420 with CNW — Marijuana Firms Boost Online Sales by Leveraging UX Design
Due to restrictions placed on the cannabis market by federal prohibition, players in the nascent industry cannot market or sell their products through regular chains. Furthermore, patchwork cannabis regulations make it extremely tricky for cannabis businesses to expand to other states.
As a result, many cannabis businesses across the country are tapping into a resource that has essentially revolutionalized commerce: the internet. By building navigable and user-friendly websites, cannabis businesses can open up their market base without having to spend millions of dollars opening stores out of state.
Marijuana businesses are now investing in user-experience (UX) design to ensure their customers have a stress-free and enjoyable experience when shopping for products on their website. According to Socrates Rosenfeld, CEO of California-based Jane Technologies, shopping for cannabis “should be fun.”
Before the coronavirus pandemic struck, most cannabis consumers purchased their cannabis in physical brick-and-mortar shops. But as states across the country began to issue lockdown orders, cannabis businesses began offering online ordering, curbside pickup and home deliveries.
Home deliveries were especially crucial as a significant percentage of medical marijuana patients are immunocompromised and were much more likely to experience severe symptoms if they contracted COVID. By 2020, 22.7% of older adults used medical cannabis. According to the World Health Organization, age-related physiological changes coupled with possible underlying health conditions mean older people have a significant risk of becoming severely ill if they are infected with the virus.
Now that states are steadily lifting their lockdown orders, plenty of cannabis businesses plan on retaining their online presence. To lure customers away from brick-and-mortar stores, businesses that rely on online sales will have to make the experience even better than going into a store.
A good user-experience design will ensure that customers can navigate products as well as place and cancel orders easily. On average, a user will spend less than a minute on a webpage. If your UX design isn’t good enough to capture their attention in the first 10 seconds, they will most likely exit your website.
Cannabis clients and consumers tend to be more tech savvy compared to those in other industries, says Sam Harris, CEO of Springbing, a cannabis marketing and loyalty software company. As a result, they are more likely to know the difference between bad and good UX and will be critical of bad UX.
Andreas Neumann, the chief creative director of Florida-based Jushi Holdings, calls UX the “new branding.” He was hired because of his experience in design, and his main duty at Jushi is to ensure processes are as frictionless as possible for both customers and employees.
He notes that good UX doesn’t just make it easier for customers to navigate and make purchases, it also makes online communication for staff a lot easier and eliminates a lot of potential friction. Established companies such as Flora Growth Corp. (NASDAQ: FLGC) intuitively know that once staff work seamlessly, the bottom line of the company will benefit.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Flora Growth Corp. (NASDAQ: FLGC) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://cnw.fm/FLGC
Please see full terms of use and disclaimers on the CannabisNewsWire website applicable to all content provided by CNW420, wherever published or re-published: http://CNW.fm/Disclaimer
Due to restrictions placed on the cannabis market by federal prohibition, players in the nascent industry cannot market or sell their products through regular chains. Furthermore, patchwork cannabis regulations make it extremely tricky for cannabis businesses to expand to other states.
As a result, many cannabis businesses across the country are tapping into a resource that has essentially revolutionalized commerce: the internet. By building navigable and user-friendly websites, cannabis businesses can open up their market base without having to spend millions of dollars opening stores out of state.
Marijuana businesses are now investing in user-experience (UX) design to ensure their customers have a stress-free and enjoyable experience when shopping for products on their website. According to Socrates Rosenfeld, CEO of California-based Jane Technologies, shopping for cannabis “should be fun.”
Before the coronavirus pandemic struck, most cannabis consumers purchased their cannabis in physical brick-and-mortar shops. But as states across the country began to issue lockdown orders, cannabis businesses began offering online ordering, curbside pickup and home deliveries.
Home deliveries were especially crucial as a significant percentage of medical marijuana patients are immunocompromised and were much more likely to experience severe symptoms if they contracted COVID. By 2020, 22.7% of older adults used medical cannabis. According to the World Health Organization, age-related physiological changes coupled with possible underlying health conditions mean older people have a significant risk of becoming severely ill if they are infected with the virus.
Now that states are steadily lifting their lockdown orders, plenty of cannabis businesses plan on retaining their online presence. To lure customers away from brick-and-mortar stores, businesses that rely on online sales will have to make the experience even better than going into a store.
A good user-experience design will ensure that customers can navigate products as well as place and cancel orders easily. On average, a user will spend less than a minute on a webpage. If your UX design isn’t good enough to capture their attention in the first 10 seconds, they will most likely exit your website.
Cannabis clients and consumers tend to be more tech savvy compared to those in other industries, says Sam Harris, CEO of Springbing, a cannabis marketing and loyalty software company. As a result, they are more likely to know the difference between bad and good UX and will be critical of bad UX.
Andreas Neumann, the chief creative director of Florida-based Jushi Holdings, calls UX the “new branding.” He was hired because of his experience in design, and his main duty at Jushi is to ensure processes are as frictionless as possible for both customers and employees.
He notes that good UX doesn’t just make it easier for customers to navigate and make purchases, it also makes online communication for staff a lot easier and eliminates a lot of potential friction. Established companies such as Flora Growth Corp. (NASDAQ: FLGC) intuitively know that once staff work seamlessly, the bottom line of the company will benefit.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Flora Growth Corp. (NASDAQ: FLGC) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://cnw.fm/FLGC
Please see full terms of use and disclaimers on the CannabisNewsWire website applicable to all content provided by CNW420, wherever published or re-published: http://CNW.fm/Disclaimer
