With online sales of beer, liquor and wine growing exponentially, and with the likes of Amazon now representing a significant percentage of total volumes, never before has unlocking digital growth been more important. It’s now a major channel in its own right alongside on-premise, off-premise, travel retail and out-of-home.

Albeit we have worked in a myriad of ways to evaluate and enhance digital performance for drinks businesses, two of our most commonly purchased approaches are:

• Deep Dive, filmed qualitative interviews with online buyers at key e-commerce platforms to get under the skin of how to win in the digital space. What activation really works online? How do we work with the algorithms? How should creative content briefs differ for e-commerce platforms? Does pack design play a disproportionate role?
• Digital ‘shop-alongs’ with screened consumers to test new digital strategies. Many clients choose to bolster the insight with qualitative filmed interviews with consumers – both after and during their online visits – to better understand the ‘why’ behind the ‘what’.

As with all Barfly debriefs, key learning and conclusions underpin our consultative recommendations giving drinks businesses clear, actionable next steps.