Conquering Cannabis Ecommerce
Dominating Mobile Optimization, Site Speed, User Experience, and SEO.
Posted by Brian Metros
July 18, 2023
The cannabis retail game is fluctuating in shape, size and intensity on a weekly basis. We watch the bigger players make technology moves into some great ecommerce shopping experiences for their customers, while simultaneously, see others slowly slipping beneath the waves and beginning to drown.
In the rapidly growing cannabis industry, e-commerce sales have become a crucial channel for dispensaries to reach and serve their customers. If you’re not paying close attention to this, you may find yourself sinking very soon.
To thrive among the powerful currents, it’s essential to isolate the key elements that will be your lifeline in online sales.
Mobile Optimization
Simplify the Purchase Journey
85% of your users are accessing your site through their smartphones.
In today's fast-paced and screen obsessed world, convenience is clutch. By optimizing your e-commerce site for mobile devices, you cater to the needs of your customers who seek to skip the line and avoid in-store hassle.
So what does that even mean? Well, it means that your ecommerce experience should be easy to use on someones phone. It should have clear and actionable navigation. This navigation shouldn’t get in the way of critical shopping flows like featured products or shopping paths to high-margin items.
It also means that the checkout experience should be streamlined and unobstructed. The more form-fields, sign-up boxes, and whatever else you put in the checkout for me to hurdle over, the more frustrated I get. Those things can add a ton of value, but If I am on your checkout page my intent to purchase is the highest you’ll see anywhere else. Let me finish my path. Save that stuff for other areas of your site.
Site Speed
Accelerate the Path to Purchase
In the digital realm, speed is king. Every millisecond counts. Google finds that a single second of latency can cost you up to 27% in revenue, while also lowering your ranking in search.
The only thing more frustrating than no internet, is slow internet. Architect your site from the ground up to be performant, even under the most extreme conditions, and watch all other metrics increase.
The benefits of a super fast site:
• Improved user-experience
• Reduced bounce rates
• Increased Engagement
Optimize your website's performance, leverage caching techniques, and minimize unnecessary elements, and strive for a frictionless browsing experience. A major first step to keep customers engaged while driving higher conversion rates.
User Experience
Guide Customers Towards What They Seek
Look, don’t make me shuffle through a bunch of nonsense to get to what I’m looking for. Basic things like a clear and predictable page hierarchy can work wonders here. Every brand and store is unique, but users have been trained for almost 2 decades now on how to shop online.
A clear page hero that highlights the most important deal at the moment, clear category entry points, well defined sub-routes to content areas. These are easy wins to a much better experience for your customers.
The UX Must-Haves for your Dispensary’s Ecommerce Site:
• Intuitive navigation
• Well-organized categories
• Robust filtering capabilities
• Detailed and accurate product information
You may have read articles that speak to ‘user-centric design’ or about conducting ‘usability testing’. These are both great things that are highly recommended, but if you’re on a budget there is no need to reinvent the wheel on this.
SEO
Boost Visibility and Reach
A beautifully designed website is of little use if your customers can't find it.
Search engine optimization plays a pivotal role in driving organic traffic and ensuring your dispensary site ranks prominently in search engine results.
Beginners list to SEO success:
• Conduct thorough keyword research
• Optimize on-page elements
• Build quality backlinks
• Create engaging content such as articles, how-to’s, budtender testimonials, ect.
Remember to integrate keywords naturally into your website's content, meta tags, headings, and URLs. Creating informative and valuable content that matches the user's intent will also contribute to better search engine rankings.
Going further, consider incorporating location-based keywords to target users searching for nearby dispensaries and use Google My Business (GMB )to improve local visibility.
Regularly updating your site will lead to improved organic traffic and higher rankings on Google's search results.
Always prioritize high-quality content over high-volume but low quality content.
This is a much slower moving, but voracious beast to be fed. When you implement effective SEO strategies, you increase the visibility of your dispensary, attract targeted traffic, and lay a solid foundation for long-term success.
By embracing mobile-friendly design, optimizing site speed, providing a seamless user experience, and implementing effective SEO techniques, you position your dispensary for growth and profitability.
Remember, in the competitive landscape of online sales, catering to customer preferences, maximizing convenience, and ensuring discoverability are key to thriving in the cannabis industry.
Ask Us Anything.
Our team is happy to help you understand the differences between platforms and help guide you to what is right for your dispensary.
