Catalina identifies canned ready-to-drink cocktails as top festive trend
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Anticipating the countless holiday toasts sure to be offered over the next several weeks, shopper intelligence leader Catalina has identified several adult beverage category trends that will likely impact the contents of both bar and shopping carts across the U.S. this holiday season.
In examining data pulled from its Shopper Intelligence Platform, which provides a deep reservoir of purchase-based, anonymized buyer insights across virtually every U.S. household in real time, Catalina expects premixed cocktails and low-alcohol wine to top the list of adult beverages hosts serve this holiday season. Their rise in popularity has come at the expense of wine (both bottled and canned) and hard seltzer.
Specifically, the dollars spent on low-alcohol and better-for-you wine purchases grew 35% during the third quarter of 2022 compared to the same period in 2021, while spending on pre-mixed cocktails increased by 29%. Canned wine fell 17%, while bottled wine was down 5%.
Domestic and imported beer purchases grew at 3%, while craft beer and flavored malt beverages (FMB) posted 6% and 4% sales gains, respectively. Other categories had modest sales dips, including sherry/vermouth/champagne (-3%), cider (-4%), and spirits (-6%). Hard seltzer took a tumble, falling 29%.
Overall, Catalina’s data shows that alcoholic beverage prices are rising at a rate lower than inflation, typically increasing at a range of 1% (canned wine and spirits) to 8% (FMB).
“These sorts of deep dives into our Shopper Intelligence Platform can be invaluable to our customers. Knowing what shoppers are more likely to put into their baskets this holiday season allows us to identify and better segment 1,700-plus syndicated and custom audiences, which in turn helps our retail and CPG customers develop personalized messaging and incentives in real time that trigger incremental sales,” said Sean Murphy, Chief Data & Analytics Officer at Catalina.
With the cost of living crisis remaining at the forefront of consumers’ minds, it is likely that many will swap nights out for at-home drinking. Canned, premixed cocktails provide the same complex drinks that can be found in bars at a fraction of the cost to be consumed at home.