This article is sponsored by IndicaOnline, a trusted point-of-sale software in the marijuana industry across the US and Canada.
If you’re a dispensary owner interviewing new employees, you’ll ask them about a lot of things. Why they’re interested in working in the cannabis industry, maybe, or what’s their experience with the products. Perhaps you even offer a pop quiz to see what they’d recommend to a hypothetical customer.
That’s because dispensary employees should have one job always at the top of their mind: helping their customers find the very best cannabis product for their individual needs, whether it’s a topical gel for managing aches and pains, an oil cartridge to help keep their consumption inconspicuous, or a pre-roll to share with friends.
Point-of-sale systems that integrate with all parts of your business make it easier to serve clients. (Courtesy of IndicaOnline)
But that can be hard to do when they’re trying to manage a stable of different technologies. To manage inventory, they’re using one piece of software. To complete a transaction with a customer? There’s another. And if you’re in a medical-only state and need to manage compliance? There’s number three.
Every second a budtender is thinking about which piece of software to use is a second that they’re not handling their number one priority: making sure customers have the best possible experience. For dispensary owners, the answer may be simplicity itself—as in simplifying the point-of-sale experience with an inclusive system like IndicaOnline.
One Software to Rule Them All
Moving between pieces of software doesn’t just slow down transactions and distract staffers. It also maximizes the opportunities for something to go wrong in a transaction, from missed bar code scans to hardware hiccups caused by switching between programs.
Instead, when you’re managing every aspect of your business through one system, there’s less room for mistakes. That’s why many dispensary owners have moved to do-it-all systems like IndicaOnline, which let them make sales and manage inventory from a single piece of familiar software.
IndicaOnline can also help business owners manage other issues both inside their dispensary and on the road. The IndicaOnlineTV feature makes it simple to manage in-store digital signage, displaying up-to-date menus, social media feeds, special sales, and more, depending on the store’s needs that day. For dispensaries that offer delivery options, Dispatcher Mode provides tools to help managers track couriers, transactions, and cash collections from the same interface.
Built With Input From Cannabis Professionals
Ease of use was a high priority for the development team at IndicaOnline, which made it their goal to craft a piece of software that could do everything, and do it simply. To do that, they worked with business owners and professionals from around the cannabis industry to learn what problems they saw, and work to address them with a single solution.
“We took the time to collaborate with dispensary owners and staff members to identify common issues that occur at the point-of-sale, such as smart order pricing,” says IndicaOnline developer Vladimir Prokhorov. “We designed our software interface with solutions to these obstacles in mind to create a user-friendly point-of-sale system that is both comprehensive and intuitive.”
Conversations like these helped guide the development of some of IndicaOnline’s most useful features. Tools such as automatic syncing of sales data to state reporting systems and monitoring of customers to make sure they stay below purchase limits makes it easy for dispensary owners to stay in compliance with state laws and regulations, no matter where they do business.
Another thing business owners told IndicaOnline’s developers: no matter where they are, they’re working. That means that whether they’re visiting a producer, at a conference, or just tucked the kids in for the night, they need unfettered access to data about their stores. Whatever you’re doing and wherever it takes you, the mobile app lets you mind the shop as if you were right in the office.
IndicaOnline’s point-of-sale system includes an integrated scale, printer, and register. (Courtesy of IndicaOnline)
Hardware and Software, Together
Whether it’s a dispensary or a deli, everyone in retail has had to deal with hardware issues like a jammed printer or a finicky set of cables. That’s why IndicaOnline also offers POS hardware that’s as easy to use as their software.
The basic register kit includes built-in tools like a barcode scanner and receipt printer. It’s also modular, with the option to add helpful tools like digital scales, ID card swiper, and other tools to make sure that your budtenders have everything they need right at hand.
And of course, the IndicaOnline hardware and software are designed to work in concert for the smoother experience for customer and employees alike.
