Jiu Xun Ziyu/Wen 618 Whether it is hot or cold has already been discussed, but the wine lists of major e-commerce platforms have revealed the secrets of the drunkenness industry. Sales data from JD.com supermarkets show that the transaction volume of low-alcohol fruit wine increa

Jiu Xun Ziyu/Text

618 Whether it is hot or cold has been discussed, but the wine lists of major e-commerce platforms have revealed the secrets of the drunkenness industry. Sales data from JD.com supermarkets show that the transaction volume of low-alcohol fruit wine increased by 187% year-on-year.

At this time when the e-commerce platform is booming, will traditional channels also pay for it? On June 25, Liquor News discovered during a visit that there are a wide range of low-alcohol wine products on supermarket shelves, and consumers stopped to look carefully at high-value products such as Ruiao, Berry Sweetheart, and Ten-Fifteen.

In this regard, Yin Kai, founder of Chaoyinhui (Shanghai) Brand Management Co., Ltd., told Jiu News that low repurchase rate is a problem faced by low-alcohol liquor companies and even all new brands. In recent years, a number of new alcoholic beverage brands have entered the market, but serious homogeneity has distracted consumers’ attention to a certain extent and made it difficult to form repeat purchases. For new brands, it is a difficult and long process to win consumer recognition and ultimately form brand recognition .

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1

Who is paying for being tipsy?

According to the Tmall low-alcohol wine 618 full-cycle battle report, the top and second best-selling brands and best-selling stores are RIO Ruiao and Meijian respectively. At the same time, liquor companies such as Lion Song, Miss Berry, Fuli, Suntory , and Xiaozui entered the top 10 of both lists. Sales data from JD.com supermarkets show that the transaction volume of low-alcohol fruit wine increased by 187% year-on-year.

The "2022 Low-alcohol Trend Report" (summary version) jointly released by Tmall New Product Innovation Center and Kantar shows that 90% of consumers will choose to purchase low-alcohol wine online; for alcoholic beverages, online shopping is more convenient It cannot be replaced by offline channels.

The popularity of online channels is not unrelated to the emphasis on online marketing of low-alcohol wine. As the leading wine company in the industry, Ruiao is also an old internet celebrity. By embedding popular dramas such as "Why Sheng Xiao Mo" and "Shan Shan Is Coming" and sponsoring the variety show ", let's run, brothers ", Ruiao intensively appeared on platforms accessible to young people and cultivated early users. Habit.

However, Ruiao's temporary popularity did not lead to the rise of the entire low-alcohol wine market. It was not until recent years that the concept of "tippy" was accepted by more young consumers through social media. Entering platforms such as Xiaohongshu, , Douyin, , etc., KOLs brought goods and triggered a wave of low-alcohol wine.

Tmall 2022 Product Festival data shows that in terms of age, the "post-90s" generation buys fruit wine the most, accounting for 45%; followed by the "post-85s", accounting for more than 20%.

In addition to young consumer groups, the rise of the "other" economy has also spread the atmosphere of tipsy. The "2022 Low-alcohol Trendy Drink Trend Report" (summary version) shows that the more prominent consumer group is young mothers whose children are less than two years old and who are in the parenting period and need to adjust to life stress.

However, when low-alcohol wine, which is popular in the first- and second-tier young people's market, comes to the third- and fourth-tier cities, the experience is very different. In supermarket channels, low-alcohol wine is far less abundant than liquor, beer, and wine products. In addition, in the catering channel, low-alcohol wine is more difficult to find at the terminal. When Liquor News asked restaurant staff about low-alcohol alcohol, the other party said that low-alcohol alcohol is mainly beer, and beer is generally the first choice for consumers in dinner parties.

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2

Start with appearance and lose to homogeneity

Even though there are thousands of low-alcohol wines on the market, they basically cannot escape the three iron rules of "fruity taste, good appearance, and low alcohol content". Liquor News entered the subcategories of low-alcohol wines such as sparkling wine and fruit wine on the e-commerce platform, and the products were shown to be very similar. 330ml can , macaron color bottle, various fruit flavors... Netizens collectively refer to this type of product as "little sweet water".

In addition to the extremely similar packaging and taste, even the production method brands have tacitly chosen OEM.Liquor news investigation found that the entrusted party for the "Lemon Road Sparkling Wine" product of Coca-Cola is Hubei O.R.G. Beverage Industry Co., Ltd.; the entrusted party for the "Bruoke Muxun Sparkling Wine" product is Zhejiang Baxing Health Food Co., Ltd. ; The entrusted company for the special fruit wine products of "Pu Ke" is Qingdao Wedoli Wine Co., Ltd.

Regarding OEM products, Yin Kai pointed out that new brands do not have enough financial strength to build their own factories, so they choose OEM production, which is normal. OEM factories have standard factories and standardized processes, so there is no problem with quality, but the biggest problem is homogeneity. Although they have different product names, they are all produced by the same factory, and ultimately differentiation can only rely on marketing. Therefore, currently all low-alcohol wine brands have the problem of focusing on marketing but not on channels.

Advertising and trends can stimulate customers to try new things, but repurchase is not a benefit that short-term marketing can bring. This is also confirmed in the offline market.

Recently, Liquor News visited the first-tier markets in the north and found that the liquor shelves of large supermarkets display many low-alcohol liquor brands, and some supermarkets even set up separate low-alcohol liquor shelves, including dew wine, fruit wine, Yutiao cocktails and other products, alcohol The temperature is basically below 20 degrees. A person in charge of a supermarket told Liquor News that the consumption of low-alcohol wine has gradually improved in recent years, and there are more female consumers and young people. This is also related to the consumption scenario where low-alcohol wine is more suitable for self-drinking. However, consumers are often driven by curiosity and early adopters, and repurchase is not obvious.

A consumer told Liquor News that the good looks and low alcohol content drove him to buy low-alcohol wine products, but he would not buy them again if they tasted bad. When you see a bunch of beautiful new drinks again, it’s better to try another one. In the end, the product that tastes better will be repurchased.

Image source: RIO official Weibo

3

Many companies are besieging

According to PricewaterhouseCoopers research report, China's low-alcohol wine market size will be between 15 billion yuan and 20 billion yuan in 2021, and it is expected to be in 2025. will reach 75 billion yuan, The annual compound growth rate can reach 30%. “Ten billions” and “hundreds of billions” are the expectations of many institutions for the low-alcohol wine market, and the influx of low-alcohol wine brands also confirms this expectation.

According to incomplete statistics, in May, wine companies such as Ruiao and Kongka launched 15 new products; in April, wine companies such as Lion Song and Xungan launched 28 new products. Among these new products, various fruit flavors such as white peach, passion fruit, grapefruit are added to meet consumers' demand for diversified flavors; in addition to new flavors, refilling is also a new way for most brands to introduce new products. The sparkling wine product itself is a category, and some products have been superimposed on categories, and new products such as sparkling fruit wine and sparkling cocktails have appeared.

In addition to new brands, traditional wine companies regard low-alcohol wine as a way to rejuvenate their wines and attract younger customers. In 2021, Wuliangye launched fruit dew wine and fruit wine "Wudiao"; in 2019, Luzhou Laojiao launched fruit wines such as "Qingyu", "Huajianzui" and "Shiguang"; in 2015, Moutai launched craft beer products "Youmi" blueberry wine.

Coincidentally, beverage companies have also joined this tipsy party. Nongfu Spring released rice wine TOT sparkling drink with 0.5% alcohol content; Coca-Cola launched Topak hard soda sparkling wine in the Chinese market; Wangwang launched Sawa and Xueji series of low-alcohol wines.

Although products are pouring in, it is difficult for players from all walks of life to stand out in the narrow low-alcohol alcohol space. Entering the Tmall Youmi flagship store, the monthly sales of many blueberry wines are only single digits, and there are even fewer reviews. The monthly sales of other niche sparkling wine brands on the Tmall platform range from a few dozen to more than a hundred. In the Tmall Rio Ruiao flagship store, the monthly sales of many products reach more than 10,000, and the monthly sales of other products also exceed 1,000. Jiuxun called Ruiao about the company's sales and other related issues, but as of press time, the call had not yet been answered.

From 2019 to 2021, the revenue growth of Bairun Co., Ltd., the parent company of Ruiao Cocktail, was 19.39%, 31.2%, and 34.66% respectively, and the net profit growth was 142.67%, 78.31%, and 24.38% respectively.The year-by-year decline in net profit growth has gradually become a sign of the ebb of the drunken craze.

Yin Kai believes that Ruiao was born in 2003 and it took nearly ten years to reach its peak moment. Behind the scenes is the continuous blood transfusion of listed company Bairun Co., Ltd. Although Mei Jian is young, it is backed by the entire production, marketing and channel resources of Jiangxiaobai , coupled with the segmented positioning and timing of plum wine , so that it can achieve good results within two or three years. Of course, there will definitely be new high-recognition companies emerging in the future, but in addition to beautiful marketing, they must also have team, financial and channel resources, plus a little patience and luck.

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