Drizly, an e-commerce platform for liquor store deliveries, launched on Monday for the Albany market. The company is based in Boston and started in 2013, and now serves 70 cities in the U.S. and Canada, including Buffalo and New York City.

Drizly claims to be the first and largest e-commerce alcohol app that connects of-age imbibers with local retailers to bring alcohol directly to the customers' doors.

Drizly launches with only one retailer in Albany, Madison Wine and Spirits located at 795 Madison Avenue. The store's inventory is available on the Drizly app and website, and available products are delivered in as little as one hour or can be scheduled for a convenient delivery time.

Sam Baatai, owner of Madison Wine and Spirits, says there is no price markup for items delivered to his customers through Drizly but a $5 service fee is tacked onto each order. Baatai says he did offer delivery for customers previously (allowed through his off-premise liquor license through New York State) but because he had no website, getting word out about delivery was difficult.

Baatai pays a monthly fee to Drizly for use of its platform each month (sales, deliveries and ID checks are handled through a retail-specific interface on the app) based on sales performance, and Baatai says partnering with Drizly has had immediate impact.

"The return on investment has been phenomenal. We keep 100 percent of the sales," he says.

Items not available at local retail partners can be ordered directly through Drizly, with two to three day shipping. Independent online ordering remains at locations like Empire Wine, in Albany's Northway Mall, where same-day curbside pick-up and online purchase completion has been the touchstone of alcohol convenience in the Capital Region.

Drizly is the first of the online liquor sales apps to hit the Albany market but the trend started as far back as 2008, and now the market is flush with companies like Swill, Minibar, Saucey, Tavour, Klink, Ultra and Drinkfly.

Established retailers are joining the liquor delivery market, too, as Amazon PrimeNow, the grocery delivery arm of Amazon, offers alcohol delivery in select markets, and TGI Fridays has partnered with Dallas-based delivery service Lash to bring food and alcohol directly to the consumer.

Unlike digital food companies like Blue Apron, which sources, preps, and delivers its own products to consumers, Drizly serves as the booze equivalent to GrubHub, the online food sales platform for take-out orders, which accounts for 23 percent of the online food ordering market as of 2016 and reported a 39 percent rise in revenue in the first quarter of 2017.

Online delivery of food currently represents 43 percent of all delivery orders and is projected to have a 12 percent annual growth rate to through 2022, according to Cowen, an investment firm.

According to IBISWorld in a report by BrewBound, a craft beer publication, U.S. sales of alcohol continue to grow annually at a rate of 11.7 percent. Online beverage sales are projected to reach $772.3 million in revenue by 2021, and beer currently accounts for 43.2 percent of online alcohol orders, followed by wine then liquor.

As of the end of 2016, Drizly accounted for only one percent of total online alcohol sales, with Wine.com leading the market.

Drizly provides lifestyle information on its website and app, including recipes, bar tips and ideas, and adult beverage trend news, which includes links and prompts to add featured items into the online shopping cart.

Graphics are used to describe flavor profiles (a chocolate-dipped cherry for "rich" flavor in a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, for example) and pairing notes -- "great with oysters!" -- appears with certain products.

Comment from Drizly on expansion plans for Albany was not provided, but Baatai says currently he will delivery within Albany city limits and as far as Wolf Road. "We're testing the market and depending on the results we might expand," he says.

Deanna Fox is a food and agriculture journalist. www.foxonfood.com @DeannaNFox