If you’re considering developing an on-demand pick-up app for your marijuana dispensary, there’s a lot of moving parts that you’ll need to keep in mind when you begin the process. A good starting point is to check out a couple of our previous blogs: learn how an app can drive sales to your dispensary, and take a look at some of the key things to remember before you begin development. In this blog, we’ll be examining the logic and algorithms that you’ll want to include in your app in order to make the most of it.

Hours of operation is important

If your dispensary is open until 11pm, orders place beyond a certain time (say, 10:30) will obviously not be able to be picked up until the next business day. As such, you need to ensure that your app has your hours of operation included in its code, so that customers can be aware of when exactly they’ll be able to come in and pick up their order. You’ll also need to account for statutory holidays and other days where you know your dispensary will be closed. Click here to see a list of statutory holidays in Canada.

POS System – To tie in, or not to tie in?

There’s a few things to consider when it comes to deciding whether or not you want to connect your on-demand pick-up app to your dispensary’s POS (point of sale) system. Firstly, if you decide to tie the two together, you’ll be looking at a considerably more expensive development process. This is because the app developer will have to work with an application interface from the POS vendor, which will result in higher licensing and development fees. However, as with anything in life, you get what you pay for, and tying your app to your POS system will result in more accurate orders and improved inventory management. If you choose not to tie the two together – and as an example, the popular Uber Eats app doesn’t tie their app to a given eatery’s POS system – you’ll need to ensure that you log in to your app’s Dashboard and make sure that everything listed on the app is available for purchase. Interested in seeing what POS systems are used in the marijuana dispensary? Click here to see a top 10 list.

Transaction history and buying patterns

Adding in options for buyers to see their transaction history is a very important feature for any on-demand app, and this is no different for a marijuana dispensary app. This will also require your app to be tied to your POS system, but it ensures that buyers will always have a clear picture of every order that they’ve made with the app, including fulfilled orders, open orders, and canceled orders. In addition, you can use their buying patterns and order frequency to offer them product suggestions via pop-up ads or push notifications.

With the marijuana industry poised to explode over the next little while due to the recent legalization of marijuana in Canada, the market for on-demand pick-up apps has never looked better. Be sure to check out this space regularly for more expert blogs to help you take your marijuana dispensary to the next level!