Best On-Trade Alcohol Distribution Practices

The world of on-trade alcohol distribution is competitive. Efficiency, visibility and accuracy are key to creating a strong and successful drinks logistics and delivery model.

From the moment your product leaves its production line to when it's served in a glass at a bar or pub, every step needs to be carefully considered.

Whether you're a craft brewery looking to scale, a distillery preparing to launch a new product line or a no-and-low drinks producer wanting to boost brand recognition, the route you take to the on-trade market can make or break your brand's success.

In this blog, we will explore the best practices through marketing, sales strategy, warehouse management and drinks logistics- and how partnering with a specialised drinks 3PL can bring significant value to your drinks business.

Marketing: Building Brand Awareness and Demand for On-Trade

Marketing your drinks products to the on-trade world is not just about reaching the right audience- it's about building a strong relationship with them also.

Your drinks brand should resonate with whoever comes in contact with it- that means bartenders and bar-goers alike. Through a combination of education, sampling, POS materials and storytelling for your brand, stronger drinks customer relationships are born.

Best Practices for Marketing Drinks to the On-Trade Market

1. Trade-focused campaigns: make specific marketing campaigns tailored to bar managers and venue owners. Your messaging will differ from campaigns that are targeted towards consumers. Here, you want to focus on how your drinks product fits into their venue's values and even how well it will sit against other products on their menu.

1. POS materials: branding for your drinks business should be consistent across all materials, including coasters, tap handles and promotional leaflets.

1. Utilise Data: use both geographical and seasonal data to help guide your drinks brand's marketing to excel in different locations at different times of the year.

1. Listen to Customer Feedback: customer feedback will tell you what's working with your product and what could be changed. Gather feedback from your drinks customers via different marketing efforts (such as surveys and email campaigns) to see what your drinks business could change to help boost on-trade drinks sales.

How a 3PL helps:

A drinks specialist 3PL can assist in delivering POS materials alongside your drinks to on-trade venues. This helps boost brand presence.

Tap'in 3PL is a London and South-East on-trade drinks logistics partner. Our expert team can organise grouping POS materials along with venue orders of kegs, cans, bottles and casks. Check out our service offering here.

Sales Strategy: Aligning Your Drinks Brand with your Customer's Needs

On-trade drinks sale strategies need to have a good balance between account management and partner collaboration. Drinks on-trade sales is not just about securing a one-off order to a venue- it's about maintaining that strong presence in bars and pubs and encouraging re-orders.

Best Practices for a Drinks On-Trade Sales Strategy

1. Segment your customers: not every venue is the same. Tailor your product offerings and sales approaches to different venue types (e.g high-volume pubs will respond to a different sales strategy than a small, premium cocktail bar)

1. Stay visible in the supply chain: venues often order through wholesalers due to the ability to order large volumes of product. However, if you choose to sell your drinks product directly to pubs, bars and other on-trade venues, a third-party logistics (3PL) provider can help with your drinks logisitcs while allowing you to still stay visible in the supply chain. If you're considering the pros and cons of selling through wholesale or direct-to-venues, our blog on 3PLs vs Wholesalers might be worth the read: Third-Party Logistics (3PL) VS. Wholesaler: Which is Right For Your Drinks Business?

1. Support your sales team: help your drinks sales representatives sell you drinks into on-trade venues more effectively by providing them with the right tools and data for specific venues. Understand the volumes and drinks delivery frequency each venue requires and adapt your selling approach from there.

How a 3PL can help:

A third-party logistics (3PL) provider that specialises in drinks delivery and logistics has experience delivering into on-trade venues. Some venues appreciate the more personal and responsive delivery style that 3PLs provide.

To understand more about how a 3PL can benefit on-trade drinks delivery and build a bespoke drinks logistics service for your business, check out our blog: 10 Signs It Might Be Time to Use a Third-Party Logistics Provider for Your Drinks Business

Warehouse Optimisation: Store Smarter, Pick Faster

Efficient drinks warehouse operations are a crucial part of your drinks logistics. Regular errors and delays can end up damaging customer satisfaction and retention further down the road.

Best Practices for Drinks Warehouse Optimisation

1. Batch and Best-Before tracking: being able to track different drinks product batches by different SKU markers (such as best before dates) cuts down time searching for products manually in a warehouse. Utilising a Warehouse Management System (WMS) and a well-suited stock movement approach (such as 'FIFO' or 'First In, First Out')

1. Order Accuracy and Flexibility: on-trade drinks deliveries are often made up of mixed pallets or cases of product. Your drinks warehouse should be capable of picking with precision and adapting to a venue's bespoke order requirements.

1. Stock Transparency: your team should always know what product is available for purchase and delivery. A Warehouse Management System (WMS) like Clarus can help keep track of your stock and shows individual SKU quantities.

How a 3PL can help:

A specialist drinks 3PL provider will often utilise a strong Warehouse Management System (WMS) that help streamline order pick-pack-dispatch. Tap'in 3PL offers drinks producers next-day delivery into London, Brighton and Home Counties and we even offer our clients access to Clarus WMS for complete transparency about current stock levels.

To understand more about Tap'in 3PL's service, visit our website.

Drinks Logistics Optimisation: Getting to the Right Place at the Right Time

On-trade drinks delivery should be reliable. Venues often have a small stock-receiving window and limited space to store lots of product, meaning on-time deliveries are cruicial for maintaining relationships.

Best practices for Optimising Drinks Logistics

1. Plan your drinks delivery routes effectively: if you manage your drinks logistics in-house, it's beneficial to invest in good routing software, such as MaxOptra. Routing software can help plan effective routes based on where you need to deliver your stock and when.

1. Real-time tracking: venues appreciate a heads-up on when their order is meant to be delivered. Real-time tracking software is recommended for in-house drinks logistics functions or alternatively, you could choose to outsource your drinks logistics to a third-party logistics company (3PL) with a dedicated Logistics team.

1. Reverse logistics and empty keg collections: Managing returns through reverse logistics and the collection of empty kegs is all part of drinks logistics.

How a 3PL can help

A third-party logistics company can help optimise your drinks logistics. Having access to a 3PL's dedicated Logistics team, Customer Service team, and Warehouse team helps breweries, wineries, distilleries and no-and-low alcohol producers free up their time to create more product.

Tap'in 3PL is a drinks-only third-party logistics partner specialising in London next-day delivery, as well as Brighton and Home Counties delivery up to 3 times a week. We work with all kinds of drinks producers delivering 3,500+ litres of drinks into on-trade venues per month.

Chat to our team through our contact form, or alternatively, call or email us directly:

Email: sales@tapin3pl.com

Call: 0203 436 0140

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Final Thoughts

On-trade alcohol delivery and logistics is about more than getting drinks from A to B. The drinks distribution process needs to be considered from all angles, including marketing, sales, warehousing and logistics.

Working with a specialist drinks 3PL partner can help streamline your on-trade drinks delivery, freeing up drinks producer's time and resource to be able to get back to what they do best- creating exceptional drinks.

Talk to Tap'in 3PL- Specialist Drinks Logistics in London & South East

Tap'in 3PL offers drinks logistics for all kinds of drinks producers, including breweries, wineries, distilleries and no-and-low alcohol creators.

Tap'in might work well for your drinks business if:

1. You deliver 3,500+ litres of drink to on-trade venues a month (we also offer e-commerce DTC drinks order fulfilment for drinks producers delivering 500+ orders a month- check out our ecom service page here)

1. Want to deliver drinks into on-trade London venues: Tap'in deliver into London next day, 4 days a week. With our warehouse just outside of London, our drinks logistics service is swift and responsive to increased demand

Contact us using the form at the bottom of this page, or chat to our expert team directly:

Email: sales@tapin3pl.com

Call: 0203 436 0140

Check out some of our other useful blogs:

1. How Does Drinks Fulfilment Work With a 3PL? Top 10 Frequently Asked Questions
2. How do I place a drinks order with Tap'in 3PL?
3. How Can a Drinks 3PL Help You Deliver Across the UK?

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