For most businesses, the COVID-19 crisis has been a disaster that buried their businesses deep beneath a pile of losses. Some businesses, on the other hand, began to discover new possibilities of profit. It is, to put it in a nutshell, a combination of both hitting the rock bottom and ground-breaking growths. Restaurant, travel, transportation, and leisure can be quoted as good examples for the first kind. Video conferencing, online grocery delivery, and unexpectedly, alcohol business can be quoted as examples for the second kind.
For now, let us focus on alcohol as a business. For some, any alcoholic drink is yet another beverage that they have before or after every meal. For some, alcoholic beverages are an excuse for hanging out and meeting up with friends. For some, it goes beyond the context of being yet another beverage and transcends into the territory of being a stress buster.
Alcohol And COVID-19 – The Love-Hate Relationship
The COVID-19 crisis has immensely impacted the alcohol business, consumption, and consumption patterns all over the world. For the first kind of people discussed in the above paragraph, it makes no difference! For the second kind of people, it does make some difference but they can still cope with it. It is, however, the third category that could not withstand this unavailability-of-alcohol crisis!
From a business perspective, alcohol sales have suffered because of the impact of the coronavirus crisis. Restaurants, bars, and pubs have been forced to shut down because of the government in positions on social distancing and minimizing human contact. This has led to the industry hurting on account of these irreparable losses. This loss has cascaded upwards, impacting the business of manufacturers and event providers of raw materials.
It is quite evident that both the demand and the supply need a solution to connect both. Turns out that the answer has been already figured out – on-demand applications. While on-demand applications were always available for food, groceries, and medicines, it was not freely available for alcohol. However, given these circumstances, now could be the right time for an on-demand alcohol delivery app development.
There are a few statistics that support the lucrativeness and the relevance of this business in today’s coronavirus-affected world.
The positive inclination
There have always been restrictions with respect to alcohol being delivered like any other food item. This was partly done to encourage visits to pubs and bars, and also to ensure that drinking does not brood and intensify. However, the authorities governing liquor delivery in the United States and Canada have loosened up their guidelines permitting alcohol delivery to the doorsteps of users, and this has happened so for the first time ever in the history of the United States, Canada, and alcohol for that matter!
This move is expected to attenuate the magnitude of losses sustained by restaurants in the United States – it makes a better business sense because alcohol is responsible for about 20 to 30% of restaurant sales in the United States. Similar to the United States, even Canada has created its own relaxation of alcohol delivery rules. In both these countries, people will not be allowed to order alcohol even without ordering a single morsel of food.
This rule was in effect ever since the COVID-19 crisis radically altered the business-landscape of restaurants and every other brick-and-mortar business. It is not just the legislation that is in favor of alcohol delivery but event statistics!
The alcohol consumption/sales in the United States has risen by about 55% in the week ending 21 March. The imminent lockdown and the fear of people getting into after-effects like withdrawal symptoms have prompted them to stock up enough for the season of crisis.
Drizly, a leading alcohol delivery application saw a 300% spike in sales and downloads in the month of March. The average alcohol orders in the United States are up by 20%. The CAGR of the alcohol market which was growing at a steady 2.1% from 2017 saw a sudden spike of 6.1% in 2020. This big growth rate is expected to carry forward to the near future. Given all these changes in legislation and the favorable growth in statistics, it is only right to conclude that the market for alcohol delivery web development is bright and promising.
The different manifestations
Your alcohol delivery app can function in multiple business models. You can either choose to have your own warehousing facility where you are the authority over the listing. You can also consider creating a marketplace where alcohol retailers can partner with you to get their store listed on your app. This provides them with an additional avenue for revenue, and at the same time, relieves you of the warehousing costs involved.
In most cases, the delivery of alcohol to your users is executed by independent delivery professionals. They do not have to essentially be employed with you but can serve your business as a gig worker.
The features
Building an alcohol delivery application means bringing together a lot of elements that are designed to work in tandem with each other. Just like any other business that connects demand and supply, the alcohol delivery business also needs to have three different applications – one for the user, one for the delivery executive, and on a case-by-case basis, one for the retailer/supplier. Overseeing all these activities, there should be an administrator interface to take care of the sanity and sanctity of the app and the business.
The user should be able to quickly log in by using simple information like an email address or phone number, or by using legacy credentials like Google or Facebook. The user should, within the profile, be able to see the entire history of their orders and also the payments made against each order.
The list of available drinks should be structured and easily listed in the app. This ensures that the users can arrive at a drink of their choice at the earliest. This also ensures less frustration and it directly translates into more orders and better profit. One of the key areas that can make this possible is to provide a proper interface for the retailer/warehousing to enter details on the drink, the quantity, the brand, and the subcategory. It should also be taken into consideration that there might be restrictions on a state-to-state basis.Â
The users should also be notified of the estimated time of delivery and the shipping charges, if any, associated with each order. The order should be placed in the easiest possible way and the users should be updated constantly on the progress of their orders through push notifications.
The customers should be able to make the payment using digital payment methods, especially during the COVID-19 crisis when human interaction has to be minimized. For this purpose, your app should be tied up with a versatile payment services provider like Braintree, PayPal, or strike. This payment gateway will ensure that your app can support multiple payment instruments like debit cards, credit cards, and internet banking.
To complete the alcohol delivery ecosystem in compliance with the new normal, you will need to enforce contactless delivery. Incorporating security checks, hygiene standards and a mechanism to confirm the delivery of the package without any signatures would help in minimizing, if not completely eliminating human contact.
The order should be tracked right from ordering until delivery. The triumvirate of the GPS, mapping, and navigation systems come into the four for this purpose. With this combination, users can keep track of their orders in real-time, especially during delivery. This also helps delivery executives reach the location of the user without any hassle because the GPS and navigation will assist them in their last-mile delivery accuracy.
There needs to be a proper onboarding process for delivery executives. While the gig economy is bliss, it should be remembered that these delivery executives are independent workers, and meticulous care has to be taken to ensure that they fulfill certain requirements like the position of a valid drivers’ license. It should not be forgotten that these delivery executives are the flag bearers for your brand with respect to the end-users. Any bad behavior is going to directly impact your brand.
Conclusion
The United States and Canada might be the pioneers of alcohol delivery through dedicated mobile applications, but it will not be long before almost every country implements the same process. Even countries like India have initiated this process of delivering alcohol through mobile apps in cities like Mumbai. The market for on-demand alcohol delivery app development is all set to increase to unprecedented heights.
If you would like to capitalize on this new wave of business, all you need to do is invest in alcohol delivery app development. You can get in touch with any company that specializes in on-demand alcohol delivery app development, irrespective of whether we are going for a custom app. They will take care to complete your app and deliver it to you, packaged and ready to make your profit.