Emerging Cannabis Cloud Retail Commerce Industry Fills a Glaring Gap for Cannabusiness Owners
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While enterprise software, which includes ERP applications, has existed for decades, it generally falls short of the unique needs of the emerging cannabusinesses staking their claim in the budding cannabis which New Frontier Data estimates will reach $43 billion by 2025.
As federal laws still criminalize cannabis, and state and local regulations are strict yet widely variable across regions, finding the right enterprise software that can juggle the unique needs of cannabis retailers, distributors and brands has been difficult. Fortunately, software platforms like Treez have been working to develop an enterprise retail commerce platform specifically tailored to cannabusinesses such as dispensaries, distributors and brands — closing an important gap for the owners and operators in every part of the supply chain.
The Cannabis Software Industry Before Cannabis Retail Commerce Software
Until recently, the cannabis software space has been dominated by what’s known as “seed-to-sale” software. While the name sounds like it would be a comprehensive tool, seed-to-sale software just tracks cannabis inventory from cultivation through processing to the final sale. Its main purpose is to help businesses comply with state and local tracking and reporting requirements.
Moving past basic inventory tracking and management services has been a challenge in this heavily regulated industry for many reasons. One of the most difficult obstacles is the fact that some states contract with different seed-to-sale software providers — meaning cannabusinesses in those states either have to use that exact software or use an enterprise software platform that can integrate with it.
Perhaps not surprisingly, traditional ERP or supply chain software tends to overlook the importance of point-of-sale (POS) and its integration with cannabis tracking software, leaving cannabusiness owners, like dispensaries, with few, if any, options outside of maintaining separate software for each side of their business.
While some players are moving to acquire or merge with some of the leading seed-to-sale software companies to address this challenge, retailers and dispensaries still need to be careful about choosing an enterprise software that can integrate with the specific solutions needed for their state. Another concern raised by these mergers and acquisitions is the risk of dispensaries losing access to and control over the data on their own consumer audience.
That is why Treez is working to fill that gap by offering comprehensive and cannabis industry specific software to manage everything from inventory tracking to compliance to sales. Treez’s cloud platform addresses these challenges and eliminates the need for retailers to assemble multiple point solutions while pulling data from multiple sources. More importantly, it gives dispensaries the data ownership they need to control their market presence and understand key market insights that inform better business decisions.
How Treez’s Cloud Retail Commerce Platform Supports Cannabusinesses
Along with these integration challenges, cannabis dispensary and distributor owners face other obstacles like differing local regulations across their markets and complex tax compliance rules. The solution to those challenges is Treez’s end-to-end cloud retail commerce platform which offers an integrated POS, payments, inventory management and data analytics solution.
On the tracking front, Treez is compatible with Metrc but also offers its own in-house tracking system, Trace Treez, which offers redundancy to state track and trace systems so that it will be easy to comply with local tracking requirements, no matter which state the business is in.
For payments — which can be complicated because of pending changes in regulation that limit non-cash payment options — Treez offers three compliant payment options that make rigid cash-only payment rules as seamless as possible. Using TreezPay, customers can initiate ACH payments to pay for their orders via their phone. Dispensaries can also offer cashless ATMs and true debit solutions for in-store purchases. All options are compliant with cash-only regulations but still offer the convenient cashless experience customers have come to expect when shopping.
For tax compliance, Treez offers a self-service tax module that gives business owners the flexibility to account for the complexities of cannabis tax law. Taxes can be especially complicated in the cannabis space as not only do rates differ at the state and local levels but also across different products and different customer segments, making it a headache to figure out what to charge each customer for each product.
With its end-to-end commerce platform tailored to cannabusinesses, Treez offers one of the most comprehensive enterprise cloud platforms in the cannabis space. This approach has driven stunning growth in the past few years, resulting in top-tier listing within the Inc. 5000.
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