Online hard seltzer sales are on the rise, and in an exclusive interview with Hard Seltzer News, Sara Hillstrom, Senior Director of Category Development at Anheuser-Busch, shared data about emerging trends in hard seltzer e-commerce.
“E-commerce is such a hot topic right now. I mean, with everyone home, online sales are shooting up in all sorts of categories,” Hillstrom told Hard Seltzer News. “It’s obviously not just food and beverage, but [sic] home goods and beauty, and sort of everything is on fire.”
This only means good things for online hard seltzer sales. According to Hillstrom, hard seltzer’s share of the alcoholic beverage category has historically been higher online than in stores.
“Before COVID, seltzers were 9% of the total beer sales online, and they were just 5% in the store,” Hillstrom explained, “During COVID, online seltzer sales have gone from 9% of the category to 11% percent, and in-store they’ve gone from 5% to 7%.”
While hard seltzers are gaining traction in both online and offline sales, this post-COVID-19 lockdown trend reveals that seltzers are still a larger portion of the category online.
“Our brands follow a similar trend,” said Hillstrom about Anheuser-Busch. She provided examples from two of the company’s hard seltzer brands.
“Bon V!V is our seventh largest brand on Drizly, out of the entire portfolio — including beer — and offline it’s number 26,” Hillstrom revealed. “Bud Light Seltzer, just the variety pack — so, one single SKU — is the ninth highest selling pack on Drizly, out of total beer. It’s not even in our top 50 in store.”
For merchants who only deal in e-commerce, hard seltzers take up an even greater bulk of alcohol sales. Hillstrom estimated that for some online-only retailers, hard seltzers are up to 25% of sales in the beer category. This particular trend may stem from a broader variety of available options in online retailer stock.
“When [you] go into stores, you’re typically going to find just the top SKUs from any brand — like one or two variety packs and maybe one or two of the single flavor packs,” Hillstrom explained. “But, with some of these pure-play online retailers, they’re taking the whole portfolio for a brand, so all of the flavors of the variety packs and then a lot of the single flavors as well.”
Hillstrom indicated that there is no evidence to suggest e-commerce trends for hard seltzer will slow down any time soon. COVID-19 lockdowns have introduced even more consumers to the option (and benefits) of purchasing alcohol online.
“According to Numerator, there’s actually been a 200% increase in total household penetration — or the number of households buying beer — online during COVID,” Hillstrom said. “So, it’s going to continue to grow as more people discover this channel, specifically for seltzers.”
Online popularity for hard seltzers, in particular, appears to correlate with expanded options, as well as convenience. We’ve already seen how successful variety 12-packs have been in the hard seltzer category, and consumers will likely look to single flavor pack options once they’ve sampled and picked favorites.
“Shoppers are seeking flavor variety, which they’re getting,” Hillstrom concluded. “As long as they can reliably find the products that they like, I suspect their online purchases are going to continue.”
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