Among the many items noted by Mintel in its 2018 Global Food and Beverage Trends report is consumers’ — most notably millennials’ — desire to use new channels, such as home delivery and subscription services. As eCommerce grows and consumers become more accustomed to at-home delivery of all types of products, subscriptions services are evolving and offering a variety of specialty products and services, further driving the appeal to consumers.
While at-home delivery offers convenience, some subscription services are utilizing technological innovations to provide unique services. For example, the Moustache Coffee Club introduced an artificial intelligence (AI) program to recommend coffees to its members based on their taste preferences. The program learns a subscribers’ preferences to provide an ever-increasing level of personalized service, the company says. After each delivery, the program adjusts subscribers’ taste profiles based on their reactions to the coffee they received and uses these profiles to make new selections for subsequent shipments.
Other subscription services are highlighting specialty and exclusive products to drive interest. Among them, winemaker Lot18, which offers the Tasting Room wine club, introduced several exclusive, limited-edition wine collections inspired by hit TV series. Recently, it introduced a new lineup of four red blends in collaboration with Universal Brand Development and the NBC TV series “Saturday Night Live.” The collection celebrates the long-running show and its most-entertaining characters, the company says.
It also launched a “The Walking Dead” limited-edition wine collection in partnership with AMC in November, just before the start of the show’s new season. The program is TV’s most-watched drama for adults 18 to 49 years old, the company says, making it a great target demographic for the wine lineup.
As consumers look for personalization and convenience, it seems that subscription services could become more prominent in the beverage market thanks to the technology and innovation that make these attributes attainable.
