Growth in DTC

We've spent this week talking about the potential for DTC wine sales, and I decided to dig in a little bit and look at some of the most recent statistics in how this portion of the market is evolving. According to Forbes, US wine sales in 2016 were $2.3B, with 4% of that skipping the traditional wholesale and resale channels and being sold instead DTC, which represents an 18.5% growth over 2015. In comparison, brick and mortar wine sales grew 5% from 2015 to 2016.

We discussed the top 6 states for wine; California, Texas, New York, New Jersey, Florida, and Illinois. There are 3 additional states who have only recently opened up to DTC sales. Pennsylvania began allowing DTC in August 2016, and in the remainder of the year hit 23rd place in terms of sales. Massachusetts opened up DTC sales in 2015, and grew 42% from 2015 to 2016, and Indiana's DTC sales also grew by 40% last year. Not only are sales increasing DTC, but consumers are also paying more per bottle, with an average increase of 3%.

There is clearly consumer support for allowing DTC sales - millennials want the wines they want, when they want, where they want. It will be interesting to track how these trends continue in 2017, and how the regulatory landscape evolves.