Drizly, the Boston-based alcohol e-commerce platform, announced its expansion throughout Portland and Eugene, Oregon, Monday with the addition of 17 new partnership locations.
Legal-drinking age consumers can now order beer, wine, and spirits through Drizly from the following locations in Portland: 205 Gas, Black Rose Market, Cheap Charlie’s, Duke Gas & Food Mart, Evergreen Market, Hillsboro Best Beverage, Progress Grocery & Deli, Rover Road Mart, St. John’s Deli & Grocery, Triple Crown Food Mart, Wholesale Liquors, 7-Eleven (N.E. 82nd Ave.).
The platform also added five new retailer locations in Eugene: Community Market, Fernridge Market, Hilyard Street Market, Get N Go Grocery (both the Main St. and 28th St. locations).
“At-home ordering and delivery of alcohol is no longer just a luxury. It is an expected amenity, and there couldn’t be a better time for Drizly to expand within Oregon,” Dianne Hallock, director of retail marketing at Drizly, said in a press release. “The addition of 17 stores to our network gives more Oregonians more power to shop an incredibly diverse inventory, compare prices, discover a new craft beer or find their favorite local vineyard’s wine for delivery in under 60 minutes.”
Additionally, Drizly is expanding its partnership with Pearl Specialty Market to enable statewide direct-to-consumer (DTC) shipping in Oregon via the Drizly app for the first time. Drizly operates similar shipping partnerships in California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Washington, Wyoming, and Washington, D.C., according to a Drizly spokesperson.
Earlier this week, Drizly announced its expansion in Florida. The platform is now available to consumers in Jacksonville and Saint Augustine through a new partnership with Shore Liquors, which operates 13 liquors in the area.
The rapid growth of delivery services may help beer brands tackle the complicated DTC channel via shipping, according to Jeff Carroll, the general manager for beverage alcohol at Avalara, a tax compliance company.
“It’s going to take 15 years plus for breweries to get the same level of access that wineries have,” Carroll told Brewbound. “Currently, breweries don’t have access to Texas, they don’t have access to New York, they don’t have access to Illinois, etc. [The beer industry’s] not quite there yet, in terms of having a really comprehensive, national DTC program where you allow all these shipments [to] go into major metro areas.”
Third-party apps like Drizly provide extensions for retailers — and in turn, breweries whose brands are sold into those retailers — to get their products to consumers. They also provide more options for consumers, allowing them to order multiple brands from various companies rather than be restricted to one brewery’s offerings, as they are when purchasing directly from breweries.
Carroll said the popularity of these “unlicensed marketplaces,” creates a “fourth tier” for the industry.
“At this point in time, it is very much under-regulated,” Carroll added. “It feels like legislation and additional regulation will be coming.”
E-commerce delivery platforms such as Drizly have continued to expand their reach and increase their value over the last 18 months, driven by COVID-19-related lockdowns. In 2020, Drizly increased its sales +350% year-over-year (YOY), and is now available in more than 1,400 cities across North America.
In February, Uber announced the planned purchase of Drizly for $1.1 billion in stock and cash, indicating that the platform has more staying power than a pandemic-driven fad. The acquisition — along with a deal between Uber and the e-commerce convenience retailer Gopuff — is under investigation by the FTC. Carroll emphasized that legislators still don’t quite understand these marketplaces, and while they try to play catch-up, the companies continue to grow.
Carroll predicts in 10 years, the beverage alcohol landscape will consist more of “centralized warehousing,” with bigger inventory, more selection, and more widespread delivery. Drizly’s partnerships with retailers — such as its latest with Pearl Specialty Market across Oregon — may be an initial movement toward this, and the blurring of the lines between delivery and DTC shipping.