How to market and sell ready-to-drink beverages

The ready-to-drink (RTD) alcohol beverage category continues to grow, proving to be a sustained bright spot in the business — and a huge opportunity for retailers. With innovation fueling so many new brands, products, and flavors, how can retailers stay ahead of evolving trends to maximize RTD sales?

We recently spoke to Chris Williams, Executive Vice President, National Accounts & Customer Development at Southern Glazer’s, to find out what his team is seeing out in the market that can help off-premise retailers fine-tune their RTD selling strategies.  

Chris: Once focused primarily on a younger market, now, thanks in part to a shift in premium offerings, the consumer demographic is split among all legal drinking age groups. Forty-nine percent of these consumers earn $100,000 or more per year.

RTDs continue to deliver on some of the most important attributes consumers are looking for, including convenience, “better for you” wellness offerings, and lastly, authenticity and flavor. RTDs are also in a unique position to capitalize on health-driven consumers’ wellness priorities, including clean labels and ingredient transparency.  

Chris: Overall, consumers are reacting to flavor, convenience, and pack size. At times, the RTD purchaser is the shopper and not the final consumer, so they are buying multiple categories together. Two-thirds of ready-to-drink cocktail shoppers also purchase another type of alcohol. When canned cocktails are in the basket with red wine, white wine, or spirits, the purchase will generally be more than $100.

We also see RTDs delivering on unique and emerging flavors such as lemonade, tea, and punch, along with traditional offerings such as margaritas, palomas, and vodka sodas.  

Chris: This is an extremely important category that’s growing at a rapid pace, with nearly 47% of all adult beverage buyers now purchasing some form of ready-to-drink products.

Today, we see that 83% of RTD consumption occurs on the same day of purchase from a brick-and-mortar store (compared to 79% same-day consumption of beer), and 66% of consumption occurs at home in some kind of gathering. 

Consumers are exploratory, and as such, innovation is extremely important in fueling growth and contributing to nearly 20% of all RTD sales, compared to 4.3% in total adult beverage.

Chris: There are definitely things retailers can do to maximize RTD purchases in their stores. For example, 89% of consumers prefer their canned cocktail purchase to be cold. In fact, if the product is cold, they will spend 30% more. 

Also, 50% of purchases are impulse purchases. So, retailers need to make it easy for the consumer to find products, with highly visible displays at the front of the store. Also, it’s important to have all types of alcohol represented — that means canned wine, seltzers, and RTDs. The more options the better.  

Chris: When marketing RTDs and canned cocktails, it's important to remember that customers like options. Mix in different flavors, base spirits, and include variety packs. When you shelve and promote different products together, it gives customers a lot of options and encourages multiple purchases.

Displays and endcaps continue to be important to disrupt the shopper journey and make products easy to locate. By shelving RTDs and traditional spirits on the same endcap, one national retailer generated a 7.3% revenue lift over the average endcap. All the data we've looked at shows that hard seltzers and RTD spirits are poised for increased growth in the upcoming year.

Lastly, we must not forget e-commerce, as RTDs are increasing their online presence and have seen a 15% increase in total dollars spent in that category.  

With more certified wine and spirits experts than any other distributor in North America, Southern Glazer’s can support your marketing, selling, and brand-building efforts. Read more insights and learn about becoming a customer or supplier today.

Want to mix up your RTD product offering at your on- or off-premise business? Browse our portfolio on Proof® now.