The customer wanted branding deliverables and a website that matches the dispensary’s playful store interiors. It needed to have an online shopping component, a focus on various specials and events and it needed to be able to support inventory for a growing fleet of stores
I compiled a business canvas to help me understand the unique needs of the business
The Sweet Spot Dispensary is a budding business with a lot of important things to consider to meet its customers’ demands and gain market share. Dispensary’s largest hurdle that sets them apart from traditional business models is the steep regulation and compliance requirements that cannabis businesses have to maintain to stay open.
The Sweet Spot Dispensary contracted with a popular POS System to get their business ready for launch. Additionally, the POS System came bundled with an e-commerce platform to get cannabis dispensaries online and selling quickly. I evaluated the customer facing platform for usability and usefulness.
My usability analysis resulted with a poor score on it’s user experience. I made a recommendation to look into other solutions that could promote the growth of an online business and manifest a positive customer perception.
I researched competitors in the cannabis industry to understand market positioning, best practices, and the problems dispensaries faced.
Dispensaries are tightly regulated and must follow regulations to continue operating. The e-commerce solutions available on the market help solve these problems but are still behind in serving the greater need. Dispensaries don't have a lot of choice as regulations reduce the options available to them.
Poor experiences that lacked consistency, strategy and seemed to focus on meeting bare minimum requirements showed a focus on sales rather than a focus on giving their core audience features that could help improve their experience.
Generally customers prefer to shop in person and for this reason, dispensaries focus less on the digital experience and more on their in-store experience, which does create an opportunity to build a better online service to differentiate from others
An examination of our information architecture invites a consideration of how our users are going to perceive the information on our website as a whole. Since shopping is paramount and all other features are nice to haves. It makes sense to make the Call to action “Shop” on the home page while funneling all CTA’s from specials and events to their preferred products.
Will someone find our blog? Should we move it to the global navigation? Based on our current content strategy it makes sense to tuck it away until we can allocate more time to it.
As we grow, we must ask, how can we offer more featured to our customers?
The single largest issue dispensaries are faced with is current Government regulations which dictate how the business is run. The largest restriction, effecting online profits and experience as well as customer satisfaction is that shipping cannabis like traditional online retailers I.E Amazon is strictly prohibited in the United States. For this reason, this changes the entire fulfillment process for cannabis dispensaries and it limits the types of technology available to them to execute and support online sales. A perfect example of this is that currently, there is no way to start shopping for products and then select a delivery option or available pick-up locations like traditional online retailers such as Best Buy, Sophora, or Banana Republic. This effects many aspects of the customer experience when shopping online such as a Information architecture, user flow which promotes customer confusion and unsuccessful check-outs.
That’s because without the ability to have a shipping method, you run into a situation where the customer can’t get the product at all resulting in a poor customer satisfaction and lost time and effort.
This makes it hard to scale a business and invest in facilities and systems that can triangulate product locations and routes to the appropriate destinations. Even more, the limits of scalability make it difficult to justify the feasibility of e-commerce providers investing in better product sourcing at the pick-up level. I suspect this to change in the near future.
There are a number of e-commerce solutions available on the market that enhance the experience of selling cannabis online. I researched various platforms to uncover the true value of licensing over building an in-house solution. Through this experience, I learned about the various obstacles of building an in house e-commerce solution, the regulations and requirements.
My research and ultimate client recommendation was to license. But It depends on the purpose, if my customer had the capital and wanted to resell this solution to other dispensaries, it could be a viable option. Since this is a start up focused on selling cannabis and not SAAS, we chose to license a powerful e-commerce solution designed specifically for dispensaries and the intricate problems they face. This solution gives us the engine we need to meet our users and drive sales. It also has the capability to customize and adapt to our needs over time. However the issue with customers who choose to shop based on their product needs before focusing on choosing their closest pick up location continues to be a real problem for conversion rates.
I surveyed cannabis shoppers to understand how they learn about new cannabis products, understand their buying habits, and how they feel about the process of purchasing cannabis.
When asked what was most important to customers, I was surprised to learn that price and locality were not top priorities to cannabis shoppers. However, a careful look at our competitor analysis revealed that older and more established dispensaries had a more loyal client base regardless of price or location.
Knowledge factors trumped all when customers were deciding how they would spend their money. Many respondents are brand loyal and continue to purchase the products they already trust, but most shared the belief that they will not spend their money at dispensaries who do not invest in education and training of staff. Many customers rely on knowledgeable staff members to help them make wise decisions. But they also like to have resources that help them learn on their own. Great signage throughout the store, online features like reviews, clear descriptions, up to date imagery and resources that focus on education are paramount to help demistify cannabis and make people feel comfortable trusting a dispensary or a new product. It’s imparative to have a focus on transparency and education of this product which still suffers from a lack of transparency and regulation.
They want a friendly, clean, organized and enjoyable experience that focuses on transparency and promoting trust. They like affordable brands and most want recommendations for people they can trust.
The main problem identified was the poor online shopping experience that did not match the great in-store experience customers were enjoying. Competitor analysis showed that this issue was common among nearly all cannabis dispensaries, with fragmented navigation, clunky user interfaces, and limited product features.
Enhanced Customer Experience: I designed an online customer experience that reflected the playful nature of the Sweet Spot Dispensary while providing easy online purchasing tools. I analyzed the customer life cycle and various channels the customer would funnel through to find ways to improve the customer experience and increase user engagement.
Improved E-commerce Solution: I assessed the user journey for moments of friction and experimented with various solutions to improve the shopping experience. An optimized global navigation for a seamless browsing experience. An integrated e-commerce solution created by Jane Technology to provide more shopping features and a pleasant user interface.
A stronger focus on events and specials with conditional logic to showcase the specials where and when they needed them.
I created wireframes for the website to visualize the feel of the website, features and userflow.
I worked with the store designer, Chris Wellers to implement elements from the physical store into a digital experience
Due to the unique characteristics of this brand and its industry, I aimed to delve into the unconventional aspects of emerging web designs. The goal was to captivate a fun-loving cannabis user while maintaining a sales-driven approach. This design needed to be unconventional but also prioritize simplicity and user-friendliness. Our design had to have essential features that would not only boost sales but also boost the customer experience.
Cannabis dispensaries are competing for market share and they need to define and communicate to the customer what sets them a part from other dispensaries. This website needs to be able to communicate this value to it’s customers by boasting features that can deliver product features, events, discounts and specials that are happening every week. Among this is a focus on content strategy and delivery.
As the business evolved, we needed to create ways for the customer to jump to featured brands, learn about new specials, and also find the type of products they wanted from the home screen.
To keep up with the constant pricing and specials I needed to create an engine that entices our users and keeps them up to date with what’s happening at the store.
I continue to monitor for user experience issues with tools like Hotjar, Google Analytics and consumer feedback.
We grew the online shopping experience by 200% the first year just by implementing a new e-commerce solution. In 2023 we opened a new store with another on the way. We had our biggest online sales in November surpassing our online sales records in two years.
With this solution, we automatically showcase upcoming specials and events and various content elements like blogs, specials, and loyalty information when the customer needs them. The dynamic slider keeps people up to date and allows for a flexible, efficient, and visually appealing interface.
We continue to grow our audience online, in 2024 we are expected to double our online sign ups.
In December we grew our business by 6% with online being a large contributor.
Please feel free to check out the website and support their budding winery.