SP-001 The Shelf in the Sky—Digital Strategies for the New Retail

Welcome to this episode of the Sightlines podcast. I’m Bryan Roth.

This podcast is set up a little differently than usual. It’s part of Good Beer Hunting’s content for Sightlines Premium, our insights-driven professional community, and subscription newsletter that helps industry decision-makers grow their businesses. Today, we’re going to hear from Andrew Emerton, specialty brand manager for New Belgium Brewing Company.

In this chat, Andrew and I are talking e-commerce, which has become a pivotal part of sales during COVID-19, whether it's online shops created by a nanobreweries or nationally known companies selling over delivery platforms like Drizly. Discussions of these timely and relevant topics are what drives our content on Sightlines Premium, and like previous COVID-19 coverage we’ve published in text form, we wanted to make a shortened, edited version of my talk with Andrew available to all as a way to help anyone who can benefit from the insight.

As part of New Belgium, Andrew has done plenty of research on what works, and best practices when it comes to selling beer online. That’s going to drive the highlights you’ll hear, as we touch on everything from creating a web shop, building a brand that resonates from real life to the digital world, and how price plays a factor in these sales. There’s also the matter of where to sell or promote, from app-based delivery services to Instagram.

If you’re interested in how this change is happening for breweries, or if you’re someone at a brewery making these decisions right now, Andrew’s insights are what you need to hear. And while this portion of my conversation with him is free in this episode, Sightlines Premium subscribers have access to the full, unedited version. As a member and ambassador expert for Sightlines Premium, Andrew is also a part of our subscriber community, sharing expertise on this topic and others in our dedicated community forum and via video chats with fellow subscribers.

If you like what you hear, learn more at goodbeerhunting.com/sightlines-premium. Future Sightlines Premium audio will be subscriber-only.

Alright, let’s get to the conversation with Andrew. As we kick off, Andrew shares that New Belgium has seen such promise in e-commerce that it has actually shifted a staff member into a full-time, direct-to-consumer role, and that’s because the beer industry hasn't really used this route to sales before because of legal restrictions. In the meantime, New Belgium has used trial and error to figure out what works. Lucky for us, those lessons and takeaways are already available to learn from.

This is Andrew Emerton of New Belgium Brewing. Listen in.