Spring Sugar | Market growth exceeds 50%, instant retail may become a "battlefield" for liquor companies

Ask AI · What are the drivers behind liquor instant retail growing at a rate of over 50%?

As multiple sectors of the China Sugar and Liquor Fair (ChunTang) “cool off,” instant retail, however, is showing a blaze of activity.

At the recently held 114th National Sugar, Wine, and Food Fair (ChunTang), instant retail has become the focal point of attention in the liquor industry.

A reporter from the Nandu Bay Finance Media–Liquor New Consumption Index research group noted that, compared with the ChunTang hotel exhibition being “sometimes lively, sometimes quiet,” industry practitioners in the liquor sector are paying extremely close attention to the dynamics and performance of instant retail. During ChunTang, some liquor companies also announced new product launches in alignment with the instant retail track.

Compared with previous views such as “subsidies totaling in the trillions slash prices” and “breaking the industry ecosystem,” this year instant retail has become the “guest of honor” in the liquor industry. Industry observers believe this channel is a must-have path to rebuild a new pattern for liquor distribution and to drive the industry’s digital transformation. It has also become an indispensable and important growth engine for the future development of the liquor industry.

Liquor companies are stepping up their instant retail layout

When people across the board believe that the ChunTang hotel exhibition has “cooled off” due to industry adjustments, instant retail is like a “dark horse,” drawing intense attention from the industry.

This stems from the push by leading liquor companies. As the Nandu Bay Finance Media reporter learned, liquor companies that have laid out instant retail last year have this year announced solid results. For example, the Moutai-flavor liquor series: since it rolled out instant retail last year, its total e-commerce sales across all channels increased year over year by 650%, and it has achieved a strong sales start in 2025.

With the stimulus of a scale in the trillion-yuan range, leading liquor companies have delivered strong results, and many liquor companies have increased their instant retail layout this year.

In January this year, Shuijingfang and Wima Songjiu deepened their strategic cooperation and launched a new retail-exclusive product, “Shuijingfang · Zhenyan Master,” aiming to directly meet the emerging demand of consumers who want it “the moment they want it” through the instant retail model. In the following month, February, Shuijingfang also partnered with JD.com, launching “Shuijingfang · Zhenxin Zhenyi Qingyang 29 Degrees,” priced in the 300-yuan tier, further enriching its instant retail product matrix.

In a similar case, the Sichuan liquor group also teamed up with Wima Songjiu in January this year to launch “Lunjin · Quan Kunsu,” a full-kinds-grain baijiu priced at 79 yuan per bottle. Industry analysis believes this product precisely captures the instant retail trend for liquor and responds to users’ needs for higher quality and more scenario-based consumption.

In addition, the Nandu Bay Finance Media reporter also noticed that Huazhi Liquor, which has integrated instant retail business, also rolled out four new products during ChunTang this year, which may very likely be sold through an instant retail model.

In fact, when liquor companies launch new products for instant retail, it is a proactive adjustment to the channel’s “high reach” and “high-frequency consumption.” A person in charge of a liquor company in Guizhou told the Nandu Bay Finance Media reporter that when they previously discussed with instant retail platforms, the other party had already clearly suggested that they sell products with relatively affordable prices but not much difference in quality from their main products.

“Unlike traditional channels that make money through brand price premiums, instant retail aims to win over consumers through ‘value for money.’” This person also said that creating independent products or exclusive brands for instant retail is also a way to protect the interests of existing distributors and strike a balance with offline channels.

Industry analysis holds that liquor and spirits consumption is expanding from the dining-table scenario into everyday life scenarios. As it enters an all-hours responsiveness era, instant retail represents a strategic opportunity to define the next generation of consumption scenarios. For companies, when planned-consumption incremental growth peaks, on-demand consumption will become the incremental engine for the liquor and spirits industry.

Instant retail for liquor could grow at a rate of over 50%

Besides liquor companies, the Nandu Bay Finance Media reporter also observed that during this year’s ChunTang, multiple instant retail platforms showed active performance and released multiple major signals.

Among them, a group-buying platform said during this year’s ChunTang that over the next three years, it will help five chain brands achieve instant retail incremental growth of over 1 billion yuan, help 30 chain brands achieve incremental growth of over 100 million yuan, help 10 famous liquor brands’ official flagship stores surpass 100 million yuan in sales, and help 10 brands grow into “flash store” brands with more than 500 warehouses. After this signal was released, industry discussions followed one after another. At the same time, industry judgment is that this series of moves will bring about roughly 8 billion yuan in market incremental growth.

In fact, instant retail channels are rapidly developing into a “third channel” alongside online and offline channels, and instant retail for liquor is rising even more quickly. Its “explosive power” has been fully confirmed by sales data.

According to the “618” first-day battle report for 2025 released by the aforementioned group-buying platform, within 24 hours after the event started, the platform’s overall transaction value rose twofold year over year. Among liquor, there was explosive growth: on the first day, transaction value rose more than 8 times year over year. Baijiu’s 12-hour transaction value already exceeded 300 million yuan, and first-day transaction value increased by as much as 70 times year over year.

As the Nandu Bay Finance Media reporter learned, major e-commerce platforms are fiercely competing for the liquor instant retail track. Vertical instant retail platforms for liquor, such as Wima Songjiu and Jiu Xiaoyi, are also expanding their reach. Meanwhile, including Huazhi Liquor and 1919 Kuaihe, they are achieving “increasing volume by trading for price” by integrating instant retail.

“We believe liquor is one of the product categories with the greatest development potential in the instant retail industry in 2025.” A senior executive in charge of flash shopping for an e-commerce platform’s liquor and fresh food business said that liquor’s online penetration rate is still relatively low. The online market—especially the instant retail segment—still has huge room for growth.

Liquor industry analyst Cai Xuefei, in an interview, pointed out that the rapid growth of liquor instant retail is mainly reflected in two areas: in terms of consumption scenarios, instant retail meets young consumers’ demand for “buy and drink right away,” matching scenario-based and fragmented moments such as staying at home and camping—scenarios for “instant mild intoxication.” In terms of technological support, the integration of modern information technology with a localized warehouse and delivery network shortens the production-to-sales link through a front-warehouse model and minute-level delivery. The “brand direct supply + instant delivery” model is becoming increasingly mature.

From this, it is evident that instant retail has enormous development potential, which has become a consensus in the industry.

At the seminar “Development of Liquor Chains and Instant Retail” hosted by the China Liquor Distribution Association, the 《2025 Liquor & Spirits Instant Retail Development Report》 released by Tian Zhuopeng, chairman of the Beijing Zhuopeng Strategic Consulting firm, shows that, in 2025, the market size of instant retail for China’s liquor and spirits has already surpassed 50 billion yuan, and it is expected that in the coming years it will continue expanding at a compound growth rate of around 50%.

Liu Zhen’guo, deputy secretary-general of the China Alcoholic Drinks Association, believes that as consumers’ requirements for convenience, scenario-based experiences, and sense of experience in liquor consumption continue to rise, instant retail has become both the core way to address pain points in traditional channels and to precisely match consumer needs, and also a necessary path to rebuild a new pattern for liquor distribution and to drive the industry’s digital transformation. It has become an important growth engine that the future development of the liquor industry cannot do without.

Nandu Bay Finance Media reporter Zhang Haixia, Beibei