Drink Apps Survey: Beer, Wine Drinkers Most Likely to Have Apps

There are mobile apps for just about everything these days, including drinks. According to research from Wine Business, the vast majority of wine drinkers have smartphones. And more than a quarter of them have apps specifically related to wine on their mobile devices. There are also apps related to beer and other drinks available. So how many consumers currently have drink apps on their devices? And which are the most popular? We asked 1,000 respondents on October 11-14 about their use of mobile apps and drink apps specifically.

Drink Habits

In Ask Your Target Market’s latest survey, 13% of respondents said that they last drank beer, wine or other alcoholic beverages within the past day. 21% have within the past week. 11% have within the past month. 9% have done so in the past three months. 6% said they last enjoyed alcoholic beverages within the past year. 7% said it’s been more than a year. And 33% said they aren’t alcohol consumers at all.In general, 54% of alcohol consumers said that they regularly drink beer. 48% drink wine regularly. 42% drink mixed drinks. 38% enjoy liquor. And 20% enjoy hard soda or cider beverages regularly.

Drink Apps

Overall, 79% of alcohol consumers said that they currently own a smartphone. However, just 10% of those smartphone users said they have multiple mobile apps related to beer, wine or spirits. 8% have one such mobile app. 5% said they don’t currently have any drink apps on their mobile devices, but they have in the past. And 78% said they’ve never used any drink apps. Beer and wine drinkers were more likely than others to have drink apps on their devices.Taphunter, Untappd, My Cocktail Bar and Minibar were some of the popular apps mentioned by those respondents. However, many also mentioned social media apps like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat as apps that they use to find information about beer, wine and spirits. Looking forward, 20% of respondents said that they are likely to download mobile apps related to beer, wine or spirits within the next year.

App Usage

Generally, 5% of respondents said that they download new mobile apps pretty much every day. 15% do so at least once per week. 28% do so at least once per month. 36% said they download new mobile apps a few times per year. 9% do so less than once a year. And 7% said they never download new mobile apps.Though there are many potential functions that drink apps can offer, providing information about different drink options at bars or restaurants, or even pairing recommendations, can be a popular one. Overall, 47% of respondents said they’ve used mobile apps while out at restaurants and bars. 27% said they’ve used mobile devices to inform their ordering decisions at bars or restaurants. And 27% also said that they’ve used mobile apps to inform their ordering decisions at bars or restaurants.

Key Takeaways

Dedicated drink apps haven’t exactly caught on with a majority of alcohol consumers, though there is room for improvement. A majority of smartphone owners download multiple new apps each year, and some already plan on finding new drink apps in the coming year. But since few mobile consumers download new apps more than a few times a year, drink apps will have to really show customers why they should pick one specific app over the others. Offering multiple functions in one app, such as the ability to locate nearby restaurants that serve specific beer or wine brands and then also recommending food pairings, could be one way to set an app apart so that consumers don’t need to download different apps for every single function. But companies that make drink apps should also be aware of how many consumers use social media platforms for similar functions. It might be worth it to build a strong presence on social media or even feature some of the app functions on those platforms in order to drive new downloads.You can view the complete survey results in the widget below and be sure to click “Open Full Report” to take advantage of all the chart and filter options.Photo Credit: what more do you need by Maria Hellstrom under CC BY-SA 2.0What do you want to know? If you need some consumer insights on a particular topic, let us know in the comments below and we’ll consider it for an upcoming survey post.

Results were collected on October 11-14 via AYTM’s online survey panel.