Catalina Identifies Holiday Bar Cart Trends: Low-Alcohol Wine, Ready-to-drink Cocktails Gain Momentum

ST. PETERSBURG, FL , Nov. 8, 2022 Anticipating the countless holiday toasts sure to be offered over the next several weeks, shopper intelligence leader Catalina has identified several adult beverage category trends that will likely impact the contents of both bar and shopping carts across the U.S. this holiday season.

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Catalina expects premixed cocktails & low-alcohol wine to top list of adult beverages hosts serve this holiday season.

In examining data pulled from its unrivaled Shopper Intelligence Platform, which provides a deep reservoir of purchase-based, anonymized buyer insights across virtually every U.S. household in real time, Catalina expects premixed cocktails and low-alcohol wine to top the list of adult beverages hosts serve this holiday season. Their rise in popularity has come at the expense of wine (both bottled and canned) and hard seltzer.

CHEERS TO THE HOLIDAYS

Low-alcohol/
better-for-you wine

+35 %

Premixed cocktails

+29 %

Craft beer

+ 6 %

Flavored Malt Beverages

+ 4 %

Domestic beer

+ 3 %

Imported beer

+ 3 %

Sherry/Vermouth/
Champagne

-3 %

Cider

-4 %

Wine

-5 %

Spirits

-6 %

Canned wine

-17 %

Hard seltzer

-29 %

*Source: Catalina Shopper Intelligence Platform,

Dollars spent Q3 2021 vs. Q3 2022

Specifically, the dollars spent on low-alcohol and better-for-you wine purchases grew 35% during the third quarter of 2022 compared to the same period in 2021, while spending on pre-mixed cocktails increased by 29%.  Canned wine fell 17%, while bottled wine was down 5%.

Domestic and imported beer purchases grew at 3%, while craft beer and flavored malt beverages (FMB) posted 6% and 4% sales gains, respectively. Other categories had modest sales dips, including sherry/vermouth/champagne (-3%), cider (-4%), and spirits (-6%). Hard seltzer took a tumble, falling 29%.

Overall, Catalina’s data shows that alcoholic beverage prices are rising at a rate lower than inflation, typically increasing at a range of 1% (canned wine and spirits) to 8% (FMB).

"These sorts of deep dives into our Shopper Intelligence Platform can be invaluable to our customers. Knowing what shoppers are more likely to put into their baskets this holiday season allows us to identify and better segment 1,700-plus syndicated and custom audiences, which in turn helps our retail and CPG customers develop personalized messaging and incentives in real time that trigger incremental sales," said Sean Murphy, Chief Data & Analytics Officer at Catalina.

About Catalina

Catalina is a leader in shopper intelligence and highly targeted in-store, TV, radio, podcast and digital media that personalizes the shopper journey. Powered by the world’s richest real-time shopper database, Catalina helps retailers, CPG brands and agencies optimize every stage of media planning, execution and measurement to deliver $6.1 billion in consumer value annually. Catalina has no higher priority than ensuring the privacy and security of the data entrusted to the company and maintaining consumer trust. Catalina has operations in the United States, Costa Rica, Europe and Japan. To learn more, visit www.catalina.com or @Catalina on Twitter.