Coronavirus pandemic and social distancing resulted in the massive rise of online alcohol sales. The Doodle scheduling platform states that the meetings booked for virtual drinking events went up by 296 percent. Nielsen reported that online booze sales have already grown by 243 percent as for the end of March 2020. Compared to the same period last year, tequila and gin sales surged by 75 percent, wine sales rose by 66 percent, and beer sales got up by 42 percent.

Danelle Kosmal, a VP of Beverage Alcohol Practice at Nielsen, claims that now is the highest point of “consumer pantry-loading time.” Tom Wark, the executive director of the National Association of Wine Retailers, supports this opinion and says that these days require the biggest “necessity of allowing consumers to receive shipments of wine from out-of-state wine retailers”. So it couldn’t be a better time to start your alcohol delivery business.

To help you jump on the bandwagon of liquor fever, we’ll go through the main feature set and business model of one of the most popular alcohol delivery app ‒ Drizly. Let’s look under the hood of this application.

How does Drizly work?

Drizly is a Boston-based alcohol delivery app also known as “Amazon for liquor”. Founded in 2012, this application got $34.5M in funding in Series C round. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company saw a 300 percent jump in its sales.

Drizly works with almost 1,000 brick-and-mortar liquor stores in America and Canada. Drizly offers mobile applications for both iOS and Android platforms and promises to deliver alcohol within one hour. The procedure is simple:

1. Once the user has downloaded the app, they enter their shipping address and start shopping.
2. The user orders a beer, wine, or liquor from the shelves from local stores with a click of the button on their mobile phone.
3. The Drizly’s store partner prepares and packs the order.
4. The store partner hands the package with booze to the courier.
5. The user gets a notification when their order is on the way.
6. The courier delivers the order to the users’ doors.

Must-have features for your alcohol delivery app

Dizly serves the needs of three distinct types of users: customers, couriers, and shop owners. Each of these groups requires a different interface and feature set.

For Customers

1. Account setup panel
   Each user should have the ability to create a personal account and easily log in via their email address, phone number, or through their social media account.
2. Product search filters
   It’s important to provide customers with rich filters so they can effortlessly find drinks based on the alcohol type, brand name, price, etc.
3. Cost calculator
   With the cost calculator, customers can compare the cost of drinks at various stores and find ones per their budget.
4. In-app payment
   Let customers pay for their drinks right in your applications. Provide multiple payment options like credit and debit cards, e-wallets, Paypal, and more.
5. Pickup & delivery scheduling
   The scheduling feature allows customers to get alcohol shipped instantly or pick the delivery date and time in advance.
6. Order Tracking
   Customers can see the real-time status and location of their order until it reaches their doorsteps.
7. Re-order
   Customers can order the liquor they have purchased earlier at the same or different address.
8. Notifications
   Keep customers engaged with your mobile app via alerts about order status update or special offers given by a liquor store owner
9. Ratings & reviews
   Ratings and reviews help customers make more informed decisions regarding the drinks they want to buy.

For Couriers

1. Orders dashboard
   Couriers should have access to the dashboard where they can view the orders assigned to them and be able to accept or decline the order.
2. Delivery status
   Couriers will get an instant pop-up notification when a new order for alcohol delivery appears.
3. Real-time navigation
   The integration with Google Maps will help determine the shortest and least traffic route to ship liquor from the store to the delivery location. Couriers can use this feature to navigate their route on the fly.
4. Age verification
   Age verification must be the priority for your drink delivery app unless you want to face a lawsuit or get your app banned. So you need to provide your delivery agents with ID or driver license scanner capabilities for bars in your app. You can build this feature from scratch. Yet, this takes a huge time, money, and talent investments. Besides, each state has its own exceptions and law nuances regarding Alcohol Policy you need to be aware of.
   You can also use a ready-made ID scanner SDK to implement ID reading capabilities into your app swiftly and with minimum efforts. One of the best options to try out is ID Parsing Software Development Kit provided by IDScan.net.
   This solution can read the magnetic stripe and 2D barcode, including PDF417, from a great variety of documents including state-issued ID cards, driver licenses, military ID cards, Canadian health cards, and more. It doesn’t require internet connectivity so your couriers can scan customers’ documents anywhere by pointing their phone camera. Since the ID parsing is held on each device locally, couriers will get results in a few minutes without delays. Besides, IDScan.net provides excellent technical support available round-o-clock in case you need help implementing this parsing kit.

For shop owners

1. Product listing
   Store owners should have the ability to add or delete new liquor items in their product listing, change price, category, etc.
2. Staff Management
   Store owners can manage delivery agents and assign new tasks associated with their business under the single panel.
3. Order tracking
   Store owners can update the order status and trace the order until it reaches the target address.
4. Inventory Management
   Store owners should be able to control and oversee the ordering, storage, and other aspects of inventory in one dashboard.
5. Notifications
   Store owners can keep customers loyal via sending notifications with their special offers, events, and promotional activities.
6. Document verification application
   As we mentioned above, the alcohol delivery industry operates under harsh regulations, so store owners should provide their staff or delivery agents with a secure and efficient document scanning app.
   Creating such an application from scratch, you can create fully customize the app, create original user experience and user interface that represents your company identity. With custom development, you can implement the unique feature-set that fulfills the specific needs of your business. For instance, you may need to have scanning capabilities for Tribal ID’s or international IDs.
   Developing a document verification app from scratch, however, demands much effort and time. Fortunately, you don’t need to spend ages searching for the right tech talents and gathering an in-house team, experts from IDScan.net can help you out.  IDScan.net provides a full spectrum of services from implementing ID scanning technology and data capture to building custom solutions. Our company has a robust database that includes nearly every available format of government-issued documents. This base is regularly reviewed and updated.
   With the IDScan.net, you can launch your full-fledged document verification app in only two months. To get a better feeling of the value we can bring to your project, you can check our mobile age-verification solution ‒ IDWare Age, or its desktop version.
7. Reports and analytics
   Provide store owners with effective analytical tools to get business-relevant insights to increase their revenue and profits, devise a strategy, and find a new audience niche.

Advanced features for your alcohol delivery app

1. Rewards and discounts
   Customers can redeem their rewards to make more purchases in your app. Rewards and discounts help increase conversions, retain existing customers, and expand the customer base.
2. In-app chat
   Customers can communicate with store owners or couriers via direct messages to get any additional information they need. You can also set up a live chat with an expert for recommendations. Wine.com provides such a chat with sommeliers.
3. Scanning alcohol labels
   With this functionality, customers can use their cameras to scan any alcohol label and search for additional information ‒ expert opinions, customer reviews, better deals ‒ in your app and then order it. Vivino and Delectable offer such functionality.

How do alcohol delivery apps like Drizly make money?

Alcohol distribution in the US is heavily regulated. State-level Liquor Control Bureaus forbid to store and sell alcohol-containing products without a liquor license. This is why Amazon can’t leverage its warehouse network for alcohol. So how has Drizly got $85M in venture funding and started operating in 100 cities in North America as for 2020?

Instead of cutting fees from every transaction in their app, Drizly monetizes via a monthly flat fee to store owners. Drizly also charges consumers with a delivery fee that can be covered by store owners. Another monetization source is the Drizly app for ID age verification ‒ that you can easily build via ID Parsing Software Development Kit provided by IDScan.net.

Be the One

Alcohol on demand is the promising business sector that will continue growing even after the pandemic. To start your delivery business, you need to select a sustainable monetization model, use reliable age verification instruments, and find a skilled development team.

If you need assistance with developing an ID parsing system in your app, drop us a line.