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Craft Distillery
Future of the Liquor & Spirit Industry
Based on the Integration of the Metaverse
By: Rohan Doodnauth, Co-founder — OpaLink
I n late October of 2021, Mark Zuckerberg try anything, it’s that staying on top of emerging
announced his company’s intention to
technologies and shifts in consumer trends is vital
rebrand from Facebook to Meta and build
at the growth of omnichannel marketing and sales,
an immersive platform fueled by augmented to the success of our brands and businesses. Look
and virtual reality (AR/VR). This platform — the for example. Between December of 2019 and
Metaverse — will further blur the boundaries November of 2020, retail wine sales at multi-outlet
between our online digital lives and our more tan- stores in the US grew by some 11.4%. For some
gible, physical ones. In his 2021 Founder’s Letter, businesses in the industry, this operational pivot
Zuckerberg remarked how the Metaverse “will spelled the difference between surviving or closing
touch every product we build,” and will allow users during the initial stages of the pandemic.
to socialize, attend events, create, work, shop, and
more in ways that transcend how we think about With these notions in mind, it’s difficult for us
the internet and digital technology. not to consider how the Metaverse could impact
the liquor industry as a whole. According to
If the past few years have shown the liquor indus- Zuckerberg, the Metaverse aims to become a new
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