Health and wellness brands have enjoyed a post-pandemic spending boom on everything from supplements to superfoods. This can also be seen in the considerable growth of the non-alcoholic drinks category.As reported by marketing consulting firm Grand View Research, the global non-alcoholic beverage market was estimated to be worth $1.2 trillion in 2023 and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7.4 per cent between 2024 to 2030.A study from market research firm DataM Intelligence confirmed that non-alcoholic beverages now account for more than 50 per cent of the worldwide beverage industry, with North America leading the charge in this market. Addison Cain, a beauty strategy and innovation manager at consumer behavior and trend analysis company Spate, said that the average number of US-based Google searches for terms like “mocktail” has reached 208,000 per month, an increase of 42 per cent year over year.One entrepreneur capturing demand in this space is Elizabeth Gascoigne, founder and chief executive officer of Absence of Proof, a New York-based non-alcoholic beverage retailer.From a lifestyle change to an entire career redirectionBefore launching Absence of Proof, Gascoigne was an account executive in large customer sales in the grocery category at e-commerce giant Amazon. She started the company out of a personal desire to enjoy New York’s thriving social culture in a way that didn’t require alcoholic refreshments. “I started Absence of Proof as a side hustle when I was working full-time in CPG advertising sales at Amazon and the reason I started it was because I had stopped drinking personally for health and mental health reasons,” Gascoigne told Inside Retail. “When I did, I really noticed a lack of social opportunity that didn’t revolve around alcohol in New York City in particular.”Gascoigne started throwing non-alcoholic pop-ups and parties and was surprised by the strong demand. From hosting the occasional event in New York City, she expanded the pop-up’s reach to other metropolitan cities including Los Angeles, Chicago and Nashville. She realized she could reach even more customers in smaller cities by launching an online offering.“I ended up launching a consumer-facing e-commerce platform, kind of similar to Amazon, but for non-alcoholic products. From there, we launched our business-to-business (B2B) wholesale platform where we sell to bars, restaurants and stadiums. So we have three tiers of the business, including events, consumer-facing retail, and B2B,” Gascoigne explained. One of her clients is the baseball stadium Citi Field in New York City, and in May 2023, Absence of Proof teamed up with the New York Mets to provide a non-alcoholic experience for consumers. Gascoigne began her journey with Absence of Proof in 2022; she officially left Amazon and began taking on the endeavor full-time in February. The business is entirely self-funded and boot-strapped. “I just got really lucky honestly, that the movement toward non-alcoholic options was starting at the same time that I stopped drinking in my own life,” she said. “I had previously stopped drinking when I was 18 and there was absolutely nothing that existed [in the non-alcoholic retail market] at that point. So when I quit drinking this time around, it was at the same time that all these brands were coming to market, and it really just perfectly aligned.”Other non-alcoholic retailers throwing their hats into this rapidly expanding category include Sèchey, a Charleston-based non-alcoholic retailer that partnered with the big-box retailer Target to curate an assortment of beverage brands including Ghia, Surely, Starla, Free AF, Mingle, Edna’s and Mocktail Club, as well as Sèchey’s house brand. When asked about the competition in this growing industry, Gascoigne expressed excitement, rather than dread, at the prospect.“I think we’re just getting started honestly. So many people still don’t know that non-alcoholic tequila or whiskey exists, and there’s so much education that needs to happen before we’re at a fully saturated point. I think it is going to be years before that happens,” Gascoigne confirmed.