The cannabis landscape is ever-changing, and with that comes technology that must keep pace with the expectations of today's consumers and every cannabis dispensary. The traditional cannabis shopping app is no longer sufficient, particularly with what consumers and dispensaries expect from their shopping experience. Straightforward listings, maps, and checkout apps have proven to be limited in personalization, real-time data accuracy, educational support, and dispensary empowerment. With the cannabis market evolving, new platforms like XShack are emerging as the next generation of solutions. It provides an integrated intelligent retail solution that infuses marketplace discovery and dispensary management tools.

‍

Why Are Traditional Cannabis Apps Becoming Obsolete?

The traditional cannabis shopping platform has become outdated for many reasons. They are too limited in scope to benefit consumers and dispensaries alike for complex cannabis products in today’s marketplace.

Barriers for Consumers:

• Consistent User Experience Across Users: The interfaces of these sites generally do not allow for any level of individualized product recommendations or product education tailored to users' needs, medical conditions, or preferences. 
• Misleading Product Listing: Several apps list products as in stock, but typically, that information is inaccurate or stale. Users waste time and get frustrated when they are unable to acquire the product from the cannabis dispensary. 
• Poor User Interface or User Experience. Traditional apps have bad designs, clunky, slow-loading times, which detract from users' browsing or shopping experience.
• Inadequate Education: There is not enough education in the areas of strains, dosage, and consumption for new cannabis users, resulting in a very overwhelming experience.
• Loyalty and Rewards are Split and Fragmented: Loyalty benefits are usually not integrated into the cannabis shopping platform or split across different venues, so users cannot easily tell how to manage their loyalty or usage.

Challenges for Dispensaries:

• Weak Marketing Capabilities: The cannabis dispensary has limited options to market new products, loyalty programs, or expiration deals through platforms.
• Inherent Inability to Capture Actionable Data: Dispensaries are unable to collect actionable data and insights around user behavior, inventory, and sales data, resulting in valuable data not being collected.
• Inevitable Inefficiency: Traditional apps do not integrate directly with a cannabis dispensary's inventory systems or their compliance & safety tools and put users at risk for wasting time in manual processing and errors. 
• Security and Privacy. The platforms can offer limited options for data safety features as well as transparency in user data collection and use.

The combined challenges of these issues ultimately leave traditional apps limited in their ability to grow with the complexity of a cannabis shopping platform.

‍

How XShack Reinvents Cannabis Marketplace Discovery?

XShack’s marketplace discovery module redefines the cannabis shopping experience for the consumer with features that deliver accuracy, personalization, and convenience in a single cannabis shopping platform. 

Live & Verified Product Availability

Accurate live inventory data and reliable availability across a vetted network of licensed cannabis dispensaries mitigate the frustration of endlessly searching for unavailable products. The XShack community is empowered to eliminate guesswork and last-minute surprises on product availability. 

Detailed Product Profiles

XShack's product profiles are built with detailed descriptions that go beyond cannabinoid and terpene profiles, lab test results, effects, and consumption recommendations. The product profiles contain flavor profiles and user reviews to allow for a more meaningful contextualized decision for product considerations. 

Personalized Product Recommendations 

Users will receive personalized strain and product recommendations based on their individual goals, pain relief, relaxation, etc., and will continue to change the recommendations with the user's preferences and circumstances. 

Localized Search and Navigation 

Geo-contextualized listings that display dispensaries only local to the user that specifically carry the products they are searching for. The app localizes relevant routes, listing the routes available to the user while providing the real-time dispensary hours and stock alerts.

‍

Empowering Dispensaries with Advanced Retail Management Tools

XShack supplies every cannabis dispensary with leading-edge digital tools that improve their operational efficiency, as well as their ability to connect with customers.

Automated Inventory and Compliance Management

• Synchronizes inventory in real-time for stockout and overstock avoidance.
• Ensures every cannabis dispensary stays on top of regulatory requirements and reporting.

Integrated Loyalty & Promotion Program

• Allows dispensaries to simultaneously deploy an intelligent reward campaign that targets customers based on purchase behaviors or customer segments.
• Facilitates dispensaries to measure customer engagement and redemption to continually improve their reward program.

Robust Analytics Dashboard

• Gives deep insight into sales trends, consumer demographics, and product performance.
• Helps dispensaries analyze best-sellers, project demand, and product mix opportunities.

Marketing & Visibility Boost

• Dispensaries can showcase featured products or current promotional deals to targeted customers directly on the cannabis shopping platform.
• Supports multimedia marketing and content to actively connect with customers.

‍

Intelligent Personal Assistant: Transforming the Cannabis Shopping Journey

AI-Powered personal assistant from XShack re-imagines cannabis shopping as a personalized, supportive experience. Here are some of the key benefits of an AI-based assistant:

• Provides Educational Content and Support: Incorporates information about product type, dosages, legality, and health issues. This lowers barriers for first-time users and promotes responsible consumption for all users. 
• Personalized Assistance and Recommendations: Provides intelligent strain and product recommendations targeting user-specific goals. 
• Real-time Alerts and Notifications: Include push notifications for restocking of products, short-term offers, and new products. Provides turn-by-turn navigation to the closest cannabis dispensary and reminders for appointments and order pick-ups. 

‍

Conclusion

The traditional cannabis apps aren't meeting the evolving needs of consumers and any cannabis dispensary. XShack bridges the gap through real-time product discovery, offering dispensaries the best tools and personalized engagement on one platform, while providing transparency, efficiency, and consumer engagement to inform the shopping experience and create a more trustworthy retail space in cannabis.

As the industry continues to evolve and more customers enter the space, the platforms that push innovation, usability, and trust in community-based social impact will prevail. XShack is leading this innovation and offering the necessary technology and support to facilitate a safe and seamless cannabis shopping platform.

Get ahead of the game—download XShack and join the cannabis retail revolution now to shop smarter and safer.