TOPIC:

Hi all,

I'm looking for some opinions with regards to buying beer online. I've had an idea for a business and i'm doing a bit of research to get the process rolling.

The overarching question I would have is do people regularly purchase beers online? I'm not talking about including a few bottles with your online Tesco shop but going to sites like Drinkstore, Craftbier, TheBeerClub, McHughs, O'Briens and so on and so forth.

Do the shipping costs put you off making a purchase? More often than not the postage could come to the equivalent of two or three beers. Would you rather make the trip to the local offy and buy from them?

In the event of deciding to buy online would you then decide to purchase a case (12 x 500ml) or (24 x 330ml) to potentially negate any shipping charges?

I hope that wasn't too wordy!

Any feedback or other thoughts on the matter would also be welcomed.

Thanks in advance.

Liam

I've never been tempted to buy beer online. It's the awkwardness of getting it delivered and the minimum order size that puts me off. I live in Dublin where it's very easy to pick up a bottle or two from a good off licence as and when I want to.

i regularly order beer online due to lack of choice nearby and ability to mix & match from multiple brewers. postage can be high; so always buy a full box worth so lowest p&P per bottle. often online shops lower than high street stores; so works out about the same. I just get it delivered to work to avoid messing around with missed deliveries

I've bought a few boxes off Beer52. It's £24 for 8 but the first 2 boxes were £8 and £14. It's just about value for money at £24 and I get rare UK beers I'd never normally find. But all it takes is for there to be 1 or 2 mediocre beers in the box for it to work out bad value. I've cancelled the subscription but might buy another box in the future if they offer me money off (which they regularly do).

I've found Ales By Mail and Beers Of Europe good for ordering stuff from UK. Postage is high to ROI (22-23 EUR) but offset by some bottles being cheaper e.g. Thornbridge. I always order at least 24 bottles. Still cheaper than a drive to Dublin and back where I am.

Only used Bradley's in Cork and Drinkstore (6 EUR delivery) - I've had no issues with their service.

Cheers for the replies so far!

It seems fair to say that for the most part it depends on local availability. Which is what i'd already assumed.

Interesting that people order from UK sites. Especially with postage from there. Cheers for those site names by the way, I hadn't heard of a couple of them.

Is there anything that would make people buy more often? Irish_goat mentions money off. Obviously that's a winner for anyone but how about other incentives? For example a free beer for every x amount bought or even exclusive beers.