Discover how to execute Hard Beverages at the shelf to capture growth while providing a seamless shopping experience.
The popularity of Hard Beverages has enticed a bevy of contenders to the category. The proliferation of entries coupled with the fact that this is an emerging category complicates the shopping path. Traditionally, Hard Beverages have been merchandised with their parent category across the Alcohol department, making navigation to Hard Beverages 1.7 times longer than Beer.
Placing all Hard Beverages next to the highest trafficked alcohol category — Beer — will accelerate the growth this new category is experiencing.
The temperature of Malt-based Hard Beverages is top of mind for shoppers, with 75% of shoppers expecting to find this segment refrigerated.
When it comes to merchandising the cold set, it is important to have representation of both Spirit-based Seltzers and Spirit-based Cocktails, as these are different segments that appeal to different shoppers for different occasions.
WARM PLACEMENT should give shoppers the variety they seek.
The solution is to leverage warm placement to present a full range of products shoppers seek. A-B’s research confirms that Spirit-based Hard Beverages are equally productive warm versus cold. Warm space provides room to build out variety without siphoning off valuable cooler space that can house more productive products. Variety in Hard Beverages is a leading factor in choosing a retailer—making the most of warm space provides an opportunity to drive volume with a wide array of options.
Wine-based products work well placed in the warm area. The lower rate of sale, coupled with unique package formats, makes the category well-suited to be part of the warm set. Digging down deeper, there are two distinct types of wine-based Hard Beverages:
Compact FMWBs are often packaged in unique 7-ounce formats and contain an ABV above 6%. Shoppers are 2.5 times more likely to hunt for these items warm versus cold, and there is a higher conversion rate when sourced from the warm set. This likely a result of the increased opportunities to block the products together in the warm set, thus making it easier for Shoppers to find what they desire.
Known for their large and unusual pack dimensions, Multi-serves typically are not suited for coolers and should be merchandised warm. The Multi-serve category is not as productive as other Hard Beverage segments and tends to produce a 35% lower rate of sale.
Optimal Flow & Shelf Placement across Hard
Beverages to increase conversion & facilitate trade-up
Ensure all Hard Beverage segments are offered on shelf to meet all consumer needs. This includes Spirit-based cocktails, Spirit-based Seltzers, Malt/Sugar-based Seltzers, FMWBs and Ciders. Each segment benefits from a distinct block on the shelf clearing the way for shoppers to view all choices.
Place Hard Beverages at the end of the aisle to promote visibility as this category continues to bring in new shoppers. When merchandising Hard Beverages singles, follow the same blocking and adjacency principles that apply to multipacks.
Optimal Flow & Shelf Placement across Hard
Beverages to increase conversion & facilitate trade-up
What about new spirit-based brands with existing malt-based brands?
A-B curated principles to help integrate new Spirit-based brands with existing Malt-based brands. Newness helps drive sales and it is critical to be up to date. C-store operators can employ these principles:
For any brand that enters the Spirit-based Seltzer space, but has a Malt-based Seltzer brand, merchandise the new Spirit-based Seltzer brand adjacent to its Malt-based brand.
A-B’s proprietary concept testing research shows extremely high interaction between a new Spirit-based Seltzer brand with its existing Malt-based brand. This confirms the importance of ease of findability for the shopper, while encouraging trade-up.
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Merchandising Principles to Optimize the Hard Beverages Category
Wine-based Hard Beverages should be merchandised warm.
Make It Easy for
Hard Beverage Shoppers
Consumers have spoken, and they want Hard Beverages. That demand helped sales grow more than $500 million in the last year. The ease of pre-mixed, low-effort alcoholic beverages fits into today’s lifestyles, and that level of ease is also expected throughout the in-store experience. Retailers have an opportunity to simplify the Hard Beverages shopping experience by making it simple for shoppers to find what they want on the shelves.
We’ve defined Hard Beverages. Now let’s maximize the merchandising.
Anheuser-Busch recently completed industry-leading research that not only defined Hard Beverages but helped brew up concise merchandising guidelines for maximum results.
The Cold Facts of Malts
Get In The Spirit
Where’s the Wine?
C-Stores Can Ignite Conversion and Trade-Up
Managing the Ebb and Flow of New Entries
Go Beyond Beer
A-B has bold ambitions for its Hard Beverages portfolio. The potential is fueled by an innovation pipeline teamed with thoroughly researched insights to help manage shelf sets for growth.
A fine-tuned approach to managing Hard Beverages is paramount. Click below to find out how some of A-B’s brands can contribute to your success in this category.
To Learn Five Steps to Hard Beverage Merchandising Success
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The Fundamental Five Principles are:
There are instances where these products are already merchandised cold. Prior to making any changes, analyze the rate of sale to determine if the items qualify for a spot in your cold set.
Spirit-based products should be the anchor of the department to promote strong visibility. These segments court new shoppers into the category.
After Spirit-based, flow into Malt-based Seltzers because they have a high level of interaction with Spirit-based Seltzers that will facilitate trade-up.
Next up are Malt-based Seltzer, FMWB’s and Ciders that round out and delineate the Hard Beverage category from the rest of the shelf.
Use signage to promote shopper education and navigation.
The Pure Player Spirit-based Seltzers, like High Noon and NUTRL, should be merchandised together in their own section as these brands have more direct interaction with other Pure Players than they do with new Spirit-based Seltzer brands that have existing malt-based brands.
Top volume-driving Spirit-based items should be placed cold, with an intentional variety of top flavors in an adjacent warm set.
Malt-based Hard Beverages should continue to be merchandised cold.
Finally, follow A-B’s recommended Shelf Flow principles to maximize conversion and facilitate trade up for Hard Beverages.
All Hard Beverage segments should be merchandised in one location together with adjacent cold and warm shelf sets.
It takes shoppers 1.7x longer to navigate Hard Beverages compared to Beer.
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9
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Hard Beverage
Beer
Center Store
Average Navigation Time
(seconds)
Spirits-based Hard Beverages
Hard Beverages
Secondary Signage
Primary Signage
Spirit-based
Cocktails
Spirit-based
Seltzers
(Pure Players)
Seltzer
(Malt/Sugar-based)
FMWB & Cider
FMWB Conversion Rates
Compact FMWB % of Areas Shopped/Converted
Cold
Warm
89%
74%
19% Shopped
51% Shopped
Conversion
Conversion
(Remaining shopped and converted from displays)
1. Compact FMWBs
2. Multi-serves
Hard Beverages Location
Malt-based
Spirit-based
Wine-based
Flow
Compact & Multi-serve
LOCATION
PLACEMENT & ASSORTMENT
FLOW
Hard Beverages Location
Malt-based
Spirit-based
Wine-based
Compact & Multi-serve
Flow
LOCATION
PLACEMENT & ASSORTMENT
FLOW
(and Happy Customers)
Scroll Down
(continued)
IN SUMMARY, REMEMBER THESE...
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Merchandise Spirit-based Seltzers and Cocktails on the same shelf directly above Malt/Sugar-based Seltzers to facilitate trade up from Malt-based while streamlining the shopping trip. FMWBs & Ciders can be placed above.
Place Malt/Sugar-based Seltzers near bottom of doors as these typically have larger packs and higher velocity.
Key principles are:
Hard Beverage
Singles
Malt/Sugar-based Seltzers
Spirit-based Seltzers
Spirit-based Cocktails
FMWBs & Ciders
Scroll down to learn the Five Principles to
Hard Beverage Merchandising Success.
The Hard Beverage
Merchandising Playbook
Merchandise top SKUs in cold, while leveraging warm space to build intentional variety.
Merchandise warm due to lower rate of sale and package format complexity.
Lead the aisle with Spirit-based Hard Beverages to increase conversion & facilitate trade up.
Continue to merchandise Malt-based Hard Beverages cold.
Merchandise all Hard Beverages together.
Merchandise all Malt-based Seltzers cold
Merchandise top Spirit-based Seltzer & Spirit-based Cocktail brands cold
Due to unique package formats and a lower rate of sale, Wine-based Hard Beverages should be merchandised warm
FMWB Conversion Rates
Compact FMWB % of Areas Shopped/Converted
(Remaining shopped and converted from displays)
Cold
Conversion
Conversion
Warm
Shopped
Shopped
19%
51%
89%
74%
Speed the Search
Merchandise all Hard Beverages together
Merchandising Principle #1
Merchandise Malt-based Hard Beverages cold
Merchandising Principle #2
The Cold Facts of Malt-based Hard Beverages
Get In The Spirit
Merchandise top Spirit-based Seltzer & Spirit-based Cocktail brands cold
Merchandising Principle #3
Merchandising Principle #4
Wine-based Hard Beverages should be merchandised warm
What about Wine-based?
Optimal Flow & Shelf Placement across Hard Beverages to increase conversion & facilitate trade-up
Merchandising Principle #5
Optimal Flow & Shelf Placement across Hard Beverages to increase conversion & facilitate trade-up
(cont'd)
Merchandising Principle #5
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Malt/Sugar-based Seltzers
Spirit-based Seltzer
Spirit-based Cocktails
FMWBs & Ciders
Hard Beverages
Singles
Learn More About NÜTRL
Learn More About Cutwater
(+Same Brand Spirit-based Seltzers)
Spirit-based
Hard Beverages
Malt-based
Hard Beverages
Wine-based
Hard Beverages
Scattering Hard Beverages throughout the alcohol department is likely to increase the navigation time. That is why is it critical to group Hard Beverages together in one easy-to-shop location.
Set this category up for success by placing all Hard Beverages together next to Beer, which is the highest trafficked alcohol category in-store. Also, utilize adjacent cold and warm space to promote findability and ease the shopper’s path to purchase.
Prioritize cold placement of the top SKUs across Spirit-based Seltzers and Spirit-based Cocktails. They have a heavy concentration of sales along with a higher level of productivity within the top items.
But, COLD PLACEMENT must be strategic and focus only on top-performing items.
of Spirit-based Seltzers sales
comes from only two brands, and...
comes from just three brands
The bottom line is that placing too many Spirit-based items in the cold set could put shelf productivity at risk, especially within other Malt-based segments with generally higher rates of sale.
Did you know....
of Spirit-based Cocktails sales
80%
50%
of total Hard Beverages
SKUs.
of total Hard Beverages sales
are accounted
for by...
80%
...ONLY 7%
Take advantage of the high interaction within brand families by merchandising new Spirit-based Seltzer brands with their existing Malt-based Seltzer counterparts. This supports the shopper’s quest to locate new products while also facilitating trade ups from Malt-based Seltzers to Spirit-based Seltzers.
The Pure Player Spirit-based Seltzers, like High Noon and NUTRL, should be merchandised in their own section as these brands have more direct interaction with other Pure Players than they do with new Spirit-based Seltzer brands that have existing Malt-based brands.
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Sources:
1. 2021 VideoMining Beyond Beer Shopper Behavior Deep Dive – Navigation Time
2. 2022 Nailbiter Hard Beverages Shopper Journey & Shopability – Hard Beverages Perception
3. 2022 Nailbiter Hard Beverages Shopper Journey & Shopability – Hard Beverages Locations Shopped
4. IRI TUS MULC Latest 13 weeks ending 1-22-2023
5. 2022 Nailbiter Hard Beverages Shopper Journey & Shopability – Hard Beverages Shopping and Conversion by Location
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What about new brands that span across Spirit-based and Malt-based Seltzer?
3 out of 4 Malt-based shoppers are looking for their products refrigerated
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Spirit-based and Wine-based
Malt-based
Spirit-based and Wine-based
Malt-based
Ciders
Seltzers
FMBs
Spirit-based Cocktails
Spirit-based Seltzers
Compact Efficiency
Ciders
Seltzers
FMBs
Spirit-based Seltzers
Spirit-based Cocktails
Compact Efficiency
48%
51%
49%
27%
26%
29%
74%
73%
78%
45%
42%
19%
Shoppers tell us cold temperature matters more for Malt-based Hard Beverages
Areas shopped: Refrigerated
Importance of Cold Temperature: Very Important
Nearly double that of Spirit-based and Wine-based
Nearly double that of
Spirit-based and Wine-based
Lower ABV
More sessionable
Fewer calories
Served at elevated social occasions
Higher ABV
Less sessionable
More flavor forward
Higher calories
Spirit-based Cocktails
Consumers see these two styles as two different beverages for different needs and occasions.
Spirit-based Seltzers
2
&