Imagine you are fortunate enough to win one of the cannabis dispensary licenses awarded by your state. You plan to offer in-house sales as well as home delivery. That’s great. After you familiarize yourself with all the rules and regulations pertaining to your business, you have one important question to settle: how you plan to pull off home delivery.
Though cannabis consumption is not new, home delivery of legally recognized products from licensed dispensaries is. Home delivery in some states is so new that it has not even reached its first anniversary. As a new dispensary owner, you have to consider all your delivery options in light of state law, your customer base, and your geographic location.
Here are the most common home delivery models in states where it is legal:
1. On-Demand Delivery
On-demand delivery is what we are all used to from shopping online. We buy something, pay for it, and sit back and wait for the UPS or FedEx guy to show up at the door. There is one substantial difference with cannabis delivery: UPS and FedEx will not get involved. Deliveries are made by contract drivers or the dispensaries themselves.
An obvious benefit of on-demand delivery is convenience. Customers do not have to do a whole lot of advance planning. The downside, from the dispensary owner’s perspective, is keeping up. Delivery demand may be so high that it is not practical to guarantee same day delivery.
2. Scheduled Delivery
The scheduled delivery model is similar to an on-demand model with the exception that customers expect to have to wait. With this model, a customer places an order online. At checkout, he chooses a day and time to receive his delivery. It could be a day or two down the road. It could be a week or longer.
Beehive Farmacy is a medical cannabis pharmacy in Salt Lake City, UT. They also have a Brigham City location. Beehive says that cannabis home delivery is just getting underway in Utah. Providers are opting for the scheduled model just to get things off the ground.
3. Monthly Subscriptions
An extension of scheduled delivery is the monthly subscription. This particular model is not the best option for medical users, inasmuch as they need to be able to consult with their pharmacists as often as possible. Subscriptions are a good option in recreational states.
A cannabis a subscription would be very similar to any other kind of monthly subscription club. You buy a subscription from a company that puts together a unique package for you each month. You might also have the opportunity to choose what you want in each of your packages.
4. Club Membership and Delivery
One final model is just starting to become popular in recreational states: the club membership model. Under this model, customers join a cannabis club which is, more or less, the equivalent of a wholesale club for users. Joining the club gives members access to lower prices as well as home delivery options.
As previously stated, delivery options as a dispensary owner are influenced by a number of things. Most importantly, they are influenced by state laws. A monthly subscription or club membership might be allowed in California, but not in Utah.
Expect more delivery models to come to fruition as cannabis home delivery expands. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that it could eventually become as convenient and widespread as Amazon delivery. Time will tell. Meanwhile, dispensaries and third-party delivery services have access to all sorts of new opportunities now that states are legalizing recreational and medical cannabis.