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Majestic trumps Waitrose Cellar as top online alcohol retailer, research finds

16 January 2023 By Eloise Feilden

A new report from marketing agency Salience revealed the top trends in online alcohol sales throughout 2022, including which retailers topped the charts and which fell behind.

Online internet shopping with a glass of champagne in hand, merry christmas and new year concept: Majestic trumps Waitrose Cellar as top online alcohol retailer, research finds

Salience has published a list of the top 50 most prominent websites in the alcohol sector, in a report based on 11 key metrics including year on year visibility and search volume trends.

Majestic Wine has dethroned Waitrose Cellar to take the top spot as the most prominent brand in the UK when it comes to purchasing alcohol online, the new report has revealed.

Majestic was able to increase its visibility by 12% on last year, while Waitrose Cellar fell from the top spot after its visibility decreased by 15%.

Brett Janes, managing director at Salience Search Marketing, said: “The online alcohol market has been surprisingly steady in the UK over the past 12 months, only seeing 3% variance.

“Though, while we haven’t seen much movement in brands at the top of market, there have been some amazing success stories in the middle. In particular 365drinks (443%), Farrar and Tanner (471%), and Vinissimus (2121%) have all had an incredible year in terms of percentage growth in their digital marketing efforts.”

Searches for ‘craft beers’ were up 124% in 2022 while searches for ‘Buckfast’ dropped 24%. Champagne also took a tumble, down 6% year on year.

In general, search volumes across the industry have dropped marginally since the pandemic.

When it comes to brands, fortnumandmason.com are leading the charge in digital brand reach, with Salience calculating that interest in the brand has grown 15% over the last year.

Laithwaites.co.uk have also bagged the best customer reviews, beating out thewhiskyexchange.com for the second year running, the report found.

In line with the uptick in searches, Majestic has reported its second biggest Christmas ever, with sales up slightly on last year’s levels, or 21.1% compared to pre-pandemic levels, also recording a “record” market share, the company reported.

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