Non-alcoholic spirits have been gaining momentum over the last few years, as consumers increasingly focus on their physical and mental health and turn away from habits they deem to be unhealthy. While consumption of alcohol spiked during the pandemic, perhaps due to the popularity of at-home cocktail making, Covid lockdowns also appear to have given a boost to zero per cent alternatives. After launching three years ago, non-alcoholic spirit maker Lyre’s is now available in over 60 countries an
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Non-alcoholic spirits have been gaining momentum over the last few years, as consumers increasingly focus on their physical and mental health and turn away from habits they deem to be unhealthy.While consumption of alcohol spiked during the pandemic, perhaps due to the popularity of at-home cocktail making, Covid lockdowns also appear to have given a boost to zero per cent alternatives.After launching three years ago, non-alcoholic spirit maker Lyre’s is now available in over 60 countries and selling one bottle of non-alcoholic liquor every 30 seconds. And now, it’s looking to do it through your phone’s camera.Lyre’s has launched The Impossible Bar: an augmented reality (AR) guided experience that helps its customers to create cocktails that work best with its products. It also serves as a sales channel, with customers able to browse a menu of potential cocktails, and then purchase the corresponding spirit or DIY package. The goal, according to Lyre’s global senior vice president of e-commerce and digital Ashleigh Murray, is to reach new customers while continuing to foster the business’ explosive growth.“It’s a kind of growth I’ve never seen before,” Murray told Inside Retail.“It’s been so refreshing to have been here since the beginning, and have seen the initial curiosity and hesitation around such a new and innovative category, to now, three years later, have customers that are absolute believers.” “People get it now. It’s like having vegetarian options on a menu – people expect a sophisticated non-alcoholic option now.”Non-alcoholic products have enjoyed around 150 per cent growth in Dan Murphy’s and BWS stores in the last two years, Murray said, with more than one in four consumers now moderating their alcohol intake. Sydney-based non-alcoholic bottle shop Sans Drinks believes the market is getting big enough to support an entire chain of alternative bottle shops.As the market grows, however, Lyre’s is leaning on its growing consumer base to help educate Australians on how best to enjoy their new, non-boozy spirits. Lyre’s AR Impossible Bar (Source: Supplied) The Impossible BarThe Impossible Bar launched alongside Lyre’s’ Alexa integration, opening up the channel of voice commerce to the business.“Our ambition has always been to make cocktail education fun, inviting and educational, but most importantly, accessible,” Murray said. “That education helps customers to have the perfect balance of ingredients to make the best drink. Helping customers feel confident in the product and the cocktail-making experience will help them feel connected to the brand, so being available on mobile through AR and through Alexa means you can access them anywhere, anytime. It just made a lot of sense to us.”To visit The Impossible Bar, customers simply need to scan a QR code that will be printed on the side of Lyre’s products moving forward. They can also visit the website directly if they have the URL. “You can access it anywhere, we really wanted to reduce as many barriers as possible,” Murray said. “There’s no app. There’s no downloading. You don’t even need to have purchased a bottle, you can just go to the site or scan the QR code.”Lyre’s integration with Alexa is one of the first of its kind. Alcoholic beverages are unable to be sold through Amazon’s voice commerce channel in a number of regions due to the potential that someone under legal drinking age could purchase them. The push into the digital space is part of the business’ strategy moving forward, Murray said, and The Impossible Bar sits at the centre of the company’s education pipeline.“Our customers often start off in what we call the ‘hello’ phase, where we’re educating them and they’re reading content around non-alcoholic drinks,” Murray said. “Then, we’re aiming to get them to the ‘FOMO’ phase, where they’re inspired and looking to try out the products. And, obviously, we want people to shop by recipe, because when people are searching online they aren’t searching for non-alcoholic gin, they’re searching for ‘how do I make a non-alcoholic Espresso Martini’, for example.“It’s important for us to be at the forefront of those searches, and find ways to bring customers into the fold and make it seamless for them to purchase our cocktail bundles in one hit.”
