Top 6 Liquor Delivery Apps That Could Make Liquor Stores Obsolete

Covid-19 had a tremendous impact on our lives, and we were forced to stay inside our houses during the lockdown. Now, we have become habitual to remain inside our homes even after the lockdown has been lifted. Many of us still procrastinate going outside to buy daily needed goods, groceries, or any other item. 

Though, everything is now available online, from groceries to appliances and from appliances to liquor. Yes, you heard it right! “Liquor”, and it is deliverable at your home just from a mobile app.
Liquor is a luxury good, and the demand for it rises simultaneously with the rise in income. 

We will look at some top liquor delivery apps, which offer outstanding services and are built with admirable features.

Best apps for liquor delivery are as follows:

1. Drizly
   

   Drizly was founded in 2012 and has become one of the best liquor delivery apps in the United States and Canada. They employ only 85 people at the moment. Drizly had an estimated $18 million total venture capital in 2017. Drizly entered into a partnership with Anheuser-Busch to keep the beer stocked in their offices. Anheuser-Busch uses Bud-e fridges, which use Wi-Fi and sensors, and re-orders the beer when the stocks run low.

   Headquarters	Boston, Massachusetts, United States
   Founders	Justin Robinson, Nick Rellas, and Spencer Frazier
   CEO	Cory Rellas
   Industry	Retail
   Services	Alcohol E-Commerce

   Drizly partners with local retailers and offers their beverages, snacks, mixers, etc., to the customers. The customers can use their website or mobile app to order liquor. The order is delivered within 30-60 minutes.

   Drizly offers separate apps for consumers and retailers. They also have proprietary ID verification technology that allows delivery drivers to scan customer ID; it enables customer age verification to be over 21 years old. Drizly delivers to most parts of the country but not all.
   

   Drizly Business Model:

   Drizly does not have a liquor license as they don’t take any cut from the liquor orders. Hence, it was approved by the New York State Liquor Authority to operate without a license.
   Though, they charge a monthly fee from liquor stores for using their app to get liquor delivered as well as their iPhones and iPads. The retailers on Drizly may have a minimum order or a delivery fee which is generally $5.

   Users and Membership:

   They have more than 2.5 million registered users and rank #2 in the beverages app category in the United States.

2. Saucey

   

   Saucey is another app to order liquor home delivery on demand. It was founded in 2013 and employs 75 people. It offers more than ten thousand beverages and products. It also offers tobacco products besides wine, beer, and liquor.
   Saucey’s worth is valued to be around 23 – 33.5 million dollars and $10 million in venture capital.

   Headquarters	California, United States
   Ceo	Chris Vaughn
   Founders	Chris Vaughn, Daniel Leeb, and Andrew Zeck
   Industry	Retail
   Parent Company	Emjay
   Ownership Status	Acquired / Merged

   Saucey delivers bottled wine and spirits to your house with no minimum orders and no delivery fees. Apart from on-demand ordering, it also allows customers to place bulk orders to be delivered within two days and comes with an exclusive discount. Saucey serves more than 30 metropolitan cities in the United States.

   How does Saucey make money?

   Saucey doesn’t take a cut from the sales order, they charge a service fee on each order instead. They add up the service fee into the order cost so that it is straightforward for the ultimate consumer.

   Users and Registrations:

   The app has more than 100k downloads on PlayStore and Apple App Store.

3. Minibar Delivery

   

   Minibar Delivery is one of the top liquor delivery applications and was founded in 2014. The company began its services in Chicago and San Francisco and had expanded to other major cities by 2015. The company also acquired another on-demand liquor delivery company called “Booze Carriage” which was based in New York.
   Minibar Delivery raised $5 million from seed funding in July 2017 and formed an agreement with Total Wine and More to launch an on-demand two-hour liquor delivery service in Arlington, Virginia.

   Headquarters	New York, United States
   CEO	Lindsey Andrews
   Founders	Lindsey Andrews and Lara Crystal
   Industry	Retail
   Service	Alcohol E-Commerce
   Ownership	Private

   Minibar Delivery acts as a platform between the customers and local liquor stores. It has a liquor buying app and website and the customers can order directly from there and their order will be delivered within 30-60 minutes.
   It offers liquor, wine, beer, mixers, snacks, and other essentials. And its features make it the best liquor delivery app on this list.

   Minibar Delivery Features:

   • Customers can shop directly from vineyards.
   • Customers can book a bartender on demand.
   • Trained concierge service.
   • Cocktail Recipes.
   • Auto-renewed orders within intervals.
   • Event planning calculator.

   
   How does Minibar Delivery earn?

   Minibar Delivery charges a marketing fee from liquor store partners and has over 200 Partners and serves 40 cities.
   They also have partnerships with various brands. They also expanded their services to nationwide shipping with the launch of their Vineyard Select service.

   Users and Registration:

   The app has more than 200k registered users and has more than a hundred thousand downloads on both PlayStore and App Store.

4. Boxed

   

   Boxed was made for the people who love to order their liquor in bulk. It was launched in 2013 as an online and mobile membership-free wholesale retailer. Customers can place their orders through their website or their app.
   They received $132 million from investments in 2016 and $111 million in 2018 by series D funding. The start-up was valued at $600 million in 2018.

   Headquarters	New York, United States
   CEO	Chieh Huang
   Founders	Chieh Huang, Jared Yaman,Christopher Cheung and William Fong
   Ownership	Private
   Industry	Retail

   Boxed launched its app for Android and iOS in 2013 and created its website later that year. They deliver bulk orders within two days. They offer a variety of different products apart from liquor such as bulk snacks, personal care items, groceries, and even pet supplies.
   Boxed stands out in top liquor delivery apps as it is the cheapest liquor delivery app due to its bulk order system and an excellent machine learning technology that has been used to fulfill your liquor needs.

   Boxed App Features:

   • Smart Stockup – A feature that uses machine learning to predict when the customer will run low on a particular product.
   • Reminds the user to refill their stock as per the prediction.
   • Concierge service predicts and delivers the stock without customer engagement.

   
   How do they earn?

   Boxed does not charge an annual subscription fee from their customers, though many people have joined the annual BoxedUp program which offers extra perks and rewards and is worth $49. This fee can go upto $110 at a traditional retailer.

   Boxed purchases goods directly from the manufacturers and sells them to the customers at a cheaper price, it cuts down the intermediaries to make more profit. They choose the right product mix to generate enough profit from the product mark-up. They also own hotels and grocery brands.

   Users and Registration:

   The app has more than 4 million registered users and has more than 3 million downloads on both PlayStore and App Store. More than 100 thousand people have subscribed to the BoxedUp program.

5. Instacart

   

   Instacart is an app that delivers alcohol on-demand as well as your groceries. It was founded in 2012 and was primarily delivering groceries and later expanded to deliver liquor as well.
   The company raised millions in funding since 2015 and is now valued to be around $39 billion in  2020.

   Headquarters	California, United States
   Owner	Maplebear Inc.
   Founders	Apoorva Mehta, Max Mullen, and Brandon Leonardo
   CEO	Fidji Simo
   Industry	Retail
   Service	Grocery Delivery
   Revenue	$1.5 billion

   Instacart has partnered with more than 20000 local grocery stores and liquor stores. It offers products from these stores to its customers. They have 10000 employees who are constantly working to fulfill orders such as beer delivery, grocery delivery, and all other customer needs.

   How does Instacart work for liquor deliveries?

   Instacart offers a variety of alcoholic beverages to its customers. Though it delivers liquor for select retailers and markets only.  They also offer same-day delivery services.
   The buyer must be 21 years old and must have a valid photo ID handy at the time of delivery. Instacart does not deliver liquors to visibly intoxicated people.

   Instacart Business Model:

   Instacart orders are packed and delivered by a personal shopper within the customer’s designated time frame which might be within one hour or upto five days in advance.
   Instacart charges a fee of $3.99 for orders above $35 and $7.99 for orders less than that. They also charge a 5% service fee or $2 whichever is higher.

   They also have a membership service called Instacart Express which is worth $9.99 per month or $99 annually which waives off the delivery fee but the customers still need to pay the service fee. They also offer a separate service for pickup orders. Instacart charges a markup of about 15% to 50% (depending on your order) when you order from stores that are not partners with Instacart.

   Users and Registration:

   The app has more than 10 million downloads on PlayStore and 10 million on App Store as well. More than 100k people have subscribed to Instacart Express.

6. FreshDirect

   

   Having liquor with your favorite food sounds like a great deal to me! This is an app to have liquor delivered along with your favorite food and groceries.

   FreshDirect is a direct competitor to Instacart and works exactly the same. Whether you are throwing a party or having a birthday bash for your kid, this might be the best place for buying everything. It is an app to order liquor, groceries, party items, food, and many other things. It is the oldest company on this list and was founded in 1999, the company was in its initial stages and foundation till 2012 and grew to recognition after that.

   Headquarters	New York, United States
   Founders	Joe Fedele and Jason Ackerman
   CEO	David Mclnerney
   Type	Private
   Parent	Ahold Delhaize(80%) and Centerbridge Partners(20%)
   Revenue	$600 Million

   Customers can place orders from their website and app and FreshDirect uses just-in-time manufacturing to reduce wastage and ensure quality and freshness. FreshDirect emphasizes organic food and buys directly from farmers and stewards. They have a nice selection of alcoholic beverages but it currently offers its liquor delivery services to New York state only.

   How does FreshDirect earn?

   FreshDirect charges a delivery fee from their customers which varies from $5.99 to $7.99 and depends on what state you are ordering from.
   It also has one-year DeliveryPass membership which is worth $129 and unlocks the below features for their customers:

   • Unlimited deliveries
   • Innumerous reservations
   • Unlimited savings

   
   Users and Membership:

   They currently have more than 200k registered users and more than 10k people have subscribed to their one-year DeliveryPass.

   

   Winding Up

   These were some of the top liquor delivery apps.

   As I said earlier, liquor is a luxury good, and demand for it rises with the rise in income. The liquor market has an estimated revenue of $222,098 Million. And bars and clubs have estimated revenue of $19.9 billion. These markets give rise to many opportunities, liquor delivery apps being one of them.

Also read: How to build a liquor delivery app?

With our experienced team of developers and managers, you can get your hands on this opportunity as well and get your own liquor delivery app developed.
Get in touch with us to know more.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Is it necessary to get a license before building a liquor delivery app?
   

   A liquor license is compulsory to start a liquor business, though it mainly depends on the business strategy you are following. In the United States, if you are taking a cut from orders, then a license is required, and if you are not taking an amount from orders, then it is not required.

2. Can liquor be delivered online?
   

   Yes, it can be delivered online, and many businesses have already seized this opportunity. However, a liquor license is needed depending on the laws and practices.