Retail giant Amazon Australia has entered the online liquor market, with the launch of a wine, beer and spirits store on Wednesday.
The latest addition to Amazon.com.au sees the arrival of major alcohol brands including Penfolds, VB, and Johnnie Walker, as well as smaller local businesses such as Curatif Cocktails and Lawrenny Estate.
Matt Furlong, Amazon Australia country manager, said the liquor site will allow customers to order their favourite alcohol brands while shopping the other products available on the site.
“Australian brewers, distillers and wine makers make some of the world’s best beverages from Organic Wines to Curatif Cocktails. We’re particularly thrilled to work with local brands at launch and help them access our customers, marketing tools and logistics expertise to grow their business,” Furlong said.
Curatif Cocktails, an Australian start-up which creates ready-to-drink cocktails, “jumped at the chance” to work with the online retailer.
“Aside from being one of the biggest retail platforms in the world, Amazon’s innovations have led the charge in changing consumer purchasing behaviours, and for a world class product that is designed to be delivered, who better to work with than the biggest name in the business?” Matt Sanger, co-founder of Curatif Cocktails told Inside FMCG.
“Additionally, we’ve found both the Amazon Australia team and infrastructure to be really welcoming and invested in the success of our business which is a great starting point for a new partnership.”
The closure of bars and restaurants due to COVID-19 meant that many of Curatif’s customers were “significantly impacted” and Sanger said the shutdown led to increased demand for home delivery.
“From the point of view of home delivery and consumption, we have received the message loud and clear from consumers – they want World Class Cocktails at home, and we have been loving the opportunity to provide them,” he said.
The brand has also released its latest ready-to-serve creation, the Curatif Plantation Rum Pineapple Daiquiri, exclusively on Amazon.
“From the get-go we saw the partnership with Amazon Australia as a two way street – they’re providing us with a massive platform to serve our customers from, and so we wanted to bring something to the table to honour that. From that point of view it made sense to provide early access to our Plantation Rum Pineapple Daiquiri, which like Amazon we are expecting to very soon become a household name,”
With the spotlight on online alcohol safety of late, Amazon Australia said it has set up multiple precautions to ensure purchases are made and delivered appropriately.
Customers will be required to provide their date of birth at the checkout and all deliveries will be age verified, with unattended deliveries not supported.
Last week, the NSW government announced plans to crack down on online alcohol delivery services, with proposed reforms to consider creating a range of new offences including supplying alcohol to intoxicated people, failing to verify the age of online customers and delivering outside bottle shop trading hours.
