Champagne sales likely to take ‘top spot’ for New Year’s Eve festivities: Expert

Drizly Head of Consumer Insights Liz Paquette joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss trends in alcoholic beverage sales and which drinks will be most in-demand for New Year's Eve.

Video Transcript

- We're counting down to New Year's Eve when people all over the world are going to be raising a glass to 2023. Our next guest has an inside look at what people are buying and some of the trends to watch in the new year. We want to bring in Liz Paquette, Drizly's head of consumer insights, joining us now. Liz, it's great to have you. We know that New Year's is a huge weekend for your industry. So talk to us just about what people are buying this year and how much they're spending.

LIZ PAQUETTE: Absolutely. So the biggest weekend for our industry. What we're seeing is on New Year's Eve champagne is consistently the top seller across the board. But something interesting happening this year is that in the month of December when we compare year over year, we're actually seeing that prosecco is experiencing quite significant growth, about a 20% increase in share year over year, while champagne is seeing a 4% decrease. So while we're still anticipating that champagne is going to likely take that top spot for New Year's Eve, we expect some consumers to be turning to prosecco and some other alternative sparkling wines this year.

- And Liz, when we think about some of the hard spirit alternatives that are available, lining up shots, maybe tequila is there in front of us, what are people clamoring for this holiday season?

LIZ PAQUETTE: Absolutely. So of course sparkling wines and wine in general is the go to for New Year's Eve in particular. But don't count out spirits. Consumers do definitely purchase spirits and spirit accompaniments to make cocktails on this holiday. So we see pretty significant increases in liqueurs, cordials, schnapps, as well as what we're seeing this year is pretty significant growth in tequila in particular . And then I would also expect to see lots of consumers buying up ready-to-drink cocktails as well for the holiday. So if someone's looking for something a little bit easier and not wanting to mix up those cocktails themselves, that's going to be another option for folks as well.