Online wine marketplace Naked Wines has seen success in Australia during the last year, as more and more Aussies spending online drove the business’ local sales up 42 per cent to $84.2 million.

Alicia Kennedy, managing director of Naked Wines Australia, said the results grew on an already landmark result the year prior.

“As we continue to grow our market here in Australia, we also continue to grow and push our mission; to disrupt the wine industry through a strong direct-to-consumer model which is for the benefit of all wine drinkers and winemakers,” Kennedy said.

“In the past year we’ve experienced first-hand the wave of customers flocking online to buy wine during the Covid-19 crisis.

“But more importantly we have seen these purchasing behaviours endure post lockdown… we can see [our] strategy producing impressive customer retention figures.”

According to Naked Wines, customer behaviour has shown a direct move toward supporting local wineries, and a greater understanding of how ‘big bottle’ retail conditions and major market forces impact smaller independent winemakers.

Looking forward, the business is focusing on growing their customer base with a $10.1 million investment in customer acquisition.

“Overall, our results show, the challenging environment has our businesses set up for the future, we have a bigger and better business than before, with customer growth and sales of the best independent Australian wine surging” said Kennedy.