With 5 operational locations across Missouri and another opening up soon, Green Releaf is Missouri’s premier medical marijuana dispensary aiming to provide an elevated cannabis experience to its customers. With extensive experience in the regulated retail space and a passion to help people in their wellness journey, venturing into cannabis seemed like a natural extension for Jay Patel, founder & CEO of Green Releaf. With a degree in engineering, Jay also understood the importance of using the right retail technology to ensure efficient dispensary management and chose Cova as the technology partner for his multi-location cannabis dispensary business. We recently caught up with Patel to learn more about why Green Releaf became Missourians’ preferred cannabis dispensary and how Cova has helped in this journey.
Strategic Cannabis Retail Business Plan and Vision
Jay was always confident about the future of cannabis and applied for multiple licenses. With a strong business plan and foundation, Green Releaf became the first company to open all its allotted medical marijuana stores in Missouri. Patel's vision is to help people with ailments that cannabis can relieve and positively impact the community.
Jay strongly believes that a multi-location business is the proven business model in retail, and decided to choose Cova’s enterprise cannabis POS system to help manage dispensary operations at Green Releaf’s multiple locations. A clear-cut business plan and support from the local community in advance allowed him to implement all his ideas methodically and scale up rapidly. With plans to have at least 10 dispensary locations and eventually a vertically integrated cannabis company, Green Releaf is already on the green path to glory.
Company’s Mission, Brand Image, and Customer Experience
Before launching Green Releaf, Jay did extensive research on cannabis and its medical benefits. His conversations with people and their experiences using marijuana for health reasons made him realize that this magical plant is indeed a blessing for them. For Jay, cannabis became a leaf that provides relief- and that is how Green Releaf was born. With the tagline, 'Cannabis That Relieves', the dispensary is staying true to its mission of improving lives and empowering them to avail the healing benefits of this green good.
When your mission is to enrich people’s lives, customer service is one of the most crucial things in retail. Jay says, “Cova’s suite of cannabis retail tools has helped Green Releaf’s staff provide excellent service and enhance the customer experience.”
With an easy-to-use interface and relevant patient information available on the fly, Cova’s cannabis POS system enables the budtenders to focus on satisfying the individual requirements of each patient and help them relieve any conditions they may have, thus staying true to the brand image of Green Releaf, while enhancing the customer experience.
Using Insights From Data to Make Business Decisions
When you are in the cannabis retail industry, where new products are being introduced every day and new demographics of cannabis consumers are visiting your store regularly, accurate reporting from your cannabis POS system helps in better dispensary management.
Jay remarks, “Historical data and reports from Cova POS give me valuable insights to make strategic business decisions, optimize dispensary operations, and segment our target market better.”
Whether it comes to inventory ordering and management, staffing decisions on big occasions like 420, organizing promotions on certain days based on buying behavior, or just providing a more customized experience to customers, Green Releaf relies on patterns and reports generated by Cova POS to streamline dispensary operations.
Working With Advanced Cannabis Retail Software
Jay believes that anyone who is still running a retail store on a laptop or desktop computer is not keeping up with the times. Technology has advanced a lot, and tablets are a necessity to ensure a seamless customer experience at your cannabis dispensary. Green Releaf was approached by multiple cannabis POS companies that were offering their software solutions on a laptop, but Jay chose Cova for the simplified tablet format that both staff and customers love.
Jay asserts, “The future of retail is mobile, and Cova’s tablets allow us to serve clients on the floor and prepare their order while they browse the store.”
When you serve at least 1000 patients a day, simplicity and user-friendliness are extremely important in cannabis retail software, and Cova ticked all the checkboxes for Jay Patel and Green Releaf. With excellent product catalogs, seamless integrations with third-party cannabis software, and the ability to provide a smooth check-in and check-out experience on tablets to its customers, Green Releaf couldn’t have chosen a more advanced POS system to elevate the dispensary shopping experience.
Cannabis Compliance and Growth Go Hand in Hand
With medical, pharmaceutical, and retail experience, Green Releaf’s team knows that the regulated retail industry's foremost priority is compliance. Any minor infractions in the cannabis industry can lead to loss of your dispensary license, and no license means no business. Selling cannabis products compliantly and providing high-quality cannabis at affordable prices has always been the mission for Green Releaf, and Cova as a technology partner has made everything easier.
Jay declares, “Cova’s 2-way integration with the Metrc tracking system facilitates cannabis compliance, reduces errors, and saves us time and hassle.”
He is glad that he chose a cannabis technology partner that is capable of handling and streamlining multi-location dispensary operations and is growing with them while keeping the business compliant. Green Releaf's team doesn’t have to worry about crossing the legal purchase limits of a patient or inventory tracking and reporting to METRC, which happens in real-time on Cova POS. Green Releaf and Cova have worked together to enhance the capabilities of our cannabis POS system and ensure that Missouri’s premier medical marijuana dispensary continues growing.
As Green Releaf executes its plans to expand further into a multi-location enterprise cannabis retail business and possibly a vertically integrated company, Cova is excited to be its technology partner in this journey. If you want to have the most advanced cannabis retail technology tools at your disposal to grow your business and always stay with all cannabis laws, click below to learn more about how Cova can help you accomplish your goals.
