Retailers Get Creative To Tap Holiday Demand

Boosted by a stronger supply chain than in years past, beverage alcohol retailers have been focused on tapping demand with special offerings and events to spur engagement this holiday season. Their efforts have included drumming up business on social media and stocking their stores with seasonal favorites and gift packaging.

Gary’s Wine & Marketplace, which has four stores in New Jersey, has hosted more than 60 in-store tastings and engraving events in November and December, including Moët Hennessy VIP Champagne tastings ($56 a 750-ml. of Nectar Impérial to $85 for the Ice Impérial Rosé). “These events allow guests to personalize their holiday gifts with complimentary engravings,” says director of innovation Mike Fisch. “Following each event, we invited VIP guests to join us for a guided tasting of higher-end Champagnes in the Moët Hennessy portfolio, along with paired food selections from our gourmet department.”

Austin, Texas-based Twin Liquors Fine Wine & Spirits has also hosted tastings and bottle engravings across many of its more than 100 locations, with flagship stores hosting larger scale holiday entertaining wine and spirits classes. “We’re featuring a handful of gift sets focused on high-volume seasonally appropriate items and gift wrapping,” says marketing director Sandra Spalding.

At Happy Harry’s Bottle Shops in North Dakota, video and social media marketing are boosting consumer engagement. “With the ever-changing landscape of marketing from traditional to social media, we try to utilize a wide range of things,” says CEO Dustin Mitzel. “For traditional media we have warm, holiday-branded TV and radio commercials. We utilize social media to highlight fun gift ideas and create a warm holiday feeling. We have a company that produces Tik Tok, Instagram, and YouTube videos.” The videos are geared towards older Gen Z and Millennials, but also have broad appeal with Gen X and Baby Boomer customers, he adds.

In Newburgh, New York, Mid Valley Wine & Liquor spirits buyer Daniel Walski says the company has focused on leveraging strong demand in Tequila, now carrying over 250 offerings, while stoking seasonal interest in liqueurs like Frangelico ($27.20 a 750-ml.), Sambuca ($23.20 a 750-ml.), and Disaronno Amaretto ($41.23 a 750-ml.).

Walski adds that the supply chain has continually improved over the past two years. “While there are still plenty of out-of-stock items, the turnaround has been much quicker and for the most part all of the staple items have been available,” he says. “Limited availability and allocations continue to be a challenge. We do our best to have plenty of alternative options available. The most important thing for us this holiday season is to be everything to everyone, from consumers looking to spend $10 on a bottle to $10,000 on a bottle and everything in between.”

Tagged : Gary's Wine & Marketplace, Happy Harry's, retailers, Twin Liquors

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