Selling Alcoholic Beverages Online

Robbie,

I have a friend with a site that specializes in alcohol. There are 2-4 states that are dry or dry for imports, PA / UT are 2 of them I believe. All others you need to get a mail order license to sell the alcohol. It is not easy but not impossible to get done.

Good luck with the new venture!

Best,

Matt

Good question. In case you have never heard of Gary Vaynerchuk (Founder of Wine Library and many others) I highly suggest subscribing to him on YT and following him.

Thank you guys! I appreciate it. Hopefully the licensing won't be too big of a hassle.

I'll second Gary V. His books will be a great primer in growing an offline wine biz and moving it "with the times" online.

Get them and send me a bottle of your finest California Red!

You should really consult with a lawyer and not get legal advice from the internet if you don't want to get in trouble...

If you are not doing wine or beer, you are pretty much SOL. Why? Fed Ex, UPS, USPS and DHL will not knowingly ship hard liquor. Add on top of that, liquor is regulated at both the Federal (distilling) ,State and Local Level (and lets not even talk about Native American Reservations), have fun cutting through all that Malarky. Even more fun are the 18 states that have monopolistic alcohol control and wait till you get the cease and desist from them. Add on top of this collecting and remitting both Federal and local excise taxes to those jurisdictions. Let's say you only sell in California, make sure your cart shuts down between 2 AM and 6 AM because selling liquor between those hours is illegal.

Thinking about Distilling? There is lots of fun to go through there including be licensed at the Federal level.

Ultimately, selling liquor is next to impossible to do online. Your best bet may be drink mixes and supplies.

And before anyone starts pointing out Gary Vaynerchuck, that is wine, a a product that on average (outside of ports and sherries) has an alcohol content of between 10 and 16% by volume compared to lets say Vodka which is 40% by volume. And even Wine Library (Gary V's shop) didn't ship to all 50 states, DC and PR.

The closest company doing this is a company called BevMo and even they hardly ship outside of California where they are located unless its wine...

As far as business ideas go, your is a great one, but there are many obstacles you'd have to overcome. Take lunabeam's advice, consult with a specialist first! Getting a licence that allows you to sell alcohol is doable, but you'd have to take care of many other aspects before starting out.

Far too broad a category.

I've done some research, and I can produce, sell and ship wine within the borders of Minnesota. Under very Minnesota-specific laws.

Bottom line...ask an attorney.