The British love to shop for wine online
Posted on Mon 8th Aug 2016 at 12:12
A recent survey by Wine Intelligence show that a quarter of the UK’s regular wine drinkers had ordered wine over the internet during the last year.
This equates to 7.4 million people, as the UK’s regular wine-drinking population is estimated to be 29.6 million overall. Consumers who ordered via the internet spent £7 per bottle on average, pushing the value of online sales to over £800 million in 2015 – that’s almost 11% of the overall British wine market. By comparison, only 4% of the US wine market is through online sales. When asked why they bought wine online, respondents stated that their main reason was convenience, including that of having the bottles delivered to their house. Those who bought wine online tended to be younger than average and express a greater interest in wine than respondents who did not buy wine online. Even those who do not buy wine online, however, use the Internet as a source of useful wine information. According to the Wine Intelligence survey, the number of people searching for information about wine online rose 28% in the last five years, bringing the total up to 17.2 million people. In the same period, the number of people discussing wine online in any format (e.g. discussion forums or social media) rose by a whopping 90%. Furthermore, market researchers predict that in the next three years, online sales of wine in Britain will continue to grow and reach 14% of the overall market.