider that the frequency of buying on the web, in most markets, is still very low, and that in China and the UK alone, according to the IWSR study, more than half of consumers buy their favorite bottles online at least once a month.
In general, the researchers explained, the main reason that pushes enthusiasts and consumers to buy online is convenience. And, the colossus Amazon is also growing on the beverage scene, rapidly filling the gap of those who, in the sector, arrived first, like Germany, where it has already topped 50% of the market share, as well as on markets such as Japan, the UK, Spain and Italy. This is a series of important indications especially for wine producers, since globally, wine is the top selling alcoholic beverage online, at a market share that alternates, usually, between 60% and 70% % of the total.