Irish whiskey brands are to continue to bolster their online e-commerce stores as the sales channel grows in importance through the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Irish Whiskey Association listed e-commerce as a growth opportunity for whiskey companies in its Irish Whiskey 2010-2020 report published in December. It includes a forecast that e-commerce will account for 14pc of all retail sales, not just whiskey, in 2021.
William Lavelle, head of the Irish Whiskey Association, said the rise in e-commerce sales in Asia, and the African continent s digitisation, meant Irish whiskey could reach consumers in markets where sales were historically negligible. 2020 has seen an explosion in online sales of Irish whiskey, and this has played a vital role in protecting many jobs in our industry which would otherwise have been lost, he said. While Covid-19 may have been the stimulus for this shift in consumer behaviour, it looks like this shift is here to stay.
Irish whiskey sales forecast to exceed Scotch in US by 2030 10th December, 2020 by Nicola Carruthers
Sales of Irish whiskey in the US are expected to overtake Scotch in the next decade, according to a new report by Drinks Ireland.
The value of Irish whiskey exports from Ireland reached €890m (US$1.1 billion) in 2019
The
Irish Whiskey 2010-2020: The restoration of the Irish whiskey industry across our shared island report by Drinks Ireland/Irish Whiskey Association (IWA) looked at the sector’s performance over the last 10 years.
The US remains by far the largest market for Irish whiskey accounting for 42% of all sales last year, up from 28% in 2010.