The Direct-to-Consumer Wine Shipping Report is an annual collaboration between Sovos and Wines Vines Analytics examining wine shipments from wineries to consumers in the United States.
Overview of the 2020 Report From Sovos:
The growth of the direct-to-consumer (DtC) shipping channel slowed in 2019. With no new states opening for DtC shipments to fuel expansion, the value of the channel grew by 7.4% to $3.2 billion, compared to five-year average growth of 14%. The volume of shipments grew 4.7% to 6.6 million cases. By comparison, the average growth rate in the volume of DtC shipments for the past five years was 13%. This predicted maturation of DtC shipping ushers in a new era of benchmarking for the channel — one that will now mirror traditional luxury goods over high-growth emerging channels.
Price increases represent the most notable performance shift in the DtC shipping channel in 2019. The 2.5% increase in the average price per bottle shipped was the largest annual increase in eight years, following 2018’s previous record-setting 2.4% increase.
Despite indications that wineries are now operating in a mature DtC shipping marketplace, certain regions still managed impressive growth. In Oregon and Washington, wineries far outperformed the overall DtC shipping channel, while Napa continued to see slow market share erosion.
Finally, according to Jon Moromarco from bw166, estimated total off-premise retail sales of domestically made wines in 2019 were $2.81 billion, and winery DtC shipments represented 10.8% of those sales.
Download the report (PDF)
