The WeedMaps parent company, WM Technology, Inc., announced this week that they have acquired Sprout, a cloud-based CRM and marketing platform in the cannabis industry. Sprout’s CRM software is used by dispensaries, distributors and cultivators in 28 different states and offers a variety of marketing services like text marketing, email marketing, coupons, surveys and more.
The Sprout Messenger software was launched back in April of this year and at the time was touted as a gamechanger in marketing technology, allowing companies to interact with their customers via email, text and their in-house chat in two-way chats.
WM Technology, Inc. was originally founded in 2008. Based in Irvine, California, the company’s business-to-consumer platform, WeedMaps, is known as a go-to resource for consumers seeking cannabis retailers. The app and website now offer online ordering, brand listings, product information and consumer education.
On the business-to-business side, WM Technology, Inc. has grown to include WM Business, a cloud-based SaaS solutions platform with offerings like point of sale, logistics, wholesale and ordering solutions software.
The acquisition of Sprout will help the WM Technology team grow their WM Business portfolio to offer more software solutions, according to Chris Beals, CEO and chairman of WM Technology, Inc. “Our strategy focuses on establishing WM Business as the software solution of choice for cannabis businesses,” says Beals. “With the addition of Sprout, we are one step closer to realizing this vision of providing an all-in-one seamless and integrated solution to run, manage, and grow one’s cannabis business. This acquisition will allow our clients to better target, reach, acquire and retain customers at scale.”
WM Technology, Inc. did not disclose the financial details of the acquisition yet.
At the outset of 2020, the cannabis industry appeared poised for a series of incremental changes: a number of states were considering decriminalization and legalization measures, and support was growing for federal legislation allowing cannabis businesses access to banks and financial services. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, which disrupted state legislative sessions (and legislative priorities), obstructed signature gathering for ballot initiatives, and reshuffled federal priorities. However, despite all of these changes, the cannabis industry has seen significant developments across the country. Beyond of course the many challenges and losses brought by the pandemic and its aftermath, in some ways, it may prove a boon for the industry.
Legalization and Decriminalization
Currently around a dozen states have legalized cannabis for recreational use, while just under two dozen states allow use of medicinal cannabis. With support for legalization measures steadily growing in most states, a number of major states seemed poised to pass legislation legalizing recreational cannabis, including large potential markets in the Northeast such as New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. And in many other states, advocacy groups were well underway gathering signatures to qualify legalization measures for the November 2020 ballot. When the pandemic hit, however, state legislatures largely suspended their normal operations, and signature gatherers were stymied by stay-at-home orders and social distancing requirements.
Despite these major obstacles, legalization and decriminalization legislation has continued to move forward in a number of states, and still others will have legalization referenda on the ballot for November’s election. Perhaps more important than these initiatives themselves are the diverse states that are moving toward loosening of restrictions around cannabis: rather than being limited to a handful of especially liberal states, cannabis advocates are seeing tangible progress is every geographic area, among states whose political leanings span the spectrum.
Whether through the legislature or directly by the ballot, it seems likely some states will legalize adult use this year
While the Northeast corridor had planned to undertake legalization efforts in a coordinated fashion this year, those results were put on hold given the seriousness of initial COVID-19 outbreaks in the greater New York area. However, the New Jersey General Assembly nevertheless passed decriminalization legislation, though the matter has not yet cleared the New Jersey Senate, and the appetite for full-scale legalization remains strong there, with a ballot initiative going directly to voters in advance of the New Jersey Legislature considering the issue. The Commonwealth of Virginia enacted decriminalization legislation also, and a legislative caucus in Virginia has pledged to introduce recreational legalization legislation this summer when Virginia convenes a special legislative session. Voters in Mississippi and South Dakota will be able to vote on ballot initiatives to legalize recreational cannabis, and similar ballot initiatives are underway or likely in Arizona and Nebraska. Advocates in Arkansas and Oklahoma had also hoped to bring initiatives to the ballot, but have encountered practical and legal obstacles to gathering the required signatures in time for this year’s election.
These myriad initiatives reflect a strong shift toward legalization of recreational cannabis across the country, and the ability to continue gathering signatures and momentum despite stay-at-home orders and social distancing underscores the growing popularity of the movement. Whether through the legislature or directly by the ballot, it seems all but certain that the number of states permitting recreational cannabis will grow significantly this year.
COVID-19 Business Closures
As the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in the early months of 2020, most states instituted various forms of stay-at-home orders that required the closure of nonessential businesses. While these policies had—and continue to have—serious impacts on businesses of every type, cannabis companies have largely seen strong economic growth notwithstanding.
One of the most important developments in this space came in the context of state and local governments designating certain businesses as “essential” for purposes of business closure orders. In nearly every state to consider the issue—Massachusetts being the main outlier—state and local governments recognized cannabis companies as essential, which allowed them to operate during the shutdown.
The “essential” designation largely carried between both recreational and medicinal cannabis jurisdictions. And this matters because of what it means for the industry. State and local governments clearly realize the important medicinal role that cannabis plays for patients dependent on it for treatment, and the overlapping customer bases of mixed dispensaries further contributed to keeping cannabis companies open during the pandemic. Even in states where certain dispensaries operate solely in a recreational capacity, those jurisdictions recognized the importance of allowing access to a safe recreational substance, like alcohol, during prolonged stay-at-home orders.
Similarly, likely as a result of those same stay-at-home orders, cannabis companies largely saw significant increases in sales revenue. More customers visited retail establishments, and those customers often purchased more product per visit. This resulted in better-than-expected sales revenue for cannabis companies, and also produced increased tax revenues for state and local governments.
The cannabis industry saw more than just increased sales, however. In the process of issuing emergency rules for the cannabis industry during quarantine, a number of state and local jurisdictions either began to allow cannabis deliveries or expanded its availability, a shift in policy that may stick around well after the pandemic subsides.
One final impact of the pandemic may also help push legalization initiatives forward in the coming years: decreased tax revenue and major budget gaps. Due both to a decrease in economic activity like shopping and dining, as well as the unexpected health care costs associated with responding to the COVID-19 crisis, state and local budgets are expected to see significant shortcomings for years to come. In response, state and local governments are starting to see cannabis as a significant and viable source of tax revenue. For example, various cities in California that had previously been reluctant to permit recreational cannabis are beginning to welcome cannabis companies in hopes of making up for lost tax revenue. Similarly, in New Mexico, where legalization has remained a heated topic of discussion, Gov. Lujan Grisham has explicitly expressed her regret that the state failed to legalize cannabis, recognizing that tax revenues from the industry could have reached upwards of $100 million. Other state and local governments are coming to similar realizations, which should help propel expanded access to legal cannabis in coming years.
Federal Changes
Major changes in the cannabis industry in 2020 have not been limited to the states. In the midst of changes and crises across the country, the federal government has been making meaningful progress in two major respects, COVID-19 notwithstanding.
SAFE Banking Act language included in COVID-19 relief package legislation
First, cannabis companies are edging closer to having full access to banks, bank accounts and related financial services. The SAFE Banking Act, championed by Rep. Perlmutter, has made it through the House of Representatives and is currently in the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. However, as Congress continues to toil away at future COVID-19 relief legislation, political signals from Washington, D.C., suggest there is a reasonable likelihood that the protections of the SAFE Banking Act will be included, in some form, in the next round of major COVID-19 legislation out of Congress. The enactment of these banking provisions will provide substantial relief to cannabis companies who have largely been excluded from opening bank accounts and utilizing the services major banks provide. Additionally, allowing access to banks and their services should further facilitate the rapid growth in the cannabis economy we are witnessing elsewhere, and this movement could further legitimize the industry as part of a broader push for federal legalization.
Second, after a four-year delay, the DEA has finally proposed draft rules to expand the DEA’s limited cannabis research program. For decades, all cannabis research to date has relied on limited supplies of cannabis grown at the University of Mississippi. Now the DEA is finally following through on its promise to further develop, refine and expand its research program by allowing additional suppliers and market participants to play a role in cannabis research. While the rules proposed are not without detractors and critiques—and the rules themselves have not been finalized—this marks an important step forward to a better understanding of the effects of THC on consumers, not only because more research is needed to understand a substance consumed by millions annually, but also because the limited supply of cannabis on which researchers currently rely has been shown to differ substantially in appearance, consistency and chemical composition from cannabis that is commercially available in states across the country. With an expanded research regime comes the hope that scientists will be able to develop new and innovative cannabis-derived medications, while also furthering our understanding of how THC affects health and the body.
At every level of government, the year in cannabis so far has proven to be far more eventful than many predicted. And the COVID-19 crisis has not slowed progress. There appears to be continued momentum to further mature how cannabis is treated at every level of government, which signals that significant changes are on the horizon. Industry observers will be closely focused on how the rest of the year proceeds, especially with a presidential election on the horizon.
Editor’s Note: This article was revised to clarify that New Jersey has not yet decriminalized marijuana. A decriminalization bill passed the New Jersey General Assembly, but the New Jersey Senate has not acted as of this writing.
Before jumping into what cannabis businesses can do amid this pandemic, it is crucial to explore the specifics behind how the virus impacted the industry as a whole. From a surface level, it seems obvious what happened: dispensaries had to implement social distancing protocols, require both customers and employees to wear masks and limited the number of customers that can be present on the point-of-sale floor room. But COVID-19 did not merely make shopping experiences a tab bit inconvenient.
Cannabis producers, and especially those involved in manufacturing cannabis goods, experienced an apparent disruption in their production schedules. If the metals and plastics were sourced from Wuhan, Shenzhen or any other dense industrial area in China, supplies suddenly stopped coming, and producers were left with limited production options. Businesses did not consider the value of having various vendors and instead put all their stock in one source. A disruption in production inherently impacts dispensaries.
COVID-19 impacted more than just supply chains, however. For instance, investors are now less likely than before the pandemic to invest in early-stage cannabis companies. Competition for capital now far outweighs the supply for cannabis companies, and we have seen (and will continue to see) a drop in company valuations. Indeed, COVID-19 is affecting more than just currently existing operators but those yet struggling to create cannabis businesses of their own.
Vendors & Supplies
A broad survey conducted by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) between February 22, 2020 and March 5, 2020 found that 75% of U.S. companies had experienced supply chain disruption as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. An estimated 90-95% of all components utilized in cannabis vaporizer pens were sourced from manufacturers in Shenzhen, China. In contrast, very few companies used domestic manufacturers. While this is just one example, it is equally important to note that cannabis-specific equipment and supply shortages were not the only factors that disrupted cannabis businesses. Shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) presented challenges for cannabis dispensaries, producers and manufacturers that continued to operate during the “shelter in place” orders.
Operators must establish a resilient supply chain. Do not simply limit your options to one specific region, as this can be a costly mistake. Operators must cultivate an in-depth understanding of their supply chain beyond critical suppliers and their stress points; they need to develop and follow a systematic supply process that takes potential disruptions and stress points into account. When vetting potential vendors, always ask detailed questions that elicit evidence-backed responses. Ask vendors where they source their materials from, whether they have any history of experiencing disruptions in their supply chain and what kind of setbacks they have suffered as a result of COVID-19.
Investing in Your Core Business
In light of COVID-19, operators must invest in solutions that increase efficiency and improve the customer’s experience. This entails ensuring your customer safely enters and leaves your dispensary with a product they are satisfied with—the essence of any retail operation. Your operation should focus on enhancing customer flow as opposed to encouraging aimless roaming. Having an open-space, Apple store style dispensaries might have been a popular option before, but times have changed, and dispensaries must adapt.
Guided purchases offer not just more efficient transactions, but also serve to ensure that your waiting room isn’t backed up with an endless stream of unmanageable customers. Depending on your locally-mandated COVID-19 protocols, your dispensary will likely not be permitted to hold a high number of customers in the store, nor should it during this pandemic. Each customer service representative must be active as opposed to passive, directly asking customers what they are interested in, offering product or strain choices when customers seem unsure and answering questions as thoroughly as possible to avoid confusion and inherently delays. Be sure to emphasize the value of guided purchases to your employees and how they can promote the safety of both themselves and their customers.
Maintaining Urgency
The uncertainty of COVID-19 and its impact on the general economy has left many individuals “clocked out.” Simply put, many people feel that they should wait until things go back to normal before making any critical decisions. As essential businesses, cannabis operators cannot afford to make this same mistake. Now is not the time to sit back, reflect and wait for the vaccine. Instead, operators must work to precisely assess how COVID-19 impacted their business and execute a clear plan of action to address foreseeable problems.
Execution is far more important than perfection; you’ll need to make changes on a dime and avoid spending excessive hours obsessing over debating specific actions rather than taking them. It is far more essential to get tasks done versus ensuring they are perfect. If something is not working in your business, it must be readdressed or removed entirely from the protocol. It is far better to make necessary changes now amid the pandemic as opposed to reactively waiting and seeing what may come next following it.
Stay nimble by cutting out any factors that may be slowing down your company’s efficiency. Is your point-of-sale system causing issues? Can you use a better payment processing tool? Are any employees underperforming? Are there any internal policies that may be hindering your employees’ ability to work as optimally as possible? These are some of the many factors that must be considered to ensure your business stays agile and adaptable. Determine what is working against you and execute a plan of action to address. Do not wait and do not take shortcuts around regulations.
Understanding the Shift in Purchasing Behavior
Regardless of whether or not a vaccine for COVID-19 is completed anytime soon, operators must know that there is no “returning to normal.” People’s habits and behaviors have changed due to this virus, whereas slow browsing of items might have been preferable for some individuals before COVID-19; this is likely not the case today. Furthermore, research groups like Accenture have found that most customers expect their shopping habits to change permanently.
Source: Accenture COVID-19 Consumer Research, conducted April 2–6. Proportion of consumers that agree or significantly agree.
In the study mentioned above, shopping more consciously is one of the two top priorities for customers during this pandemic. According to Accenture, “[c]onsumers are more mindful of what they’re buying. They are striving to limit food waste, shop more cost consciously and buy more sustainable options. Brands will need to make this a key part of their offer (e.g., by exploring new business models).” Furthermore, customers are now more likely to shop locally; this is why community engagement would be especially important to ensure you develop transparency and trust between your brand and your customers. Understanding this shift in purchasing behavior will remain one of the more crucial tasks of any cannabis operator.
Expanding Sales Avenues
More and more customers are now relying on online and curbside purchases than ever before. Dispensaries must look to their current sales avenues and determine where key focuses should be made. Use your sales data to determine where customers are making their purchases the most, be it through third-party delivery services such as Eaze, standard home delivery, online ordering or curbside pickup. Focus on identifying friction and streamlining the user experience on all customer-facing platforms and services. Equally, consider which platform your customers are using the most to make purchases; are they making more online purchases, or do most still prefer direct shopping at the store? Remember that having more products doesn’t necessarily mean more revenue. You must also identify which products are performing well and which have low margins.
These considerations can help strengthen your highest performing platform while working to fix any more inferior performing platforms. As stated before, stay nimble; if something is not working out, cut it out from your business model, and move forward. Do not be afraid to cut poor-performing platforms to hone your focus on the successful ones. Since post-COVID-19 shopping behavior is likely to stay permanent, these changes may still be applicable following a slowdown or cessation of the virus.
Delighting Your Customers
Virus or not, customer satisfaction remains one of the most crucially defining points for the future of your business. Your customers must be safe and must be happy with their purchase. To ensure this outcome, you need to maintain adequate safety policies while equally promoting streamlined purchases. Although a limited number of individuals may be annoyed with over-the-top safety precautions, most customers will enjoy the heightened security that comes alongside these types of measures.
Contactless service, such as having customers scan their identification upon entry or encouraging more credit card versus cash transactions, can increase customer satisfaction, as they will feel a stronger sense of security when shopping at your dispensary. Focus on streamlining curbside pickup. Things such as requiring vehicle descriptions (e.g., license plate numbers, color, make) for curbside pickup purchases can go a long way in helping employees quickly identify customers.
Equally, be sure there is hand sanitizer available near the entrance of your dispensary. This adds a further sense of security for your shoppers. Delivery should be consistent; delays and setbacks must be minimal to win the confidence of your customers. Take the extra steps to ensure your dispensary is clean and products hygienic. All these factors work to increase customer satisfaction while maintaining their safety, and more importantly, impact the level of trust your customers have in association with your brand.
Scaling Operations Taking Advantage of Limited Competition in Emerging Markets
As stated before, several individuals—including existing and emerging cannabis businesses—are clocked out following COVID-19. This mindset is not only detrimental for operations but can also impact how you scale your business. New markets are coming online and will continue to do so as regulators are increasingly incentivized to replenish government coffers. Riverside County in California, for instance, is now allowing for capless licenses for all cannabis business types. However, what remains the key focus for regulators is expanding the number of delivery and distribution operators. In Massachusetts, delivery endorsements for dispensaries are available without a set deadline to social equity applicants and do not have a defined cap. In Illinois, the cap for transporters was equally removed, and each applicant who scores above 75% will receive a license.
These types of licenses are now more valuable than ever before for two reasons. The first reason is that regulators are keener to award delivery and transporter licenses than other types. Secondly, customers now prefer home delivery over shopping in stores due to COVID-19. With more people clocked out during these times, you have far more opportunities and far fewer competitors during application processes. Use this time to truly develop a strategy for expansion, as the chance might not come so quickly again.
Conclusion
As a final point, be sure to expand your online presence during this time. Although you may not have the capacity to reflect your company’s personality and value through quick in-store transactions, you can use social media to encourage product reviews, social interactions, and recommendations. Invest in marketing through social media platforms. Platforms such as TikTok have helped form communities of like-minded individuals. Use platforms such as that to highlight your company’s personality and values, avoid being “salesy” and focus more on being funny, entertaining and just alive. Character adds value to your business.
People want to laugh, to feel safe and they want to live. Create social interactions and immersion and always prioritize being honest and transparent with your customers. This final point stands as equally as important as the rest of the considerations highlighted throughout this article. Stay nimble, stay active and stay alert! Do not view the chaos behind this pandemic as a pit, and instead see it as a ladder. Track down opportunities, do not be afraid of change, and, more importantly, do not wait for an answer to COVID-19, be the answer.
From seed-to-sale, overseeing processing and extraction as well as navigating a dense web of complicated regulations, cannabis businesses have unique inventory management needs.
Unfortunately, there is no magical, one-size-fits-all inventory solution that is perfect for all cannabis companies. That is why cannabis businesses must take time to properly evaluate and identify an inventory system that is effective for their specific needs and requirements.
Inventory management plays a crucial role in maintaining productive and compliant day-to-day operations — and when seeking investment — as it has a direct impact on a business’s bottom line. Because of the regulatory and legal complexities in the industry, using an incomplete, rudimentary or outdated inventory system can lead to serious financial discrepancies guaranteed to cause headaches for accounting professionals and business leaders.
The right system also can give businesses actionable data to respond to changing market conditions, business needs and growth opportunities as they arise quickly. This visibility is a necessary aspect of ensuring your cannabis businesses can achieve long-term, sustainable growth.
Here are some guidelines to keep in mind when shopping for an inventory management system:
Use the Cloud
First, be sure your company is using cloud-based accounting software. This will instantly simplify both your accounting and inventory processes. Cloud-based solutions ensure company financial and inventory records are up to date and accurate.
Do Not Rely on Your Accounting Software
A plant tagged with a barcode and date for tracking
Your accounting software may provide native functionality for inventory tracking — but do not use it. Such native inventory functions are not robust or complex enough to properly maintain the complicated inventories of cannabis businesses. For instance, your business might be cultivating numerous plants across several sites, tracking plant movement and processing, or packaging it internally. You may be selling your products at other dispensaries or supplying other dispensaries’ products at your counter. Simply put: Cannabis businesses need more sophisticated solutions to track sales, monitor supplies, oversee shipments and remain informed on where products originate from and how frequently to re-order. Native functionalities too often do not provide such robust features.
Look for Direct Integration
That said, business owners want to ensure their inventory system directly and seamlessly integrates with their cloud accounting software. You should not have to input or upload information when setting up inventory software manually. In today’s world, the two systems should automatically and easily share information with each other. Each system’s website will often say whether it can integrate with various accounting platforms, but it never hurts to do some additional research. For example, both Fishbowl and Trade Gecko can be directly integrated with Xero. Some systems even offer a demo environment to let business owners experience what the integration will look like.
Explore Invoicing Capabilities
Some inventory management systems include invoicing capabilities, which can simplify the invoicing process – or even automate it. Such functionality reduces the risk of error when transferring data between programs. A consolidated system that automatically links inventory and invoicing allows business leaders to update invoices easily, mark orders as paid or unpaid, filled or unfilled, all while keeping a close eye on inventory. Some inventory solutions even offer dynamic reporting that displays real-time sales reports and fulfillment processes – making it easier than ever to work with vendors, identify and eliminate unnecessary costs and control cash flow.
Do Not Just Sign Up with the First System You Find
Choosing an inventory management system requires plenty of thought, and no two solutions look exactly alike. So, do not rush into a commitment just to get it over with and move on. Instead, spend enough time learning about various systems and their options to guide a confident purchasing decision. Going with the wrong system and having to switch later not only wastes time and money, but it can undo many of the efficiencies you worked to implement.
Consult an Accounting or Business System Expert
Working with accounting and business systems experts will provide insights related to your short- and long-term business goals. Such experts can help business owners understand exactly how their specific inventory ought to be tracked to avoid serious discrepancies or non-compliance. In addition, a strong accounting professional can act as an invaluable resource and partner when it comes to selecting and personalizing an inventory management system and identifying inaccuracies or inefficiencies. A good tax pro also can serve as a point person between the cannabis business and the software developer to address initial customization and setup or any issues that may arise.
Running a cannabis business requires an investment of time and money from the very start. The good news: You do not have to spend an arm and a leg on your inventory management system to find something that works. Some solutions marry affordability with efficiencies — but be sure to explore several options to find the right fit, keeping in mind the guidelines laid out above. Remember: Cost does play an important role, but the system’s capabilities are more vital to positioning your cannabusiness for sustainable, long-term growth and compliance.
Mistake #5: Planning Just-In-Time Inventory Too Close to Production; Effecting On-time Deliveries
Using JIT (Just-In-Time) management is common throughout North America. JIT involves manufacturers and suppliers trying to minimize, or even eliminate, their inventory. This approach relies on suppliers to deliver materials just before production is started. When this method is done properly, it is a very efficient way to minimize production costs, but when companies do not prepare for a “crisis” situation, they will have nothing in stock to fall back on.
Minimizing inventory costs is always a challenge. It’s a never-ending contradiction trying to maintain low inventory costs while factoring the percentage of potential new growth. Calculations can fluctuate from month to month, especially when industries rely on commodity ingredients or are impacted by sudden regulatory changes like we see with the cannabis, food packaging, and health supplement markets. Front runners in these markets practice minimizing their product label inventories, but their needs might quickly change from one day to the next. They do not want to place a one-time annual label order for each SKU. If an ingredient runs out of supply or a regulatory change affects their production profile, they would be sitting on unusable labels that will go to waste.
Best Method Approach: Think in terms of what the bottom line effect will be when factoring how you should manage your inventory. Try not to reduce your inventory too low. This could cause your company to experience shipping delays when complications arise with suppliers or quality control. You should have at least one-to-two production cycles worth of inventory available for those “crisis” moments.
Rob Freeman, author of this article, is the Director of Business Development and Marketing at Label Solutions Inc.
This backup inventory can also help reduce paying for excessive rush fees. Sometimes businesses can experience unexpected demand for a product, especially when companies consolidate production plants, acquire other companies, or have a new product launch. Supplier material shortages can greatly impact internal quality control and delay delivery times. Building a strong business relationship with your label provider is key to working around business demands and potential problems; which in turn, will help your label provider ship on-time deliveries so your production deadlines are met.
Mistake #6: Selecting the Lowest Price, But Approving the Wrong Materials for Your Product Needs
Sometimes clients buy the lowest priced labels without their procurement department knowing what the label specification requirements should be. It’s always a good business practice to shop for the best price, but it is equally as important to make sure you understand what you’re buying for that price.
Label providers vary on the quality of work they do, value-added services they offer, their production expertise, and the quality of material they use. Additionally, the hidden potential costs to lowest price shopping is that once the construction of those labels fail, it could cost you much more than a simple reorder.
Best Method Approach:Establish clear and concise procedures so your production team can forward the necessary criteria for your procurement department to have during the buying process.
brands want strong, eye-catching labels that stand out online, on the shelf, and/or on the retail floor. On a separate note, some businesses and manufacturers don’t care how long their brand and contact information remains on their product after the purchase. This gives them the flexibility to buy extremely low-quality material, but the outcome is a much lower brand awareness reminder at the end of the product’s use. But if your business model is such that you sell a “one-time use” product and all that you need is the label to survive through the POS, then the cheapest materials and lowest price might be your best solution.
In most cases, brands want strong, eye-catching labels that stand out online, on the shelf, and/or on the retail floor. Manufacturers want their labels to remain on their product, so their customers have a reminder of what they need to buy again or the ability to reread product use instructions and label warnings. Even if you don’t require the most expensive materials, using good quality, durable substrates and inks is always a solid approach.
Mistake #7: Not Preparing for Oil Based Products
One of the most popular products expected in retail for 2019 will be essential oils and/or CBD infused oil ingredients in foods, drinks, and wellness supplements. One of the most common mistakes relating to oil-based products is that entrepreneurs often forget that oils can soak into paper substrates and/or disperse certain inks, even when laminated.
Whether your product is on display in retail, or being sampled at a trade show, the last thing you want to be concerned about is your product name and contact information smearing or washing out. Even the smallest drop of oil can seep into a paper label and spread the ink to the point that you’ll have your own little tie-dye action on the label. That might look cool to some, but you lose your branding and the perception with most retail customers will be that your company is either cheap or is not professional.
Best Method Approach: There are affordable films such as polypropylene materials that will allow you to print the look you want while still protecting your branding and product. From cooking oils to industrial grade oils, the approach is the same but may require different types of films and ink solubility, so each bottle and container has oil resistant labels that maintain a professional look.Whenever one of our clients launch a new product or changes the intended surface conditions for label application, testing the label is always extremely important
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, remember that you don’t need to select all the label materials on your own. Your label provider should help you settle on the best solution.
Mistake #8: Not Properly Testing New Labels and New Product Surfaces
This is one of the most common and overlooked issues. Whenever one of our clients launch a new product or changes the intended surface conditions for label application, testing the label is always extremely important. This is especially critical when dealing with high quantity orders.
Best Method Approach: Testing parameters should be outlined by you and your label provider so both parties understand how long the label and the ink consistency should remain on the surface after purchase and use of product. There are wide variations of testing, so it will depend on the type of product and the intended industry.
For example, testing hand-applied, durable labels on powder coated metals for the boat and trailer industry require a completely different testing method compared to tests for typical food and beverage products that are machine applied. Usually, with uniform container products like food clamshell packaging, beverage cans, and supplement jars, all you will need to do is make sure to test labels on your production line, so your team is confident with the results.
Final Thoughts
In summary, preventing just one of these mistakes can yield huge cost savings no matter if your company is a start-up or a large corporation. Even if these eight common mistakes do not directly apply to your own issues, hopefully the “Best Methods” approach will give your company ideas about how you can prepare for future product releases, reduce product label issues, and improve your own quality control metrics.
If you have topics relating to product labeling that you would like me to discuss, please write to info@easylabeling.com. Be sure to save this article and forward it to your peers for future reference.
Just a couple weeks away, the California Cannabis Business Conference, taking place in Anaheim, CA October 22-23, will host a series of panel discussions where attendees can expect to learn from industry leaders on a variety of topics. As businesses in the state adjust to new regulations and the market matures, one particular topic seems to highlight a challenging new space: distribution.
Track 1 at the CA Cannabis Business Conference, Distribution, Retail and Delivery, will begin early afternoon on Monday at the show, where a panel discussion titled State of Cannabis Distribution: Scaling Cannabis Distribution and Expectations of a Distributor, will tackle a range of issues involving logistics and supply chain management in California’s cannabis industry.
Michael Wheeler, vice president of Policy Initiatives at Flow Kana, will host the panel, joined by Chris Coulombe, CEO of Pacific Expeditors, Jesse Parenti, programs director of Nine Point Strategies and Brian Roth, vice president of sales at KUDU Technologies. According to the agenda, the session will cover inventory management, shipping and transport, managing product data, order fulfillment, manifest creation and reporting on it all. Michael Wheeler says regulatory compliance is one issue they plan on discussing. “Currently the biggest pressure on compliance is the desire by some operators to live under the proposed regulations, instead of the current emergency regulations,” says Wheeler. “Add to this recently signed legislation and we have lots of opportunistic actions each with their own perception of compliance.”
Another important topic they plan on discussing is driver training and hiring practices. According to Chris Coulombe, drivers are one of the top two most important customer-facing teams in the organization. “Between the sales team and the fleet operation, drivers represent half of the face of your company,” says Coulombe. “Much like the sales team, they interface with your retail partners directly, and subsequently provide a sizable portion of the foundation that retailers will use to judge your company’s competency and efficiency.”
Chris Coulombe, CEO of Pacific Expeditors
When hiring new drivers, Coulombe recommends the standard background and driver record checks, but urges looking for experience in sales and driving as well. “Find those that have leadership experience and are comfortable operating in quasi-structured environments,” says Coulombe. “To that end, we seek solution oriented candidates that are personable, experienced in troubleshooting on their feet, and understand how to operate inside the structure of an organization.”
Coulombe also emphasizes the importance of driver training in any distribution company. “We built our driver training from scratch based on collective experiences from the military,” says Coulombe. “However, creating this from scratch is not necessary at this point, some insurance companies, such as our broker, Vantreo, provide in house driver training and certification solutions as a risk mitigation measure for companies that they represent. We recommend speaking with your insurance company to find what packages they have available.” Proper training for your drivers can help increase efficiency in operations, decrease maintenance and insurance costs and provide for better employee engagement. Coulombe also says many insurance companies have standard operating procedures for drivers to help supplement your company’s protocols.
In a highly competitive market, dispensaries use wide product selections, competitive prices, rewards and loyalty programs to stay relevant and attract new customers. Many of those tools used to make the retail space more efficient require analytics to stay on top of their performance metrics.
At their SE 7th Ave location in Portland, Oregon, Cannabliss & Co. uses Baker software to better connect with their customers and track sales. According to Kevin Mahoney, manager of that dispensary, they use Baker’s software for things like their online menu, online ordering, text alerts and a rewards program.
Cannabliss & Co. SE 7th Ave location
Located in an historic firehouse built in 1913, Cannabliss & Co. was Oregon’s very first medical cannabis dispensary. Now that they offer both recreational and medical cannabis, their product inventory has expanded, their sales have grown and they have a wider customer base.
After using Baker’s software platform for almost a year now, Mahoney says he has seen great ROI on text alerts and the analytics. The online ordering and menu features have not only highlighted sales trends, but have made budtender-customer interactions easier. “We don’t want our budtender using the menu as a focal point of the conversation, but this allows for us to highlight particular specials or strains on our menu that gets eye attention right when the customer gets in,” says Mahoney. “Moving past the point of sale, it allows another conversation to happen organically, which keeps the customer engaged.”
On average, Baker sees conversion rates close to a 5% range per campaign. “That check in option is phenomenal; we get to see how many people actually came into the store from any given text alert,” says Mahoney. “In my mind, text alerts are preferable to email alerts; they can’t be marked as spam, it is easy to delete or opt out and takes much less time.”
Kevin Mahoney at his SE 7th Ave location
Mahoney says the online ordering feature that Baker offers is a big selling point too. “Having an ordering service is absolutely terrific,” says Mahoney. “They can come in and out in less than five minutes with their full order by using the online ordering portal.” Mahoney says they see a real draw in this feature because it lets customers treat their dispensary like a takeout window at a restaurant.
Baker just launched a software platform designed for delivery service that a dispensary in Bend, Oregon has been using for two months now. With Portland legalizing cannabis delivery services recently, Mahoney is eyeing Baker’s software for his online ordering and delivery. “When the time comes, that is something we are very interested in pursuing.”
Analytics allow users to track the success of campaigns
In August of 2016, Baker secured $1.6 million in seed funding, led by Former Salesforce Executive Michael Lazerow, according to a press release. “Baker has created a solution that is clean and easy to use and can help dispensary owners engage their shoppers like never before – online, mobile, social and in-store,” says Lazerow. “I witnessed first-hand how Salesforce supercharges its customers’ businesses and I’m inspired to see Baker driving the entire cannabis industry forward with this same intelligent approach.” In 18 months of business, Baker has worked with hundreds of dispensaries, helping them build better connections with over 100,000 customers. At Baker, we believe the cannabis shopping experience should be as comfortable and personalized as it has become in every other retail environment,” says Joel Milton, chief executive officer at Baker. “With expertise in cannabis, data and technology we have created an industry-specific tool that allows dispensaries and brands engage with customers and build brand loyalty through a personalized shopping experience.”
Text alerts are customizable and easy to send out
According to Eli Sklarin, director of marketing at Baker, the number one reason why patients and customers choose a dispensary is because of products on the shelf. “We originally started the platform in 2014 so people could order ahead and wouldn’t have to wait in lines at the dispensary,” says Sklarin. “In 2015, we saw more dispensaries than fast food establishments in many cities. Once inventory started to settle down, we saw a need for the dispensary to better connect with their customers.” The three core products that Baker offers are online ordering, connect SMS & email and the check in & loyalty program.
Their entire suite of software options is specific to the cannabis retail space. “Our customizable program is designed to help dispensaries catch customers and keep them coming back,” says Sklarin. “The software can give a snapshot of who their customers are, insights into the overall health of their dispensary, sales per day of the week, monthly promotions and other basic analytics that help them understand their customers.” Things like strain alerts can help retain customers, allowing dispensaries to notify certain groups of customers when products are back in stock. Whether it’s a customer who prefers a particular brand of edibles or concentrates, these software tools can help dispensaries get the right message to the right customer.
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