ReserveBar Plots Online ‘Destination’ for Alcohol Sales

eCommerce platform ReserveBar has teamed with the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS).

The partnership, announced in a Monday (April 10) press release, will let consumers who take part in Destination Distillery, a DISCUS tourism initiative, shop for their favorite brands of alcohol on the Destination Distillery website with the help of ReserveBar’s technology.

“Destination Distillery offers a tourism-driven experience and educational journey into the cultural heritage and history of various spirits categories in America,” the companies said in the release. “As part of the partnership, ReserveBar is furthering its ‘eCommerce everywhere’ strategy, allowing consumers to purchase premium spirits compliantly from home, making it easier than ever before to discover new brands and products while supporting the distillery industry.”

With the partnership, customers can visit the Destination Distillery website to learn more about the distillery industry and its history, while also ordering products from more than 42 distilleries around the country, according to the release.

The partnership is happening at a time when consumers are seeking more premium alcohol options in spite of inflation, according to an earnings report last week from beer, wine and spirits giant Constellation Brands.

“Our higher-end brands also have strong growth in our emerging and rapidly expanding direct-to-consumer channels and international markets,” CEO Bill Newlands told analysts on a call. “Over time, we expect our portfolio to continue to migrate toward the higher end and for these higher-end brands, channels and markets to support our top-line growth acceleration.”

He added that premium brands tend to perform well on D2C channels and that, by selling directly to these customers, the company can increase its margins on its most luxury products.

This focus on premiumization helps protect Constellation from much of the inflationary trade-down that firms that target lower-income consumers are experiencing, with higher-income customers continuing to spring for nicer wine and liquor.

Another alcohol vendor, Molson, reported earlier this year that it had seen its premiumization slow, but had not seen U.S. customers begin to trade down.

As PYMNTS noted at the time, beer is one of the most affordable alcoholic beverages on offer, and as inflation has stuck around, “consumers have been increasingly shifting their booze spending toward the beverage.”

Over all, consumers are in the habit of drastically overestimating the rate of alcoholic beverage price increases, according to research from the December edition of PYMNTS’ Consumer Inflation Sentiment study, “Consumer Inflation Sentiment: In It for the Long Haul.”

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