Websites offering Czechs new way to buy beer

Do you feel like having a beer but are you too lazy to go to a pub or a supermarket? If you live in the Czech Republic all you have to do is go on-line and order beer through a specialised e-shop. Czech breweries and internet operators have recently started to explore the ways of electronic sales of beer. One of the new e-shops is the Brno-based pivodomu.cz. Ruth Fraňková spoke to one of its managers Jan Nývlt and asked him how they got the idea to launch this kind of service.

“We actually started with selling everything. We got another e-shop where we sell all different kind of products. And we wanted to try to sell the products that no-one else ever tried before. The second thing is to actually improve the services for the region of Brno.”

What kind of beer do you have on offer?

“We sell beer from the Černá Hora brewery, about 30 kilometres north of Brno. It’s a specialised private brewery which produces about ten or twelve kinds of beer from common beer to specialised strong beers.”

Would you say that e-shops specialise in smaller breweries and more expensive brands?

I think internet selling is more important for smaller breweries because they don’t have much space in big supermarkets. It’s very hard to get a deal with them. That’s why smaller breweries are more willing to cooperate with e-shops. They are looking for new distribution ways and they are also more flexible because they are smaller.”

What about your customers? What kind of beer do they usually want?

“They are normal people who like to drink. Most of them are about 25 to 40. They just want to try it because it’s new and because it’s more comfortable.”

What kind of beer do they want?

“They want weaker beer. They want classic Czech beers. But actually it is more important for us to sell big amounts of beer in kegs, not in bottles and people who come actually buy larger amounts of beer. Most of the time they buy it when they do some kind of party with their friends.”

Na zdraví!

What about the age of your customers? How can you actually check that they are over 18 and therefore they are entitled to buy alcohol?

“It’s actually very easy because most of the time we actually use our own delivery service so we meet the customer before we offer actually sell them the product.”

You are now operating in Brno. Are you actually planning to expand in the future?

“Definitely. There are two regions where we are up to start the delivery service and it is Prague and Znojmo.”