Cannabis E-commerce in California

This article is meant to persuade you of how adaptable and lucrative your dispensary business can be by integrating cannabis e-commerce and delivery services. We’ll demonstrate how to market and grow your cannabis stores online.

Upgrade Your Cannabis Business 

First off, unlike other businesses, the cannabis industry does not have the usual e-commerce opportunities or solutions because of its exclusivity and the demand for compliance by state governments.

Cannabis e-commerce is an online space that allows you to display your dispensary and merchandise on your website or a third-party marketplace.   

Since consumer experience is constantly modifying and changing, dispensaries are trying to keep up with the trends by customizing purchasing cannabis online and complying with the law simultaneously. As a result, consumers may shop for cannabis products online and have them delivered or picked up from the store.

If you want to stay competitive, you must adjust to changing circumstances and include online ordering and delivery services in your offers.

How Will E-commerce and Delivery Benefit Your Business? 

The first advantage is that the e-commerce space allows you to reach a broader audience. Today’s customers prefer curbside collection and delivery to their homes rather than visiting a dispensary; they can look for and purchase cannabis products through e-commerce websites or apps. It lets them see the menu and make more informed decisions about the products to buy. 

Investing in cannabis e-commerce and delivery not only helps you acquire new consumers but also will help in consumer retention; as a result, you’ll get a considerable increase in long-term sales and earnings due to increased brand visibility online.

You can promote and retarget the consumers who visit your e-commerce site with retargeting tools by providing more actionable data that will help you make more informed marketing and business decisions. 

If you still hesitate to implement a cannabis e-commerce online platform in your dispensary, let us inform you that most dispensary businesses in the US, particularly in California, enhanced their sales through e-commerce platforms and delivery services. Sweede.io is one of the platforms that serve legal dispensaries (medicinal, recreational or both) in the US as the marketplace for the business to offer their products and services to the end-user. 

Why sweede.io? 

Sweede.io (previously known as potify.net) has been on the market since 2016 and offers various services to businesses. You can upload your store on the map and use Sweede as a marketplace to sell your goods on. And it’s completely free if you are an IndicaOnline POS user. 

Sweede will seamlessly integrate with your IndicaOnline POS system, reducing the possibility of human error. With sweede.io, it is feasible to integrate your pricing and inventory information with your POS software. No need for double entry. Product descriptions, images, and pricing are updated automatically.

In addition, you can use sweede.io as a fully customizable website. You can make your page unique to your brand, down to the colors and fonts. 

When using Sweede as a marketplace, dispensaries have experienced a significant increase in the number of delivery and pick-up orders. It helped them connect with hundreds of new patients in the area, and market their dispensary using the platform’s promotional resources. Compared to dispensaries without sweede.io, those who joined grew four times annually.

Cannabis E-Commerce and Delivery Regulations

Cannabis e-commerce regulations and delivery restrictions differ from state to state. Some states, including California, already have a robust cannabis E-commerce space, with more than half of consumers exclusively acquiring cannabis products via online delivery. 

Because cannabis is still not federally legal in the United States, businesses must deal with banking restrictions and difficulties with online payment processing and cash collection on delivery. 

Navigating all of these laws is difficult, but if you’ve overcome them, you’ll see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

Cannabis Delivery Regulations in California 

The pandemic has changed the way so many businesses operate. The cannabis industry is no different. During the first wave of Covid, the demand for cannabis started to increase. It created a space for weed delivery businesses which soon became very popular and is now thriving throughout the states where marijuana delivery is legal. 

Most retail sellers have shifted their business, closed their shops, and concentrated only on delivery services. As a result, patients can easily order their favorite strains online, like any other goods, and have them delivered to their homes in a matter of minutes. 

There are a few points businesses should know before starting the delivery service in order to  to avoid any violation:

Vehicle – Any markings or other indications on the exterior of a vehicle that may indicate that the delivery employee is transporting cannabis products are prohibited. Make sure the car is adequately insured.

Gps Tracking – A vehicle engaged for the delivery of cannabis products must be equipped with a dedicated Global Positioning System (GPS) device that identifies the geographic location of the delivery vehicle and records a history of all sites visited by the delivery person while on the job.

Drivers – Every driver must be a dispensary employee and must be at least 21 years old. Make sure the driver has no outstanding citations or points on their record.

Submission of operating procedures to the BCC – Transmit information to the Bureau about any motor vehicle used for cannabis delivery, including the make, model, color, Vehicle Identification Number, license plate number, and Department of Motor Vehicles registration. 

E-commerce POS (point of sale) integration

According to a Harvard Business Review study, customers will spend 13% more in actual stores if they have already conducted online research on the brand’s websites. It means that consumers who communicate with businesses through multiple platforms frequently make larger purchases there. 

An e-commerce POS integration is a digital solution for connecting your eCommerce site to your POS system. As a result, you may transfer specific data between two systems in real time and execute transactions and orders across online and offline channels. 

The flawless customer experience that results from integrating your cannabis POS with your e-commerce platform gives you real-time visibility into your sales and inventory. Thus, it’s critical to provide customers with a seamless buying journey from offline to online to meet their growing expectations. 

IndicaOnline is one of the most trusted companies which offers its customers a fully customizable e-commerce platform Sweede. With its innovative technology, daily online sales and customer retention are streamlined. No matter how many locations there are, our system will simplify your operations, whether it’s a dispensary or delivery service. Our dispatcher mode provides each driver’s GPS location, and intelligent order assignment will recommend the best driver to deliver cannabis products within the specified time frame. 

We also offer trustworthy cloud-based software that can link your dispensary inventory to online menu platforms like Weedmaps and Leafly. 

Weedmaps is an enormous database of dispensaries that acts as a one-stop hub for every cannabis-related thing. It has a large number of followers who can find hundreds of strain descriptions on the website for sale and leave reviews.

One of the marijuana directories, also with the quickest growth, is Leafly. The site first focused on reviewing strains, but after including a database of dispensaries, its popularity just skyrocketed. The Leafly database has over 5,000 strains and almost the same number of retailers.

So, are you prepared to expand your cannabis business? When it comes to successfully integrating with Sweede.io and becoming a member of Weedmaps or Leafly, IndicaOnline is here to support you at every stage of the procedure. 

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