A quick stroll through any dispensary may have you slackjawed at the sheer number of products on the market today. From edibles to tinctures to flowers and more, cannabis has come a long way in the US from being sold illegally in nondescript plastic bags. 

Nevertheless, it’s still customarily compared to that other ‘legal drug,’ alcohol – much to Socrates Rosenfeld’s dismay. He’d rather you think of it like a consumer packaged goods (CPG) product.

“This is something that you put in your body. We ask whether our eggs are cage-free or whether there are antibiotics in our burger,” Rosenfeld, founder of cannabis e-commerce platform Jane Technologies, tells AFN. 

“Many of these [cannabis] brands are giving back to the community, hiring for diversity. Consumers feel like they have power with where they spend their dollar, and all of these considerations put together make cannabis a CPG item.”

Operating across 31 states, Jane Technologies offers dispensaries and other cannabis retail segments an e-commerce platform that provides real-time inventory tracking as well as data-driven insights into consumer preferences. It also runs an aggregated online marketplace that helps consumers explore local cannabis offerings and discover new products.

The Santa Cruz, California-based startup claims that roughly 20% to 25% of all legal cannabis transactions in the US take place through its e-commerce site.

“What you’re starting to see now is, whether it’s groceries, convenience stores, or quick-service restaurants, people are expecting and quite frankly prioritizing the digital experience to access local goods and services,” Rosenfeld says. 

“The flip side is that you’re seeing small businesses who historically did not invest in a digital footprint do that during the [Covid-19] pandemic and now they’re realizing all the efficiencies.”

The CPG-ification of cannabis

Another factor driving this CPG-ification of cannabis is consumers’ growing comfortableness with the plant, Rosenfeld says. As legal access to cannabis increases across the US and other countries, consumers are experimenting with a wide variety of uses to address health ailments, anxiety, or simply boost relaxation. 

In response, cannabis brands are spending more time thinking about their overall brand image, marketing, and packaging, particularly as competition increases. Similar to how you cannot order a six-pack of beer direct from Coors and have it shipped to your house, cannabis brands must sell through a dispensary or e-commerce platform like Jane’s. As a result, cannabis brands have to work hard to cultivate a recognizable brand identity with their target demographic.

“We now have 750,000 products in our catalog, which is crazy. You walk into a dispensary and it’s just so overwhelming,” Rosenfeld says. “What you end up doing is asking the budtender what to purchase.”

Continue reading on the AFN website