The pandemic has shaken & stirred the liquor industry in India like nothing else has. With a large chunk of Excise revenue hanging in the balance, various state governments decided to bite the bullet & permit home delivery. The rest is history.
Having pushed the cause of alcohol home delivery for 5 years now, we obviously encouraged the decision. However, it is important we don’t view this as a knee-jerk reaction but a welcome paradigm shift. We have always championed this cause not because it’s good business or something “cool” but because it is a better option on many fronts.
From our experience, here’s why we believe home delivery is a game changer.
- It prevents underage drinking
There’s currently absolutely no mechanism to stop a teenager below legal drinking age from walking into a store & purchasing liquor of his/her choice. Home delivery stops that. We employ age verification at 3 key stages (Sign-up, KYC & Delivery) to ensure this doesn’t happen. The delivery agent is instructed to cancel the order & report such cases, ensuring proper closure.
Does it work? The 565 cases of service denials in Bengaluru when we were operational (2017–18) are testament to this (and to the true extent of the problem)
2. It reduces incidents of drinking & driving
As reported by the Times of India (https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru/guess-where-40-drunk-drivers-go-to-buy-booze/articleshow/68840048.cms), 40% of drunk drivers go to buy more booze when they run out, a clear indication of current behaviour.
60% of all HipBar orders were concentrated on the weekend (Friday evening to Sunday evening) and 70% of all orders were initiated between 6 pm and 9 pm. The pattern indicates that most consumers were working class professionals and predominately ordered when they had a small social get together at their home and thus did not go out to drink (and potentially drive).
3. It’s women-friendly
17.5% of our customer base were women who felt more comfortable to order at home rather than go to the store to pick up their beverages.
Privacy & anonymity are also huge concerns for customers, particularly, women customers. The risk of data leakage & potential harassment is a serious concern that needs careful consideration.
As a regulated entity authorised by RBI, HipBar is not permitted to share private user/transaction data with any third party, including directors, shareholders and investors. Further, HipBar is compliant with ISO/IEC 27002 security standards, which is the industry standard for financial entities dealing with public transaction data. Therefore, data security, user privacy, and competition data are protected and black boxed as part of the regular course of business and will continue.
4. It’s retailer-friendly
The more retailers we connect, the more we make their inventory available at the click of a button.
During the pilot we covered 150 pin codes in Bengaluru (50% of recognized pin codes in Bengaluru) and provided business to 72 CL2 license holders to the tune of 5.75 crores. We contributed 5–15% of their overall monthly sales.
HipBar also created a level playing field with an unbiased system logic, working on free market principles. The order system was on a first come first served basis with any retailer with the required inventory given the first preference.
5. Invaluable data for policymaking
There are no secondary data insights currently available. Governments can track how many units of whisky, rum or beer sold in a particular year but they do not have any information on consumption patterns, frequency, repeat behaviour etc. This data is crucial to frame policy and advocacy programs accordingly.
In a nutshell…
There are many more reasons such as reporting spurious liquor, protecting Excise revenue, reducing pilferage (through a digital footprint), better regulation through technology etc. All these reasons should encourage governments to consider age-verified, responsible last mile delivery.
Here’s to change.
HipBar
