by Rachel Liu

JD released the 2021 Online Consumption Liquor Trends White Paper on Apr. 6. The white paper shows that more customers are looking for high-end baijiu and sauce-flavored baijiu. As for beers, sales of black beers and crafted beers are increasing quickly. Female and Gen Z are new growing customer groups for liquor. Sparkling wine and low-alcohol liquor are their favorites.

The white paper shows that sales of high-end liquor is growing quickly: Sales of liquor that is over RMB 600 yuan per bottle increased 160% YOY on JD, and accounted for 55% of total sales of liquors. Sales of high-end baijiu are increasing particularly fast.

Sauce-flavored baijiu is a hot product recently. The market of sauce-flavored baijiu had been growing continuously for 10 years from 2009-2019, as shown in the white paper. Sales of sauce-flavored baijiu increased 10 times YoY on last Nov.11, the height of JD’s Singles Day Grand Promotion.

“We noticed that recently many new baijiu brands, such as Guanyun, Kaishan and Jiangxiaobai, have become popular among customers. Customers are not just looking for time-honored brands or big brands like Moutai and Wuliangye. We think that cultivating new baijiu brands will be important for us this year,” said a sales manager from JD Liquor.

Sales of yellow beer ranked No.1 on JD among the beer category in 2020, followed by black beer and craft beer. Craft beer like IPA, Trappist beer and stout are most popular among Chinese consumers.

Gen Z customers are more reasonable and responsible when drinking, and they like low-alcohol liquors such as sake and fruit wine. They also like to try new flavors such as cream, flower and grape. Female customers especially like sweet wine and sparkling wine. The most popular wine among young female customers is the sparkling wine from Jacob’s Creek. Torre Oria wine from Spain saw a 110% YoY increase in female customers last year.

(liuchang61@jd.com)