The first month of 2023 kicked off with a clear winner across the Drizly platform: Non-alcoholic wine, beer, and spirits options. Though they still comprise a small portion of overall sales on Drizly, all three have grown immensely over the past year, and that came to the fore in January, a month that often serves as a reset for consumers. Read on for more insights from Drizly’s January 2023 sales.

Non-Alcoholic Alternatives Dominate Category Growth

Non-alcoholic subcategories came out on top in the wine and spirits subcategories last month as consumers embraced the growing number of high-quality options in each. The five fastest-growing non-alcoholic spirits brands were CleanCo, Lyre’s, Spiritless, Ritual Zero, and Dhos, while the five fastest-growing non-alcoholic wine brands were Wölffer Estate, Leitz, Tost, Dr. Fischer, and Martinelli. In the beer category, as it did in March, May, and October 2022, rice lager dominated growth, showing continued strength for this refreshing style.

Dry January Insights

Last month saw strong impacts from Dry January as consumers opted for non-alcoholic alternatives in the wine, beer, and spirits categories. Combined, non-alcoholic subcategories saw a 70 percent share increase in January 2023 compared to January 2022; in total, non-alcoholic wine, beer, and spirits held a collective 0.56 percent of share across Drizly.

Of these three subcategories, non-alcoholic beer was the largest, growing 25 percent year-over-year to hold 0.25 percent share of total sales across Drizly. Non-alcoholic wine followed, though it saw strong year-over-year growth: an increase of 125 percent to hold 0.18 percent share in January 2023. While non-alcoholic liquor is the smallest of the NA subcategories at 0.13 percent, it grew a whopping 160 percent year-over-year.

Drizly’s Top-Selling Non-Alcoholic Brands, January 2023 vs. January 2022

1. Athletic Brewing Company vs. Athletic Brewing Company
2. Heineken vs. Heineken
3. Fre Wines vs. Fre Wines
4. Tost vs. Seedlip
5. Seedlip vs. Ariel
6. Ariel vs. Budweiser
7. Lyre’s Non-Alcoholic vs. Lagunitas
8. Wölffer Estate vs. Grüvi
9. Ritual Zero vs. O’Doul’s
10. Guinness vs. Clausthaler

Market Insights: Norwalk, Connecticut

Norwalk, a city located in southern Connecticut, was the fastest-growing market on Drizly in January. Over the last year, Norwalk over-indexed on wine compared to Drizly purchasers nationally, with the category holding 59 percent of share in the market. Liquor followed at 34 percent, while beer trailed at just six percent. Within the category, red wine came out on top at 43 percent – higher share than it holds nationally – followed by white wine at 29 percent, Champagne and sparkling wine at 19 percent, and rosé wine at eight percent.

January’s Breakout Brands

Lighter options had a stronghold across categories last month. In the wine category, rosé brand Summer Water saw breakout growth, showing the staying power for rosé year-round. In the beer category, hard seltzer brands Happy Dad (a newer hard seltzer brand, founded in 2021, that also experienced breakout growth in September and November 2022) and Spindrift (the traditional seltzer brand that got into the alcohol landscape with Spindrift Spiked) experienced strong year-over-year growth.

Liquor’s breakout brands were Beatbox Beverages, a ready-to-drink cocktail brand that specialized in boxed packaging; NÜTRL, a vodka-based ready-to-drink brand positioned similarly to High Noon; and Lyre’s, a popular non-alcoholic spirits brand.

Alcohol Purchasers Are Adding NA Options to Baskets

Not only did January Drizly data showcase the range of non-alcoholic options that consumers are reaching for, it also pointed to the range of consumers who are purchasing non-alcoholic wine, beer, and spirits. “As non-alcoholic share continues to grow on Drizly it has become apparent that the consumers shopping these products go beyond just non-drinkers,” says Liz Paquette, Drizly’s head of consumer insights.

Eighty-two percent of consumers who purchase non-alcoholic wine, beer, and spirits on Drizly have also purchased alcohol on the platform, and some are even purchasing alcoholic and non-alcoholic products in the same basket. The top alcoholic subcategories purchased in the same baskets as non-alcoholic ones were ready-to-drink cocktails, white wine, red, wine, vodka, and sparkling wine.