Hello folks, I wanted to offer some insights as the Chief Technology Officer @ High Tide on strategy with the launch of our new CannaCabana.com site. You guys seemed to respond well to my comments last time on our acquisition of Dankstop, and I know that the press releases (like this recent one announcing our collaboration with Jane technologies) are fairly black & white.
First off (and to avoid confusion) - I'll state that we already had a website for Canna Cabana for some time. The previous website served primarily as directory of stores, and ranked as a result on Google when you searched for terms like "dispensary near me" or "canna cabana" based on your location in Canada.
As CTO - one of my passion projects we have been working on since I joined was a complete revamp of the Canna Cabana site. I'd been doing e-commerce in the accessories & CBD space for years, but never had an opportunity to build an e-commerce site that vended consumable cannabis at the retail level. Combined with our large brick & mortar store presence; I was excited work on creating a top notch digital presence for our Canna Cabana brand.
Why invest time building out a new retail website?
We were previously hosting our in-store menus through a third party provider (similar to Jane) like many physical brick & mortar retailers do. Similar to if you were a restaurant, and wanted to offer your products online, a service like Uber Eats could come in & offer to bring your menu onboard to get you exposure to more customers. There's a number of services in this space - Jane, Dutchie, Leafly, etc.
Of course there's nothing inherently wrong with this - it's a win / win for most retailers.
However, the missed opportunity here is being able to build lasting value for your own brand online. For one, your site exists on a third party's platform / domain, complete with identical content as everyone else (your description for any given product is the same as the next guy's because they are coming from the same menu provider). There's no distinguishing factor between Dispensary A vs Dispensary B except by pricing & promotions.
Inherently, you will never be competitive on Google search results for product level keywords like "buy sensi star strain" because;
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You don't own your web page, the third party does
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You have the same content as everyone else through that vendor (except price)
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The third party menu provider often outranks everyone for that keyword (example; Leafly, Weedmaps, etc)
Well - other sophisticated retailers like FAF, Tokyo Smoke, etc have realized this & of course built their own digital storefronts.
We're competing on the brick & mortar side - so of course, we need to bring our A-game to the digital space as well.
So what's so cool about the new CannaCabana.com site?
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We have category level ("vape cartridges", "dried flower") pages to start ranking for product category keywords
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We have in-depth product level pages (Sensi Star by Spinach) to start ranking for longer tail, high buying intent, low competition keywords
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The entire purchase session lives with us, with Jane's technology enabling our order routing / pickup / delivery process integrated directly with our POS (point of sale) system. We own the customer.
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A lot more opportunity on-site to capture leads & get folks to join Canna Club+ grow our marketing list
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Plenty of other neat little big details that make for an enriching cannabis shopping experience, such as videos, and even a game to play while you wait for your order to be ready for pickup
Anyways - I just wanted to share some insights on what's going on at High Tide on the e-commerce front. As with any newly launched (& logistically complex) site; there might be bugs - please feel free to point them out to me & we will get it resolved - like all of our e-commerce assets; it will be an endless cycle of iteration to evolve & grow.
If you want to help us rank better, feel free to share / post the new cannacabana.com online dispensary link.
Or just try to beat the "Nug Invaders" post purchase game.
Thanks as always for joining High Tide on this journey together :)