What are the potential harms of online delivery?

Concerns have been raised about online delivery services not checking IDs properly when dropping off alcohol at someone’s doorstep, or when the original purchase is made online.

There’s evidence that overall, age verification compliance is considerably worse for online alcohol delivery services than in physical liquor stores.¹

A survey from CAPR/FARE found that of their 528 respondents who were under 25 years, 36.2% did not have their ID checked on delivery because:

it wasn’t asked for
someone accepted the order for them
the delivery was left unattended (many home delivery services allow alcohol to be left unattended at the customer’s doorstep).²

Separate research conducted by VicHealth found that 1 in 4 participants aged 18-24 years did not have their ID checked.⁴

Many public health advocates are concerned that this method of selling alcohol has made underage drinking and risky drinking easier for teenagers – potentially increasing alcohol-related harms in this group.^{1, 2}

Furthermore, home delivery potentially increases the opportunity for secondary supply and young people’s exposure to alcohol in the home.

What is Secondary Supply?

‘Secondary supply’ is when an adult provides alcohol to someone under 18 – and it’s the most common way that underage drinkers obtain alcohol.10

In Australia, it’s against the law to serve alcohol in a private home to anyone under 18, unless you’re the young person’s parent or guardian or, in the case of most states and territories, you have permission from the parent/guardian.

Secondary supply laws are no different when it comes to online alcohol delivery. It is illegal for any individual over 18 to use an online delivery service to supply alcohol to an underage unless they are the parent or guardian. Read more about secondary supply.

Alcohol intoxication is linked to a wide range of harms, including deaths, suicides, injury, domestic violence, road accidents, reoffending and child abuse and neglect.^11-15

Online delivery can be easily accessed by people who are already heavily intoxicated – potentially increasing the risk of some of these harms occurring.

People who use rapid delivery services are more likely to be drinking at very risky levels.

In VicHealth’s survey:

37% of people who used rapid delivery services reported very risky drinking at least monthly
for people who didn’t use rapid delivery services, only 11% reported very risky drinking at least monthly.^{2, 16}

And because online alcohol can be delivered so quickly, it can extend drinking sessions that otherwise may have ended because there’s nothing left to drink.

The CAPR/FARE survey found that of the respondents who used a rapid delivery service in the past year, 28% said they would have stopped drinking if the service had not been available.²
VicHealth research also found that 77% of those who used alcohol delivery services weekly, would have stopped drinking on some, most, or all occasions if delivery hadn’t been available.¹⁶

Liquor Acts In every state and territory make it illegal to sell, serve or supply alcohol on a licensed premises to someone who is intoxicated.¹⁷ Some Acts have also been amended to specify online delivery. For further information visit your relevant state or territory liquor regulator’s website:

Access to cheap alcohol is now easier than ever due to online delivery services.

Many online retailers also offer promotions and discounts to tempt customers to purchase larger amounts of alcohol.

In one Australian study, 81.5% of online retailers offered discounted prices for larger purchases. And, 53.8% offered free or discounted delivery for purchases over a certain dollar amount.¹ For example:

“$2 delivery on app orders! (limited time only)”
“Order 7 times get your 8th [delivery] free”
“Handpicked by Jimmy Brings, 2 for $20.99 (save $7)”.¹⁸

So why does this matter?

It matters because price is recognised as one of the most effective ways to reduce alcohol-related harms.¹⁹

We know there’s a link between cheap alcohol and harms such as disease and injuries, road accidents and violence.^20-22

This is because cheap alcohol encourages consumers to drink more, increasing the likelihood of harms occurring.^{23, 24}

Heavy drinkers are also more likely to prefer cheap drinks and respond more to price changes.

When the cost of cheap alcohol increases, heavy drinkers tend to not drink as much, reducing some of the associated harms.^{25, 26}

Some online services are also offering customers ‘buy now, pay later’ (BNPL) options, like Afterpay and Zip Money. This allows customers to make a purchase but delay the full payment, spreading the cost out over weeks or months.

This makes alcohol easier to access, as it significantly reduces the upfront cost.¹ But, this can be a financial risk for people who might be struggling with money and use Afterpay to purchase alcohol they can’t afford.¹ This could include someone experiencing an alcohol dependence or someone who is very intoxicated while placing an order and their judgement is affected.¹

Overall, online delivery has made alcohol much easier and convenient to access. This includes at night-time – when alcohol harms are most likely to occur.^27-29

The CAPR/FARE survey found:

respondents were more likely to order after 6pm
51% of rapid delivery orders were placed between 6 – 9pm
a further 20% were placed between 9am and midnight.²

And, we know that:

alcohol-related assaults increase significantly between 6pm and 3am
37% of these assaults happen in the home
more than half (57%) are family violence-related
suicides and sudden or unnatural deaths involving alcohol are more likely to happen at night and in the home.^{27, 28}

One way to lower alcohol harm in a particular area is to reduce its physical availability – for example, by only allowing a certain number of pubs, bars and bottle shops to operate so alcohol isn’t too easily available. This is known as restricting ‘outlet density’.³⁰

But, online delivery services are not bound by physical space. They can deliver to anyone across different postcodes and will often overlap with other delivery services.

Because people can now get alcohol at physical outlets and through online delivery, it’s much more available in any given community and it’s harder to use ‘outlet density’ as a way to manage alcohol harm in that area.³¹