With South Africa moving to adjusted lockdown level 3, alcohol is once again available for purchase between 10:00 and 18:00, Monday to Thursday.
While you could venture out into the real world to purchase your alcohol, we’ve been told about a new website that you might want to consider using instead.
Launched today, Liquor.co.za is a new website where you can purchase alcohol and have it delivered whether you’re a business or somebody simply looking to refill their drinks cabinet.
The website forms part of Cascade Holdings which also has an events management and bar rental business as well as it’s own alcohol brand.
Curiously, Liquor.co.za doesn’t have a mobile application. While the creators of the app say they focused on a “mobile first approach” we’re scratching our heads as to why a mobile app wasn’t part of that approach.
Yes, we understand that mobile app development costs money but with all the major players in the ecommerce space making use of apps, the fact that this one doesn’t is odd.
What we do find interesting is that Liquor.co.za will service not only consumers but businesses as well. While we don’t expect long established brands to shift away from their supply chains, for smaller businesses being able to shop for stock online might be good news.
“The trade is still ordering using a frustrating, antiquated, archaic mechanism which still includes fax. On liquor.co.za a food and beverage manager will be able to login to the back-end portal, be able to select their own products and volumes and even reorder their last order – all very quickly. It is going to change the game,” says one of the website’s co-creators, Tyrone Lasarow.
As for the website itself, prices seem to be in-line with other outlets but that depends on what you drink.
In terms of payment, options appear robust and there is even the option to pay for products with PayFlex. If we ever get a craving for a Cobos Volturno Cabernet Malbec Blend 2016, we’ll keep that in mind.
Delivery fees are kept at a flat rate, For shoppers in Cape Town you will pay just R60 for delivery while everywhere else in South Africa will cost R100. There is free delivery for orders over R899, which is nice to know.
Finally, deliveries will take place between 3 and 7 days and deliveries will only happen on weekdays, so keep that in mind when placing an order.
Update: Since publication of this story, Liquor.co.za has told Hypertext that deliveries can sometimes take as little as one day but due to lockdown and unrest in the country deliveries should take between 3 and 4 days as per the website’s FAQ section. “The delivery time is 1-3 days depending on the option the person chooses, same-day via express delivery or 2-3 days via economy delivery. Same-day delivery will be available in the next few weeks,” a representative told Hypertext.
And that is where we foresee a problem with Liquor.co.za.
We’re big fans of Checkers Sixty60 because it has managed to make online shopping easy and convenient. Place an order and within an hour your order is at your door whether it’s food for dinner tonight or, stock for the booze cupboard.
You can also order alcohol through Takealot and have it delivered in a few days.
We just don’t see the appeal for folks who aren’t a business when it comes to Liquor.co.za but we suppose more options is more better, especially when the alcohol industry likely had to scramble to prepare for the lifting of the ban today.
