RNDC E-Commerce Chief Emily Xu On The Holiday Outlook
December 2, 2024E-commerce and luxury goods veteran Emily Xu joined RNDC, the nation’s second-largest distributor of wine and spirits, in 2022 following senior roles with Mitchell Gold Bob Williams, Crate & Barrel, and Sears Corporation. Now serving as RNDC’s senior vice president, e-commerce and marketing, Xu oversees the wholesaler’s e-commerce platform eRNDC, which is projected to top $1 billion in business this year. SND senior editor Shane English recently spoke with Xu to get the latest on the industry outlook for the holiday season.
SND: Where do you see opportunity for brands to reach new consumers this holiday season and looking into 2025?
Xu: One of the things that our team manages is not only B2B e-commerce, but also helping our suppliers understand the B2C side of the marketplace. This is an important area for the future. Think about that Gen-Z consumer: brands really should be leveraging and be more relevant on these marketplaces like DoorDash, because that’s where they shop.
The way that all these marketplaces are growing, especially DoorDash and Uber Eats, they’re looking at beverage alcohol as a growth category. If e-commerce in general as a category is maturing, where does future growth come from? It’s from these relatively untapped areas like beverage alcohol. I think as an industry we need to pay a lot of attention to that part of the market and learn how to tap into this growing trend.
SND: In terms of the wider wine and spirits industry, what trends are you seeing as we head into the holidays?
Xu: From an industry standpoint, the downtrend still continues. Inventory is still very high at the wholesale level. There’s also demographic shifts happening. We’re anticipating a soft holiday season in the industry in general.
But there are some bright spots in various categories of course. From a price point standpoint, the category that we see showing up better than others at the wholesale level is the affordable luxury segment.
SND: What categories do you have your eye on as growth opportunities?
Xu: This time of year you have your typical trends coming into play, with Champagne and other sparklers looking to capitalize. And also higher-end Scotch, Bourbon, and other whiskies. RTDs also continue to grow, especially among the younger demographic.
SND: How are consumers’ economic concerns shaping holiday shopping trends?
Xu: For wine, it shows up regionally. Paso is seeing a lot of growth compared to Napa. That is a trend of consumers choosing the more affordable as well as the more approachable. On the spirit side, some of the craft brands have started to see a lot of pressure. If the name brands start to drive prices down, then the craft brands are anchored down quite a bit.
That’s concerning from an industry standpoint. We had such high-yield premiumization during the pandemic, and now everything’s coming down a bit. I read a report that 78% of consumers expect to celebrate Thanksgiving at home, part of a trend of inflation-fueled at-home consumption.
