Forecast pegs Indian liquor mkt at $60bn by 2022
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According to Euromonitor International, a well-known research firm, India's spirit sector – which includes whiskey, brandy, rum and vodka is estimated to grow 25 per cent to 2.92 trillion rupees ($41 billion) by 2022. Combine it with beer market in India, the total market is estimated as big as $56 billion to $60 billion (Rs4.4 trillion) by 2022.
Startups like HipBar, HipCask, sites like WineBazar.in and LetsBuyDrink.com, etc., have already been doing business in the space, by facilitating home-delivery of alcoholic beverages.
Hipcask, formerly Indian Wine List, is India's first wine and spirits' focused smartphone app and consumer platform. Hipcask is also the first product in India to provide comprehensive data and analytics in the alcohol domain and helps brands reach out and engage with their consumers like never before.
The company is an RBI-approved mobile wallet exclusively meant for transacting adult beverages. They are building an ecosystem to serve as an age-verified network that has sustainability at its very core. Their vision is to deliver beverages with dignity to those who can and do enjoy a drink. Their team consists of engineers, graphic designers, entrepreneurs, writers, lawyers, and statisticians with a shared vision and goal to help India drink wiser. Founded by industry insiders with significant experience in the beverage alcohol industry, HipBar was born out of a desire to create a responsible digital ecosystem for the world's favourite vice.
All liquor shops and distributions in the country were closed following the lockdown imposed in the country from the 25th of March, with production, services and delivery all but suspended. While people got the support of e-commerce and app-based delivery startups to have an uninterrupted supply of food and essential products at their doorsteps, alcohol consumers were left in the lurch.
States are lobbying for a controlled regulation and allowance for distribution, to make up for lost revenue-generating streams. This has also prompted app and web services to further their work and steady their businesses by extending their services to various platforms and state governments. States such as Chhattisgarh, Punjab and West Bengal have all launched web portals and software applications which will provide door to door delivery of alcoholic beverages (9am-7pm) based on age verification through Aadhar numbers.
Such technological measures will not only provide effective ways to the government to combat the spread of Covid-19 while maintaining regulations but allow the potential entrepreneurs to use the clientele to their advantage.
Owning to the exploded adoption of smartphone, unprecedented usage of digital payment systems and improving consumer confidence in technology-driven delivery companies, the app-based liquor delivery startups, collectively, could easily account for less than 1 per cent of the total market in the next two years, which amount to whopping $600 million (3,800 crore rupees).
