Article
Cannabis dispensaries, digital signage form the ideal partnership
The legalized cannabis market is getting bigger everyday, and digital signage is helping dispensaries keep up with the growth.
February 6, 2020 by Bradley Cooper — Editor, ATM Marketplace & Food Truck Operator
The legalization of marijuana is rapidly progressing across the U.S. Just recently, Illinois legalized marijuana for recreational usage, which brings the total of states allowing recreational usage to 11 and 33 states that have approved it for medical use.
However, in this new legal market, cannabis dispensaries are struggling with regulations, "high" customer turnout and the challenge to create a good customer experience.
One way dispensaries are addressing the challenges is by using customer experience technologies, such as kiosks and digital signage, to entertain and inform customers.
Digital Signage Today spoke with Jeremy Jacobs, CEO of Enlighten, a company that specializes in dispensary solutions, to get his take on how digital signage can help this budding industry.
Q. What do you see as the biggest challenge cannabis dispensaries face?
A. I would have to say inventory turnover speed because of small batches and customer education are the two largest problems that the roughly 1,200 retail partners of ours face. We engage with them regularly and these are two top issues consistently mentioned. Inventory turnover creates all sorts of issues on consumer-facing menus.
Some locations are so busy they tell customers they're are out of an item even while inventory exists because they have such long lines. You have to be able to address each appropriately. Also, in the inventory vein, there is the challenge for some locations that various consumer endpoints all must be updated independently creating an inefficient daily workload. The other problem, education, is a huge one. It has been proven over and over again that the more educated a customer is, the more they return and the higher-margin buyer they become. Being sure they receive the proper cannabis education to feel comfortable with products is paramount to the bottom line.
Q. How can digital signage help address that challenge?
A. On the inventory issue...we built our Enlighten SmartHub to work with over 25 POS companies. It normalizes the data structure from these very different systems and pushes out to all consumer endpoints (online menus, in-store kiosks, and digital wall menus), providing a clean and consistent stream of data that is always up to date and programmed with the specific challenges of that locations. No more changing menus items all day long in five different systems.
The POS updates automatically as sales are made and our system knows automatically creating zero work for anyone. The education issue is solved with our Enlighten TV and OnDemand products. Both offer custom-curated content to educate the consumers without requiring budtenders to have extensive knowledge. Our location partners are seeing an overwhelmingly fast knowledge adoption by both their customers and their workers. IT changes the conversation to higher-margin items quickly and creates a learning environment that consumers enjoy.
Q. In what ways can digital signage improve sales/productivity?
A. Awareness and education are the leading drivers of consumer product choices. There has never been a better tool at creating both of those than digital signage. Some customers prefer a passive experience and just want to watch, and others like it interactive and want to explore. Either way, digital signage is the most highly adopted method to create awareness and education at the point of purchase.
Q. How can it improve the customer experience?
A. We have seen that some customers are different. Some want to explore, some want to get in and out quickly, everyone is different. Interactive kiosks and our OnDemand product allow consumers to explore and learn at their own pace about how products are made, what they do, how they make you feel and then drill down into specific products in those categories. Self-service kiosks can provide a speedy shopping experience that more informed consumers that already have their minds made up may want. We have identified various shopper personas and have developed products to satisfy each one's preferred buying methods.
Q. What are some of the most innovative tools in this space?
A. There are a lot. The cannabis industry demanded technology from the very beginning. I have been serving nearly every industry with digital signage for over 10 years and never have I seen an industry so demanding on wanting tech immediately. I believe it's because this is the first industry that the average age of the management is a digital native that has had technology their whole lives. So, we have self-service booming, on-demand style content queuing that is booming, and everyone is constantly creating new ways to deliver tons of information. I think it's hard to say what is the most innovative tool but easy to say that cannabis is the most innovative industry.
Q. What are some digital signage tools that will really help out dispensaries in the future?
A. I can't say it enough — it's about driving awareness, education, and transactions. Kiosks that deliver this information and facilitate these transactions are dominating. Every month we find new and exciting features to add to be sure we stay ahead of the curve and maintain our spot in the market as the innovator and leader.
About Bradley Cooper
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