RNDC e-commerce hits $1.7bn

The e-commerce platform of American distributor Republic National Distributing Company (RNDC) generated US$800 million in 2023, reaching US$1.7 billion in lifetime sales.

Monthly active customers on the platform grew by 32% year on year.

ERNDC is available in 21 US states and features nearly 7,000 brands. The platform uses artificial intelligence to power its search engine and product recommendations, and creates a personalised shopping experience for each customer.

Nick Mehall, president and CEO said: “A large and growing number of our customers are now embracing business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce as a complementary vehicle to engage with us. ERNDC has demonstrated significant market adoption over the past 12 months.

“RNDC has invested in this proprietary platform in the past few years to meet the demands and the complexity of our industry, and our results indicate our strategy is firmly taking hold.”

RNDC has also gained insights through the platform, discovering that on-trade accounts tend to search products by spirits category, while off-trade accounts search by brand.

It also noted that searches for luxury, super-premium and ultra-premium spirits were rising.

“Looking ahead to 2024, we are anticipating more customers will leverage the platform to discover products and brands,” said Emily Xu, the company’s senior vice president of e-commerce.

“We are also seeing more suppliers incorporate B2B platforms like ERNDC as building blocks of their commercial strategy.”

RNDC invested in e-commerce platform Thirstie in 2022, a move it said would bring a ‘compliant, technology-driven, more efficient approach’ to the alcohol industry.

Last year, RNDC acquired Young Won Trading Distribution.