The Importance Of eCommerce Sites For Cannabis Retailers
Just like any other modern business, it’s important for cannabis retailers to maintain an active online presence in the form of an eCommerce (eComm) website. Today’s consumer expects the convenience of being able to browse, shop and pay in advance for products at their leisure. Additionally, the online presence of your cannabis eComm site provides legitimacy and credibility to your business as a whole.
As of 2022, data estimates that there are over 266 million digital shoppers in the U.S. alone, a number that’s projected to increase to a whopping 291 million by 2025. An active, robust eComm site for your cannabis brand boosts your brand’s SEO ranking, increasing your visibility and directing a greater percentage of these local customers to your business.
Keep reading to find out how an eComm site can help your cannabis business grow and thrive in the coming years – and how Paybotic can help you achieve your business goals.
Cannabis Retailers Can Market Directly to Customers Through eComm Sites
One of the greatest benefits of an eComm site for your cannabis business is the ability to market directly to customers, allowing customers 24/7 access to shop your site.
Many cannabis retailers currently use third-party marketplaces (Weedmaps, Leafly, etc.) While third-party cannabis marketplaces can be effective and low-maintenance for cannabis brands, there is a downside. With this approach, shoppers become customers of the third-party marketplace, rather than the local cannabis business supplying the products.
Maintaining your own eComm site eliminates this problem. Instead of your customers relying on the “middle man” for their purchases, they can make their purchases directly from your business, giving you the opportunity to convert one-time purchases into loyal customers.
With an eComm site, your cannabis brand can provide digital shoppers a personalized experience, increasing customer engagement and satisfaction.Your cannabis business is better equipped to retain customers through insights from your site’s consumer analytics, empowering you to create unique marketing campaigns tailored to their interests, shopping behaviors, and preferred payment methods.
eCommerce Gives Cannabis Retailers Local SEO Authority
For cannabis retailers, SEO authority might not sound like something that’s important – but it’s a vital component of building your local customer base. Having your own eComm site increases your digital footprint and visibility of your brand. This establishes your brand’s local digital authority in your specific location, raising both your SEO ranking and customer reach.
But what does all that mean? Simply put, it means more customers are directed to your business, instead of your competition. Current data indicates that 93% of all online purchases start with a consumer search query on sites like Google, Bing, or Yahoo! If your cannabis brand doesn’t have a web presence, it’s unlikely to show up in the results. By maintaining an eComm site that’s rich with SEO-optimized keywords for your local market, you can increase the number of prospective customers finding your business and becoming loyal shoppers.
An eCommerce Site Increases Brand Loyalty, Recognition, and Visibility
Brand visibility leads to brand recognition, which leads to brand loyalty. Here’s how that breaks down for your cannabis brand and the customer base you want to build. On a third-party site, the brand that’s visible is their brand – not yours. Their brand is the one the customer recognizes – and the loyal shopper’s sale goes to the third party, not you.
Third-party eComm sites don’t allow much customization for product listings, and these sites also take a significant percentage of your sales. This results in generic listings that don’t include keywords that could drive more customers to your brand – and less profit on each sale. Every generic listing could be a lost or less profitable sale – as well as a lost opportunity to build brand recognition with digital shoppers.
Having your own eComm site gives your cannabis brand more visibility in your area, which leads to brand recognition in your local market. That translates to building brand loyalty with local shoppers, guiding them directly to your site, instead of the middle man’s. On your own site, your product listings can be customized to attract your ideal client base, increase direct sales, and build customer relationships that turn into repeat purchases for your business.
Cannabis Retailers Can Gather Important Customer Information via eCommerce Sites
Your own branded cannabis eComm site can provide your business with valuable customer insights from web analytics. Your eComm site gathers information like customer location, method of discovery, age, gender, and actions on your site. This provides you a 360° view of your consumer behaviors and preferences, allowing you to tailor campaigns to increase sales and predict future shopping behaviors.
With a comprehensive view of your customer profile, you are then able to automate processes that can help increase sales and build brand loyalty. These automations might include birthday greetings, holiday discounts, loyalty club points, flash sales, or abandoned cart notifications and incentives to complete the transaction. Customer analytics give your cannabis brand the advantage when it comes to building brand loyalty, delivering on customer expectations, upselling products, and retargeting efforts.
Use Paybotic to Complete Your Cannabis eCommerce Site
A vital component of any eComm site is a seamless checkout experience for the customer. Cash-only transactions limit the power of your eComm site, because they interrupt the customer experience and require additional effort from the customer to have cash on hand. Cash-only transactions can lead to abandoned carts, lost sales, and limitations to upselling.
Paybotic provides payment solutions for the cannabis industry, completing your eComm site and providing the end-to-end shopping experience your customers expect. Paybotic payments help increase the reach of your cannabis eComm site, enable sales on demand, and allow you to directly reach your clientele with updates and offers.
If you’re ready to start processing payments, we’re ready to help take your cannabis brand to the next level. Get started with Paybotic today and you’ll be open for business whenever your clients are.
