Bloomberg.com News Article

The Future of ‘Shoppable Entertainment’ Arrives for Whiskey Fans
From streaming to buying to sipping in as little as two hours.

By Brad Japhe
August 5, 2020

The rapid growth of online shopping may be the dominant retail storyline of the past decade, but e-commerce in the liquor industry remains something of an exotic curiosity.

Don’t blame the alcohol. After Prohibition, regulation in the U.S. was left to individual states, which means that, including the territories and commonwealths, there are 54 separate sets of logistics for a potential purveyor to navigate. The byzantine landscape is confounded further by a three-tiered system in which suppliers and retailers can connect only through distributors.

Charting a surprisingly seamless course through these murky waters is the Spirits Network, a “shoppable streaming entertainment channel” that started in September 2019 with around-the-clock programming. It’s available on demand and free online or through its app to your preferred device, though you need to sign up with a credit card to enable one-click purchasing. By integrating buying opportunities into original content, it positions itself somewhere between Netflix and QVC. An Amazon Live, but for liquor.

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