Drizly

Drizly is an alcohol E-commerce platform operating in over 100 American cities as well as Edmonton and Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Known as the "Amazon for liquor," Drizly lets users order a variety of beer, wine, and spirits directly to their location through a mobile app.^[2]

History

Drizly was founded by Nick Rellas, Justin Robinson, and Spencer Frazier, 3 Boston College graduates,^[3] in 2012 when they encountered the question of why almost anything was available through an app — except for beer. They realized the alcohol business had not changed its ways since Prohibition ended, and they began to figure out how to integrate technology into the industry.^[4] The company launched its service in the greater Boston area in 2013, then expanded to New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.^[5]

Drizly, which currently employs about 60 people in its Boston office,^[6] plans to increase its number of employees to 80 by the end of 2017. Drizly is available in many U.S. Markets: Akron, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Jacksonville, Jersey City, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Nashville, New Orleans, New York City, Orlando, Phoenix, Portland, Providence, Raleigh, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa and Washington D.C. In February 2016, it expanded to Edmonton and Calgary, Alberta, Canada through a partnership with Liquor Stores N.A. (LSNA), one of North America’s biggest liquor retailers and the parent company of Liquor Depot.^[7][8]

As of January 2017, total venture capital funding for Drizly was about $35 million.^[8] Series A/B investors include Polaris Partners, Suffolk Equity Partners, Cava Capital, Fairhaven Capital Partners, and First Beverage Group.^[9] Local angel investors include Walt Doyle, Lars Albright, Ty Danco, Fred Shilmover and Streetwise Media co-founder Chase Garbarino.^[10]

Description

Drizly partners with local retailers to bring their inventory to customers. The service is mainly provided through a smartphone app, available on iOS and Android platforms, apart from its website. Users place their order through the Drizly app or website. Drizly retail partners fulfill the order, process the transaction, and execute delivery. Delivery generally takes 20–40 minutes. There are separate apps for both customers and delivery drivers. Drizly has proprietary ID verification technology that it provides to its retail partners that allows drivers to scan IDs for more than a barcode to make sure the purchaser is over 21 years old.^[11]

Drizly does not take a cut of the orders, which is one reason why New York's State Liquor Authority approved it to operate without a liquor license. Instead, Drizly charges the liquor and wine stores a monthly fee to use its order fulfillment software as well as its iPads and iPhones.^[12] Drizly requires a minimum purchase of $20 and adds a $5 delivery charge, but does not mark up the prices of the alcoholic beverages themselves.^[13]

In each of its cities, Drizly partners with local retailers. Its retail partners pay a licensing fee to be able to use its website and apps for iPhone and Android devices. Drizly has an exclusive alliance with the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America.^[2]

References

Bibliography

External links

• Official website