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Chinese consumers aren鈥檛 buying as much beer as they used to: Anheuser-Busch InBev and Carlsberg both reported bigger-than-expected volume declines in Q3.

Alcohol prices could spike, with craft breweries warning of hikes up to 50% due to rising costs for barley, malt, aluminum, and steel. Imports like tequila and Canadian whisky are also expected to become more expensive.

Items like weighed produce and alcohol also still need employee assistance to purchase, adding even more friction. And some customers may be uncomfortable with Scan & Go鈥檚 use of cameras and sensors to track their carts. Our take: The Scan & Go rollout is part of a larger trend of using tech to transform checkout as consumers demand faster and more seamless experiences.

Sales in the US contracted by 3% YoY, which LVMH blamed mainly on a considerable deceleration in Sephora鈥檚 growth as well as softer demand for beauty and wines and spirits. CFO C茅cile Cabanis said that Sephora鈥檚 difficulties are in part due to Amazon being 鈥渧ery aggressive鈥� on price, which the specialty retailer is choosing for now to ignore.

How will the alcohol industry be affected by tariffs? The alcohol industry faces rising costs and reduced demand due to tariffs. Retaliatory measures鈥攕uch as the removal of US alcohol from store shelves, and a potential 50% tariff on American whiskey from the EU鈥攚ill hurt American producers鈥� access to key markets.

Instacart launched Fizz, a delivery app that enables group ordering of snacks and drinks (including alcohol). The big picture: The flurry of activity in the food delivery space reflects resilient demand, particularly from Gen Z and millennials. But it also offers insight into how companies plan to protect their businesses from economic uncertainty and declining US consumer sentiment.

Reddit introduced filters last year allowing users to limit 鈥渟ensitive鈥� ads, including ones referencing alcohol, gambling, and politics. This new update is likely another way to further appease users seeking a better experience on the platform.

Alcoholic beverages include hard seltzers, liquor, beer, wine, champagne, and cocktails/malt beverages. Nonalcoholic beverages include coffee, water, soft drinks, energy drinks, tea, sports drinks, protein shakes, juice, milk, and meal replacements.

More than other generations, Gen Z shopped for every non-grocery retail category online, except home furnishings and alcoholic beverages. Key stat: Economic uncertainty has consumers putting off plans for renovations.

This move rides the wave of "Cali Sober" culture (where consumers abstain from alcohol but use other substances) and reflects broader cannabis normalization. There鈥檚 also real advertising potential in a space lacking mainstream ad channels, said Canaves. 8. Reebok. Reebok is re-entering the golf market, targeting nostalgia and growth.

Canadian stores removed US liquor from shelves, a move that Brown-Forman CEO Lawson Whiting called 鈥渨orse than a tariff.鈥�. Target threatened to raise grocery prices within a few days due to tariffs on Mexican produce, while Best Buy similarly warned that consumers would bear the brunt of higher import costs.

It recently partnered with ad tech provider The Trade Desk and rewards platform Ibotta to help advertisers deliver more personalized campaigns and coupons across beauty, alcohol, and other categories. Its outlook anticipates 鈥渟ignificant鈥� investment in expansion, which could pressure its profits.

Key stat: A third of Americans said that their alcohol consumption has decreased in the past 12 months, according to a new report from YouGov. Nonalcoholic beer, wine, and spirits retail sales in the US grew 31.3% YoY in 2024, per a November report from Circana. 83% of Gen Z adults typically buy alcohol in-store at a supermarket or liquor store, according to an October 2024 survey from Attest.

And non-alcoholic beverages like Poppi and Liquid Death will run spots alongside the usual wave of beer ads. Meanwhile, direct-to-consumer (DTC) pharma company Hims & Hers will run its first Super Bowl ad.

Alcohol consumption will wane: US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy鈥檚 advisory recommending that alcoholic beverages carry warnings of their links to cancer will drive down the number of consumers who drink. The advisory notes that alcohol consumption is the third leading preventable cause of cancer in the US, after tobacco and obesity.

Just last year, the FTC took enforcement action against online alcohol treatment platform Monument for allegedly disclosing users鈥� health data to third-party advertising platforms, including Meta, without consumer consent. This included highly sensitive health information about customers receiving help to recover from alcohol addiction.

This year, we forecast US off-premise alcohol retail sales (i.e., alcohol purchased for at-home consumption) will grow by a modest 3.5% to $178.20 billion. This growth will accelerate slightly through 2027, driven by three areas of opportunity within the industry: ecommerce, customers willing to splurge on premium beverages, and at-home consumption trends.

Alcohol ecommerce is growing. See how alcohol purchase trends are shifting, who鈥檚 buying, and how to reach new customers.

On today's podcast episode, in our "Retail Me This, Retail Me That" segment, we discuss how buying alcohol online is different, what Uber鈥檚 shutdown of Drizly means for its retail media business, and how consumption habits are changing. Then for "Red-Hot Retail," our analysts give us four spicy predictions about the future of alcohol. Join our analyst Sara Lebow as she hosts analyst Blake Droesch and director of Briefings Jeremy Goldman.

Before the pandemic, online alcohol sales rates were in close proportion to the rest of food and beverage. But the pandemic-induced digital grocery boom accelerated the pace of ecommerce penetration among food and beverage sales. For many reasons, alcohol did not keep up with this larger category trend.