The Best Ecommerce Platforms for Cannabis Dispensaries in 2024

Ecommerce is an important part of a cannabis dispensary’s sales and marketing strategy. The right cannabis ecommerce platform is critical because it is an extension of your brand, helps you reach a new customer base, and facilitates the convenience online ordering process modern consumers have come to expect.

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Choosing your cannabis dispensary ecommerce software is the next critical decision after choosing your POS solution. While a cannabis POS solution helps you stay compliant and reduce the cost of operations, ecommerce solutions help you build your brand and generate additional revenue.

The right ecommerce platform, however, will depend on the particular needs of your cannabis dispensary. Cova has vetted over 20 ecommerce solutions in the cannabis space. We’ve conducted our own extensive research, learned from our direct experience integrating with them and collected feedback from real customers. 

What is Ecommerce for the Cannabis Industry?

Before we get into the best cannabis ecommerce platforms, we need to be clear on a few key terms which will help us understand the landscape of cannabis ecommerce.

First, there’s your dispensary website. This includes all the web pages under your domain name. Your website will have information about your brand, your company, your location you may include blogs, Instagram feed and links to your social media accounts.

Then there’s the menu. This is the page that shows all the products your cannabis store sells. This is where the customer gets information about those products and can add them to the shopping cart and pay.

Ecommerce, then, is the totality of your website plus a menu that has cannabis business payment functionality.

One key difference between cannabis retail ecommerce and other industries is that the ability to ship cannabis products depends on the law in your area. Most states and provinces don’t allow shipping, since there is no way to prevent selling to minors. Cannabis products, therefore, are either picked up at the physical store or delivered to the customer, when permitted, with an identification check upon delivery.

Why Are There Ecommerce Platforms Specific for Cannabis Dispensaries?

An ecommerce platform designed for dispensaries may offer a variety of convenient features and functionality, from the way products are displayed to how unique and relevant info—like THC content— is included and filtered. Above all, though, you should look for two major things in a cannabis ecommerce solution: compliance and point of sale integration.

Compliance

The cannabis industry is a highly regulated industry. When operating ecommerce for your dispensary, you need to have a specialized platform or solution that is able to meet the regulation requirements. Two major compliance needs are:

  • Purchase limit. Unlike virtually every other industry, cannabis stores cannot sell more than the legally allowable limit to any one individual at a time.
  • Age gate. Cannabis ecommerce platforms must include a gate for customers to identify their age. Anyone who is under the age limit is not able to order cannabis online.

Integration

An ecommerce platform for a cannabis store needs to work with a compliant cannabis point of sale system (POS) to ensure the online store shows the correct stock and product information and syncs data automatically with the POS. This is part of providing customers a great omnichannel experience. Cova seamlessly integrates with various established cannabis eCommerce solutions, catering to both startups and established multi-location stores. Book a free consultation now to find the perfect fit for your needs.

Let’s dive into the best platforms, what they do well, and what’s most important for a cannabis-specific ecommerce platform.

The Ecommerce Solutions We Did Not Include or Recommend

We’re strategic and intentional about our recommendations. It’s important to note that we don’t include any ecommerce solutions that use iframe embedded menus connected to cannabis marketplaces. While both marketplaces and iframe menus can be valuable, and we often endorse their use as part of an online strategy, marketplace-hosted iframe menus are not ideal as your long-term ecommerce solution.

Embedded marketplace menus don’t offer SEO needed to help you rank for product searches, and ultimately expose your customers to competitors' products in the marketplace. This means you may lose sales to other retailers who offer discounts. Relying exclusively on this type of iframe solution is bad for your brand and has the potential to drive overall prices down for the industry. Examples include Dutchie, I heart Jane and Weedmaps. You can still get listed on these marketplaces, but using their menus as your ecommerce solution is not recommended.

Top 5 Cannabis Ecommerce Platforms for Retail Dispensaries in 2024

Here’s our list of the top 5 ecommerce platforms for cannabis stores in 2024 and where they shine brightest:

  • Carrot: Best for all-in-one platform with native branded loyalty app
  • Mosaic: Best for enhanced SEO functionalities and comprehensive marketing reports
  • Cova Ecomm: Best for plug & play shop page (subdomain menus) with product SEO capability
  • Rank Really High: Best for enterprise, full-service website & SEO capability
  • Buddi: Best basic iframe that support delivery in Canada

Keep reading for a detailed breakdown of ecommerce platforms and reviews of each of our top 5 platforms. Or click below if you'd like a personalized consultation. 

The 3 Types of Cannabis Ecommerce Solutions

iFrame Menus

An iframe menu acts like a shopping page, so that customers can view, select and pay for products. Since an iframe menu is actually an HTML document embedded inside of another HTML document (somewhat like a website within a website), it makes it easy to implement, but gains no SEO value. This is because each product cannot be indexed by Google, so customers won’t be able to find your products through Google searches. Or, if they do, it will lead them to the menu-providers site (often a marketplace) instead of yours. This is a major disadvantage of iframe menu ecommerce solutions.

Benefits
  • Low cost
  • Easy, quick setup, simple shop page
  • Suitable for a neighborhood store located in a remote area with no competition.
Drawbacks
  • No SEO value as products are not indexed by Google
  • Can’t attract new customers from search engines like Google
  • Risk of losing customers to other retailers if this iframe is part of a marketplace
  • Poor customer experience due to little or no customization
  • Poor to zero analytics
Examples of an iframe solution
  • Dutchie
  • I heart Jane
  • Weedmaps

Subdomain Menus

A subdomain is a subsection of a larger domain, utilized to organize and navigate to different sections of a website. In the cannabis industry, subdomains can be leveraged in various ways to enhance online presence, organize content, or target specific audiences. For example, if your domain is ‘yourcannabisstore.com’ your ecommerce store could be ‘shop.cannabisstore.com’. Unlike iframe menus, subdomains allow search engines to index the content, making it discoverable by consumers but must be properly set up to get SEO value.

Benefits
  • Easy, quick setup
  • Decent analytics capabilities
Drawbacks
  • Medium SEO value
  • Limited brand customization

Native Ecommerce

Native ecommerce puts the entire ecommerce shopping experience on the same platform and website. This means that with native ecommerce, you have all of your products and inventory on your website and that Google indexes the products and credits your website. This is a big SEO benefit. Native ecommerce has largely become standard for brands online but is relatively new in the cannabis ecosystem.

Benefits
  • High SEO value
  • Highly customizable
  • Excellent analytics capabilities
Drawbacks
  • Relatively high start-up cost
  • Slow to implement
  • Require more ongoing maintenance than simply a shop page

How to Choose the Best E-commerce Platform for Your Dispensary

With so many ecommerce platforms out there in the market, how do you know which is right for your cannabis dispensary? The answer starts with the unique nature of cannabis retail.

The highly regulated nature of the cannabis industry means compliance informs virtually all aspects of running a cannabis retail store. You simply need an ecommerce platform designed for cannabis retail in order to account for age gates and quantity limitations (purchase limits). The ecommerce solution must also integrate with your store's POS to accurately reflect inventory and product information.

Compliance isn’t the only issue, however, there are a number of considerations:

  • Branding and customization is an important consideration because it is how you tell your story and build a brand that is differentiated in the market. When customers have a relationship with your brand, you are resistant to price wars and can build loyalty.

  • Price is always a consideration but it isn’t just up front costs. Consider all costs of ownership—from the cost to build a website, to monthly costs, to maintenance and updates. Also, if you want your website to rank high on search engines like Google and Bing, there may be SEO costs.

  • Functionalities: Beyond facilitating sales, an eCommerce solution can offer additional functionalities including CRM, loyalty programs, mobile apps, in-store kiosks, and complaint resolution support. Your specific needs will depend on the customer experience you aim to deliver, your marketing and retail strategy, and the regulations in your state or province

  • Support for your company on launch and ongoing support. Consider the effort needed to launch and maintain the website. Does the ecommerce provider offer the support you’ll need? Or do you have an internal team, such as a marketer or web developer? If not, you will need to budget for a freelancer to help maintain it.

  • Scalability. Your ecommerce solution should be able to grow with your cannabis business or be able to handle your high volume store or multiple locations right out of the gate.

  • Analytics so you can better understand your customer, helping you improve their experience. Here it’s important to consider both Google analytics from SEO perspectives as well as reports that give you visibility to your online businesses. These reports can offer invaluable information such as how many people visit your website, how many bought products, what products people looked at, how long they spent on your website, what is in the average customer shopping cart, how many abandon the carts, demographics and much more.

  • SEO is critical for cannabis online retail. SEO is the primary way for customers to find your online store.

Why is Ecommerce with SEO Critical for the Cannabis Industry?

The increased importance of ecommerce SEO for cannabis dispensaries is largely due to regulations and compliance. With limited ability to advertise, discovery by search engines like Google and Bing, is the primary way for potential customers to discover your cannabis store online.

Key SEO questions include, can your product and category pages be indexed and discovered on search engines?

The higher your store ranks in specific cannabis searches, the more likely your store is to gain a new customer and a chance to gain a recurring customer.

When we recall the three types of cannabis ecommerce solutions we can rank them in terms of SEO value from lowest to highest:

  • iFrame menus (no value)
  • Subdomain menus (low value)
  • Native ecommerce menus (high value)

Cannabis Ecommerce Platform Reviews

Best Fit:

Cannabis retailers who want a single solution that offers e-commerce, loyalty, marketing, delivery, and in-store TV menus

Starting Price:

$1.00 per transaction for online orders or $3 per transaction for delivery (minimum 500 orders/mo). Flat fee per month is available for high volume stores or enterprise retailers.

Standout Features:

Comprehensive solution

  • Built-in loyalty.
  • Built-in marketing.
  • Built-in delivery.
  • Customized branding with white-labeled mobile app for iOS and Android.
  • Native SEO.

Why We Chose Carrot

  • All-in-one platform. The only ecommerce provider with completed pieces from a custom website to a loyalty mobile app, marketing and built-in delivery.
  • Simple payment structure. There is one price for both ecommerce and loyalty solutions. It includes a custom homepage and branded mobile app.
  • Native SEO. The web architecture allows Google to discover cannabis products on the shop page.
  • Built-in delivery. Carrot is a rare ecommerce solution that has built in delivery functionality.
  • Low risk. The price structure makes Carrot a low risk option for new retailers who don’t yet have a baseline for their online ordering volume.

Pros and Cons

Pros

  • Solution goes beyond just ecommercece with an extensive marketing and loyalty program.
  • Branded native mobile app for both IOS and Android.
  • Offer free custom SEO-optimized website on WordPress if retailers don’t have an existing website.
  • Fast and flexible order fulfillment.
  • Built-in delivery functionalities (fulfillment routing and driver side app).
  • Offer a marketing blast campaign with additional cost.
  • Built-in push notification through the native app.
  • Free staff training.
  • No startup fees or onboarding fees. You don't pay until you go live.
  • Seamlessly integrated with Cova and has its own purchase limit engine.
  • Flexible pricing which means it’s low risk for new retailers.

Cons

  • Not a plug & play solution: The shop menu page can take 1-2 weeks to launch while the custom native app will take 4 weeks (but it is included in the price).
  • If you have high volume stores (over 500 orders), the price can get expensive. However, you have the option to pay a monthly flat fee rate.

Best Fit:

Multi-location retailers that  want to build their brand and drive customer loyalty.

Starting Price:

$500 per month (Discount is available for Cova customers)

Standout Features:

  • Mobile app loyalty
  • Custom branding
  • Native SEO
  • Enhanced product descriptions

Why We Chose Mosaic

  • Ecommercece with loyalty. Mosaic provides an ecommerce website and a customer loyalty app.
  • Proven and scalable. The Mosaic platform is built by a team that has enterprise experience.
  • Native SEO. The web architecture allows Google to discover cannabis products on the shop page.
  • Enriched product descriptions. These not only help consumers learn about the product to drive purchase, but also help enhance SEO functionality.

Pros and Cons

Pros

  • Offers a fully branded ecommerce online menu, enhancing brand identity.
  • Beautiful UI with easy-to-use back end, so retailers can update their website by themselves.
  • Branded mobile app for easy access and ordering.
  • Built-in loyalty rewards program functionality, allowing dispensaries to retain and incentivize customers.
  • Kiosks for in-store self-support
  • Robust indexing for SEO, enhancing online visibility and discoverability for your cannabis products.
  • Excellent analytics, including comprehensive reports and full visibility to all user online activity, offering insights for marketing and optimization strategies.
  • Cost effective. They can create a custom website for $2,500, which is less than hiring a marketing agency.
  • Free unlimited push notification

Cons

  • A relatively new ecommerce platform.
  • Not a plug & play solution. It takes 2-3 weeks to build a website and create the loyalty program.

Ideal For:

Retailers who have a custom website and want to upgrade their shop page from iframe to subdomain solution.

Starting Price:

$199 Introductory pricing. $149/mo when bundled with Cova Pay.

Standout Features:

Best out-of-the-box shop page with SEO enablement, free kiosk, extremely robust online menu and fast ordering flow.

Why We Chose Cova Ecomm

  • It’s the only plug-and-play SEO-enabled shop page solution that provides real-time updates directly from Cova POS.
  • No integration with 3rd party eCommerce systems, so Inventory & pricing information is always accurate and automatically updated in real time when changes happen in POS.
  • Native SEO. The web architecture allows Google to discover cannabis products on the shop page.
  • High functioning Shop Page with extremely fast browsing, filtering, ordering, and payment.

Pros and Cons

Pros

  • Not an iframe. Customers can find your store by searching for products, which helps you bring new customers to your store.
  • Retailers own customer data and can create online customer profiles that sync with Cova POS.
  • The new Cova eComm solution is part of a robust and reliable tech stack. With Cova POS, eComm & Pay, you can leverage the streamlined performance and convenience of a single retail platform with centralized support, billing, and reporting.
  • Built-in fast, secure payment processing with 3DS2 fraud prevention.
  • A self-serve solution is included. The Cova Shop Page is optimized for tablets and phones. Customers can browse and fill their cart at their own pace. It also supports in-store express checkout workflows.
  • Fast & responsive mobile-first shop page solution encourages consumers to buy after they browse products.

Cons

  • Full functionality is only available in Canada at this time. The online menu for US customers is coming soon.
  • Although the Shop Page can be branded with a custom brand colour, they don’t offer a custom website.This shop page or online menu is designed to be linked from a “Shop Now” button on your website.

Best Fit:

Ideal for retailers prioritizing online growth and aiming to increase website traffic and sales, offering tailored solutions to dispensaries of all sizes to enhance their online retail presence.

Starting Price:

$999 per month base package includes a Customized Menu,Templated Website, and Google Analytics. (Offers social equity pricing.)

Standout Features:

  • Tailored website for seamless shopping.
  • Strong SEO focus for increased traffic and sales.
  • Chat Bot AI Budtender.
  • Digital Advertising network to maximize ROI and drive sales.
  • Google Partners.

Why We Chose Rank Really High

  • Proven Track Record: Since inception in 2021, over 300 dispensary menu integrations have been facilitated, cementing status as a trusted industry leader.
  • Deep Digital and SEO Expertise: Built by a team rooted in digital technology and SEO best practices.
  • PaaS (platform as a service) cannabis digital marketing provider. Rank Really High provides both technology and expertise to truly help retailers drive revenue.
  • Holistic turnkey solution: Perfect for marketing teams who want and need an easy-to-use solution that delivers both quality and quantity — Rank Really High is everything you need in an e-commerce platform.
  • SEO Experts: specialize in driving new customers to online stores through advanced SEO techniques.
  • Customized website with fully integrated menus and tailored location-based strategies.
  • Expert Advertising Reach: Leverage expertise from Google partners in advertising across platforms like Microsoft and Google to maximize traffic and sales.
  • Omni-Channel Marketing Excellence: Benefit from extensive experience in orchestrating large-scale marketing campaigns for multinational retailers.

Pros and Cons

Cons

  • While services deliver exceptional value, the initial investment may pose a challenge for some. Due to the focus on maximizing ROI, services may be better suited for larger retailers aiming for substantial growth.

Best Fit:

New retailers who need simplicity to facilitate online ordering. Small to medium sized retailers who have less competition in their market.

Starting Price:

$79 per store per month for a basic iframe website. If you prefer not to share your data, there will be an additional fee of $100.

Standout Features:

  • Purchase online and pick-up in store (sometimes called, ‘click & collect’) menu
  • Support delivery
  • Kiosk
  • Can order product samples directly from licenced producers through Cova Integration

Why We Chose Buddi

  • Good ecommerce to start. This is a great choice for new retailers who want something simple to facilitate online ordering for both delivery and instore pick up.
  • Seamless order process and integration. Buddi integrates with most cannabis POS in Canada, including Cova.

Pros and Cons

Pros

  • Easy to launch and easy to use
  • Reliable and straightforward order process
  • Kiosks for in-store self-support

Cons

  • Uses iframe and therefore has no SEO value.
  • Your cannabis sales data will be shared with licensed producers.

How Much Does an Ecommerce Platform Cost?

Launch fee ranges from $0 for an iframe menu to $2,500 for a custom website.

Monthly fee ranges from $0-$250 for an iframe menu. A subdomain menu or native ecommerce starts at $500-$1000 per month. There will be additional costs for extra website customization, extra landing pages or blog pages and SEO services.

Transaction fees are charged by some ecommerce platforms, including a minimum number of orders that must be met (or your business is responsible for the difference). These transaction fees, however, can be passed on to consumers.

Further cost considerations

  • Professional ecommerce web design can be costly. A marketing agency typically charges $1,000 - $10,000 to create a custom website.

  • Website maintenance is a key consideration. To keep your ecommerce running smoothly, you will need a person capable of updating the content for promotions, images, and to ensure inventory is accurate.If this person isn’t already a part of your team you’ll need an external resource or your marketing agency to handle the upkeep. If you only have a shop page, the upkeep will be minimal because your inventory and pricing should be updated automatically through POS integration.

  • SEO enhancement can range $1,000 – $5,000/month depending on the number of keywords you want to drive and the number of retail locations you have. It also depends on the competition around your area.

  • Integrations with other software can add to development costs. If your ecom doesn't have out-of-the box integration with other tools such as your POS, delivery software or CRM, you may have to pay extra for those development costs.

 

Let's Talk Cannabis Ecommerce

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