By Nicki Bourlioufas

One in two Chinese wine drinkers and almost one in three Australians buy their wine online,  followed by 25% in the US, according to new research from Wine Intelligence, with the level of internet shopping boosted by COVID-19.

After examining wine markets in China, US, Brazil, the UK, Japan, Germany, Australia, Canada, Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Portugal, Wine Intelligence found that 52% of regular wine drinkers in China buy their wine online (up from 41% in 2017) while 31% of regular wine drinkers in Australia purchased online in the six months before the survey was conducted in June and July 2020 (up from 30% in 2017).

The biggest jump in online buying was in the US, where one in four drinkers buy online, up from 14% in 2017, as the chart shows. The study did not include the major wine consuming nations of Spain, Italy or France.

In terms of the number of people who buy online, China leads the way at 27.3 million people, followed by the US at 19.3 million people then Brazil at 10.6 million people.

A separate survey, the 2020 Global Drug Survey, the world’s largest annual drug survey, has found some people are also drinking more in COVID-19.

According to that online survey, 43% of respondents reported increasing the frequency of drinking alcohol while one in four people said they drank less. Separately, 36% reported an increase in the amount of alcohol they drank on a typical day while 22% reported a decrease, compared to pre COVID-19.

More people were aslo drinking during Zoom, video and other calls, compared to before the pandemic.