Growing a New Dispensary
North 80 Cannabis Merchants was in business in March 2020 and as a new business, they were struggling with their online sales. I was brought in during the following month to work on their marketing. As I was working on their marketing, 3 business problems arose:
1. Why aren’t customers using my website to place orders?
2. Why are my customers unaware of my newer products?
3. Why are my sales items not selling?
1. Why aren’t customers using my website to place orders?
2. Why are my customers unaware of my newer products?
3. Why are my sales items not selling?
Solution & Impact
After numerous customer interviews, usability tests and feedback I came up with the following solutions:
Customers were immediately interrupted by the age verification which made them scroll month by month (over 200 clicks). By changing the age verification to a Yes / No button, users began using the site.
Impact:
Online orders increased by 400% in the first week.
Deliveries (from online orders) increased from 1-2 per week to 5-6 per week in the first month.
Originally, North 80 was classifying their products to their own system and using elements to represent the effects of their cannabis. This left users confused when searching for new products. By changing the banner into easily recognizable icons, customers began to use the header to sort information.
Impact:
Cart sizes increased by ~20% within the first 30 days.
Customers stopped asking about new strains thus saving time for staff during peak hours.
North 80 did not show the original prices of their sales items. Customers assumed that the sales items did not have reduced pricing but were rather just poor selling stock. By including the original price in contrast to the reduced prices, users can conceptualize how much they were saving.
Impact:
All sales items were sold within 3 days.
Customers were immediately interrupted by the age verification which made them scroll month by month (over 200 clicks). By changing the age verification to a Yes / No button, users began using the site.
Impact:
Online orders increased by 400% in the first week.
Deliveries (from online orders) increased from 1-2 per week to 5-6 per week in the first month.
Originally, North 80 was classifying their products to their own system and using elements to represent the effects of their cannabis. This left users confused when searching for new products. By changing the banner into easily recognizable icons, customers began to use the header to sort information.
Impact:
Cart sizes increased by ~20% within the first 30 days.
Customers stopped asking about new strains thus saving time for staff during peak hours.
North 80 did not show the original prices of their sales items. Customers assumed that the sales items did not have reduced pricing but were rather just poor selling stock. By including the original price in contrast to the reduced prices, users can conceptualize how much they were saving.
Impact:
All sales items were sold within 3 days.
Challenges
Cannabis laws are constantly changing which limit design options
These changes happened during the first lockdown making interviews challenging.
We did not have a programmer on hand.
These changes with limited help from a developer.
These changes happened during the first lockdown making interviews challenging.
We did not have a programmer on hand.
These changes with limited help from a developer.
Role
User Research, User Testing, Interaction Design, Information Architecture, UI Design
Tools
Figma,Google Analytics, Google My Business, Buddi - E-comm for Cannabis, HTML/ CSS, Webflow
Duration
12 Weeks
North 80 Cannabis Merchants
North 80 Cannabis Merchants opened their doors to the public in 2020 amidst the COVID quarantine and as a result, their sales suffered. I was initially brought in to help with their marketing but as I worked for them, they asked me to solve three business problems.
Business Challenges
As I started to analyze the website and shopping experience, the business owner asked me these 3 questions:
“Why aren’t customers using my website to place orders?”
“Why are my customers unaware of my newer products?”
“Why are my sales items not selling?”
“Why aren’t customers using my website to place orders?”
“Why are my customers unaware of my newer products?”
“Why are my sales items not selling?”
Why aren’t customers using my website to place orders?
After interviewing customers, I found that almost all the customers knew about the website but chose not to use it despite using other sites for e-commerce.
Cannabis dispensaries must verify that the user is 19 years of age or older. North 80’s website was created by engineers over fiver and programmed their age verification differently.
Cannabis dispensaries must verify that the user is 19 years of age or older. North 80’s website was created by engineers over fiver and programmed their age verification differently.
Old Age Verification
After asking for a demonstration, I found that customers did not know they could click on the month / year and choose their correct year from there.
Users who had the patience, needed to to scroll back 19 years one month at a time. That is at least (19 X 12) 228 clicks/swipes! And since customers primarily use their smartphones for online browsing, it would take around 4 minutes to get past this screen.
I decided that the simplest fix which required the least developer intervention is to change the age verification from a calendar input to a yes or no box.
Users who had the patience, needed to to scroll back 19 years one month at a time. That is at least (19 X 12) 228 clicks/swipes! And since customers primarily use their smartphones for online browsing, it would take around 4 minutes to get past this screen.
I decided that the simplest fix which required the least developer intervention is to change the age verification from a calendar input to a yes or no box.
New Age Verification
Impact
Online orders increased by 400% in the first week.
Deliveries (from online orders) increased from 1-2 per week to 5-6 per week in the first month.
Why are my customers unaware of my newer products?
Sales orders increased vastly in one month of changing the age verification page.
We noticed that the newer products were not selling as well as the older stock online. We were also noticing more customers asking about a specific products which was already entered into the online menu.
I conducted more interviews and user testing to discovered that this problem was caused by information architecture.
We noticed that the newer products were not selling as well as the older stock online. We were also noticing more customers asking about a specific products which was already entered into the online menu.
I conducted more interviews and user testing to discovered that this problem was caused by information architecture.
North 80 created their own categories to help introduce cannabis to new customers (see above). This becomes a problem when the more experienced customers use the web site (see below).
Users tend to use the header to sort information. They found that the elements were too confusing.
Customers simply scroll down the unfiltered view and give up when they do not find what they are looking for.
After testing several icons, I changed the icons to be more uniform while aligning to customer expectations.
Customers simply scroll down the unfiltered view and give up when they do not find what they are looking for.
After testing several icons, I changed the icons to be more uniform while aligning to customer expectations.
Impact
Cart sizes increased by ~20% within the first 30 days.
Customers stopped asking about new strains thus saving time for staff during peak hours.
Why are my sales items not selling?
Now in the third month, everything was starting to sell while sales items lagged behind.
Users felt that they were not getting a deal with the current prices so they opted to purchase what they usually purchased.
Users felt that they were not getting a deal with the current prices so they opted to purchase what they usually purchased.
Users did not know what the “old sales listing” already had the discount applied.
By including the original price and the discounted price, we were able to help consumers conceptualize how much they are saving.
By including the original price and the discounted price, we were able to help consumers conceptualize how much they are saving.
Impact
All sales items were sold within 3 days.
