- Online is where a growing share of drinkers buy, and most brands reach them only second-hand.
- Selling direct online puts you closer to the retail price and shows you who is buying.
- It works alongside your on-trade distributor, and it takes compliant labels, stock you can keep up with and a plan for the first quarter.
A customer most brands never meet
Nearly half of UK adults buy groceries online every month, and the UK is Europe's biggest market for spirits drunk at home. Yet for most drinks brands, the online shopper is someone they only hear about in a report. The bottle gets there eventually, through whoever happens to list it, at whatever price they choose, with the data staying with them.
That was fine when the shelf was the only place to be seen. It makes less sense when the people most likely to discover your brand are doing it on a screen.
What direct actually changes
Selling direct online doesn't mean building your own warehouse or walking away from the trade. It means having a route to the online drinker that you control. Three things happen when you do:
- You keep more of the price. With fewer steps between you and the retail price, more of it comes back to you. Our own numbers put the difference at about £5.30 a bottle on average, which is the difference between being able to advertise and not.
- You see who's buying. Online, every sale comes with a time, a place, a basket and a price. That changes how you plan stock, promotions and the next product, and it sharpens the pitch your on-trade team makes too.
- You move faster. A new product, a price change or a promotion can be live in days, not a quarter.
What the data says about the online drinker
We scan the UK's biggest marketplace every week. Three things from the latest scan matter for a brand deciding whether to sell direct online.
- The shelf has a price. The median drinks listing sells at £20.25 and half of all listings sit between £13 and £29. A 70cl at £22 to £28 is in the band where the volume is.
- Someone else sets your price if you don't. The average listing has more than four sellers. The gap between the cheapest and dearest offer on the same bottle is 16.7% at the median, and the buy box follows the low offer. A brand with no direct route online has no say in what its bottle costs.
- Demand moves in curves you can see. Search for "rum" rose 48% between late June and mid September; "whisky" rose 42% into autumn. Online, you can watch demand build and stock for it. On a shelf, you find out at the quarterly review.
What "closer to the retail price" looks like
A bottle that retails at £28 online and passes through a traditional chain can leave the producer with a buy price in the low teens once a distributor, a wholesaler and a retailer have each taken a margin. Sold direct through one agreed buy price, our numbers across the brands we work with put the difference at about £5.30 a bottle on average. On a thousand cases a year, that is the marketing budget.
| Traditional chain | Direct online with Shelfdrop | |
|---|---|---|
| Steps between you and the drinker | Distributor, wholesaler, retailer | One |
| Who sets the retail price | The retailer, or the cheapest third party | Set from the shelf data, visible in the portal |
| When you see what sold | Monthly statement, if that | As it happens |
| What you learn about the buyer | Nothing | Time, place, basket, price, repeat |
| Duty | Paid when stock leaves the importer | Paid as each bottle leaves bond |
What it asks of you
Online is less forgiving of loose ends. The things that slow brands down are rarely about demand:
- Labels that pass. Strength, volume, allergens and the UK address requirements, before any stock moves.
- Stock you can keep up with. Running out just as a listing starts to rank costs more momentum than almost anything else.
- A first quarter with a plan. New listings have no history. It takes advertising and promotions, planned up front, to earn a place where drinkers actually see you.
None of this means leaving your on-trade distributor. The brands doing this well run two routes: one for shelves, one for screens. We've written about how that works in Screens and shelves.
Where we fit
Shelfdrop is that route. We agree a buy price with you, take the stock into bond, and sell it straight to drinkers across the biggest online platforms, rapid delivery and your own store. You watch every order land in the portal. We make our money selling your drinks, which keeps us on the hook for every bottle.
If you'd like to talk it through for your brand, introduce it and we'll give you a clear answer.