Discounting Drives US Sales Up 3.6%, Imports Slide, $20+ Wines Still Lead

Wines selling for more than $20 per 750ml bottle continued to lead dollar volume increases for the four-week period ending June 26 according to scanner data from The Nielsen Company. Overall sales were up 2.2 percent with U.S. wines gaining 3.6 percent and imports sliding, down 1.3 percent domestic. A decrease in the average price of most segments indicates that gains  seem driven by price cutting.

The original analysis, interpretation and custom calculations performed by Wine Industry Insight and based on data from The Nielsen Company and the complete WII article are available to VIP Premium Subscribers. Wine Industry Insight does not sell or market data from the Nielsen Company.

HIGHER PRICE POINTS STILL GAINING

Wine costing an average of $24.64 per bottle  per bottle gained14.6 percent. That average price is down from last month’s $24.93 but still above  April’s average price of $24.83 per 750ml bottle.

Five of the seven price categories posted gains.

PRICE SEGMENT GAINS OUTNUMBER LOSSES

Five of the seven price segments posted dollar gains, all in lower price segments.

Price gainers (by average bottle price) were:

• $24.64, up 14.6%
• $15.86, up 6.5%
• $9.93, up 5.4%
• $12.38, up5.3%
• $4.63, up 2.8%

Losing dollar volume were:

• $2.21, down 2.7%
• $6.82, down 3.6%

FULL SPREADSHEET AVAILABLE

The Nielsen Company spreadsheet that includes the data on which this article is based is available here for VIP Premium subscribers. Even this full spreadsheet represents just a very small fraction of that available to Nielsen clients.