How to Win Over Consumers with Cannabis Data

Cannabis has over 400 chemical compounds, of which more than 60 are classified as cannabinoids. But, still, scientists remain leaps behind in fully understanding the complex biochemical effects found in the plant. This problem can be summed up as a lack of data, and it’s not the only space within the cannabis industry that could be exponentially improved by comprehensive data collection and analysis.

Data science has vastly improved the state of countless industries, namely marketing, business, medicine, agriculture, and the food industry. There’s an enormous amount of cannabis data out there, and harnessing it can help grow the industry and enhance its efficiency.

WHERE IS THE DATA?

About 63% of the global population has internet access, producing around 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day without sleep.

Data can impact the cannabis industry in various ways. And companies are capitalizing on the demand for data collection and analysis as a service to enhance other businesses. Here are some companies harnessing the power of data and how they are helping create a competitive edge.

BLAZE is a California-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) SaaS company specializing in inventory and sales management. The company’s service offerings include seed growth to sales, distribution, and dispensary POS software, complemented by its novel payment platform, BlazePay. BLAZE aims to connect the entire supply chain through integration with its 40 technology partners.

The company recently became Service Organization Control 2 Type 1 certified in data security, identifies key data points, and organizes them into reports for business intelligence (BI) data. At the same time, the platform allows for improved user experience and optimized trend reporting, gathering and analyzing the customer, grower, transportation, and sales data incredibly quickly once purchased. Furthermore, this creates prediction models that operators can use to anticipate emerging market trends ahead of their competition.

Eaze is the most significant cannabis delivery marketplace in the US and focuses heavily on customer experience and social equity. Eaze offers accessible cannabis solutions to low-income medical cannabis consumers and partners with other equity-aligned brands. Every year, the company publishes the ‘State of Cannabis,’ an analysis report on the purchasing choices based on demographics. This allows smaller cannabis companies with consumer data that they can then use to drive business actions that rival larger operations with more resources.

Eaze’s Brand Insights Program (BIP) houses a fountain of consumer data by capturing customer interactions performed on its platform. The company utilizes AWS data storage which its team of data scientists uses to analyze data and report trends. That data provides valuable insights to help producers plan for the production and innovation of products, ultimately benefiting cannabis consumers, whose needs can be better met and much more quickly compared to other market areas. Many of these demographic-tailored products are housed on Eaze’s shopping platform.

Veriheal is a healthcare technology company that connects patients and doctors on its online platform aimed toward emerging state markets where medical cannabis has been or is being legalized. The company has become the US’s largest facilitator of medical marijuana (MMJ) cards, thanks to the tediousness of the traditional process for obtaining MMJ cards. Veriheal’s focus on medical cannabis casts a stark contrast to recreational consumers by focusing on the consumer base using cannabis as an alternative, low-maintenance treatment option for a range of various health conditions.

Veriheal compiles patient data anonymously to inform industry trends for medical marijuana users and their preferences. However, all the data that Veriheal gathers and uses is HIPPA regulated to ensure the medical data security for all its patients. The company can create cannabis recommendations that help patients feel better and help physicians serve their patients efficiently and effectively in an easy-to-use online space intended specifically for the medical space. Additionally, the reports created from the analyzed data collected can inform state-level markets and medical reporting about emerging trends in illnesses.

HOW BIG IS DATA GETTING?

The methods that companies are implementing to collect data are somewhat varied, even within the same companies and among varying levels of operators. But the amount of data being gathered is rapidly growing as more consumers create larger digital footprints across the internet. And technologies to capture that technology are hastened to keep up. 

As cannabis integrates into existing markets and becomes more ubiquitous, more consumer data on cannabis purchasing demographics and habits will emerge and become more readily available. Companies that are already poised to collect this data have an unmatched advantage. Companies can find solutions as simple as buying stacks of user data from a cannabis subscription service or magazine and analyzing how many clicks visitors get on specific products or blog posts. Tools as simple as this can discover that consumers are consistent in their product choices across ages and geographies, which might make ‘classics’ and strain ‘comebacks’ a more strategic marketing move.

Data is making the cannabis industry more democratic regarding who has access to trend-forward resources. And now that nearly every cannabis operation has this access in some capacity, they have as good of a shot as any other company in capturing customers.