High Tide Inc. (“High Tide” or the “Company”) (CSE:HITI) (OTCQB:HITIF) (Frankfurt:2LY), a retail-focused cannabis corporation enhanced by the manufacturing and distribution of consumption accessories, announced today that its e-commerce platform grasscity.com has begun selling hemp derived CBD products into the United States and European Union. This move further consolidates High Tide’s strong position within the United States e-commerce market for consumption accessories and hemp derived CBD products, and comes on the heels of the Company’s recent announcement that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Smoke Cartel, Inc. (“Smoke Cartel”) (OTCQB: SMKC), the second largest e-commerce platform for consumption accessories in the world as of January 2021.¹

“I’m thrilled that consumers in the United States and the European Union now have the ability to access a premium curated selection of CBD tinctures, gummies and other edible products at reasonable prices through grasscity.com,” said Raj Grover, President and Chief Executive Officer of High Tide. “The United States and European Union are priority markets for our e-commerce business in 2021 and this move will further solidify our position as a major player in the online sale of hemp derived CBD and consumption accessory products,” added Mr. Grover.

The European Business review recently cited a study by Grandview Research which predicts that, “over the next five years, the global CBD industry is projected to accelerate to $23.6 billion.”² According to a Technavio market research report titled Global CBD Oil Market 2020-2024, the global CBD oil market is set to expand by USD $3.52 billion up to 2024, progressing at a compound annual growth rate of over 32%.³

Based in Amsterdam, Grasscity.com is the world’s largest online store for consumption accessories as of January 2021, with over 26 million site visits in 2020.⁴  77% of site visits originated from North America, the site has more than 560,000 customers in its database, approximately 1,050,000 recipients in its e-mail database, with over 6,808,000 current forum members, including over 310,000 dedicated readers of its weekly newsletter. The online store has more than 45,550 certified customer reviews and there are over 290,000 total followers of Grasscity on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.