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👴 Part 1: A Boomer walks into an online shop

👴 Part 1: A Boomer walks into an online shop

Had my dad shop online for keto edibles - here are the learnings

September 08, 2021

Due to popular demand, I’m bringing back the ‘make your family shop for cannabis and document them’ series.

This time, I asked my Dad - a notorious teetotaler, a lifelong non-smoker, and a man who once called cannabis “the demon weed” - to hop on his phone and find some gas.

Quick note: this is Part 1. Part 2 will be when we actually partake in his new products.

🏃‍♂️ Geoffrey gets goin’

So, the prompt from me: search for (and buy) cannabis products that you might want to try. Use your phone. Screenshot every step. Forget I work at Jane. Complete the journey multiple times, if you’d like.

My dad is a writer, btw. He sent me lots of follow-up notes after the experience - I borrow from his brain at times. It also might be relevant to review some of his parameters as a new entrant into the cannabis product world:

No-no: smokables
Must-have: Keto-friendly
Fulfillment: Delivery only (*he isn’t against stepping foot in a dispensary, he just had to watch my kids later in the day so didn’t have time to drive somewhere)

Let’s dig in.

🍫 In search of cacao bites - and education

“First, I searched for “cannabis for sleep stress edibles,” hoping to find some solid suggestions for some products and seller. I saw an article on “healthline.com,” which I’ve visited before, on how cannabis might restore your regular sleep cycles. Interesting article, but not much help in my search.”

Dad’s searches are very common - “sleep” and “stress” consistently rank near the top of searches on Jane, racking up over 10k searches per month. He made a distinction between education and shopping journey here - he found some info, but it didn’t help him get any closer to a purchase.

“So then I searched simply for “cannabis edibles” and landed on a google page that showed some local dispensaries and other links. One of the links, very close to the top, was to a company called “Leafly,” which I vaguely remember hearing about. So I clicked on that link. It took me to a site, who wanted personal information, which I was not ready to give.”

Two things here: name recognition of Leafly, and the unwillingness to self-identify for location or age. Good branding for our friends in Seattle, and a common privacy theme with shoppers over 50 (“I don’t want you to track me”).

🛻 Bring me the chocolate

Geoffrey soldiers on:

“So I kept searching, finally landing on a seller called “Pantry Cannabis” which apparently sold the keto edibles that I was hoping to find.

I went through the prompts on the site, and the decision tree led me to some Cacao Keto Bites (which, by the way, is the perfect name for an item I would purchase). I was out of the range of some of the stores in LA, but I found a shop in Ojai that delivers here by using the “Delivery” button in the menu.

If I was going to pick up from the store, I would probably head to those LA shops because I’m more familiar with the area.”

A couple highlights here:

1) Dad found some stores that had his preferred product, in his preferred area, but he was out of the delivery range (he lives in Ventura County, which is an odd little distance from LA / SF Valley on one side, and Port Hueneme / Ojai on the other). So he had to dig a bit deeper to find a store that would accommodate his fulfillment preference.

2) Pantry does an excellent job of providing optionality - their front page runs a Jane indirect-to-consumer menu, which can accommodate the majority of shoppers in major metros; for the weird use cases like my dad, they also offer a more manual “choose your area” function, which he used.

💡 The Key Insight So Far: Cannabis consumers - even if they have never shopped for cannabis - spend a few minutes on education and confirming assumptions, then they tackle the shopping journey. They want to view any/all relevant products, and they want them all to be delivered to their doorstep.

We are trained to expect to shop a large, wide-ranging inventory, then have it delivered quickly.

IMO - cannabis companies that facilitate these transactions (retailers, delivery operators) either have a large inventory with all the products you might want, or they can deliver it anywhere quickly - we haven’t quite cracked the code on how to execute both.

🤷 These customers ain’t loyal

Geoffrey didn’t stop there - he wanted to continue exploring products and platforms (he is nothing if not thorough).

Here’s a couple of quick hits on his experiences:

Weedmaps

“I was able to order through Weedmaps online (not through the app, but I will still have to log-in to the app I believe when I purchase.). I found some products that will ostensibly delivery to my address - from “Elevate” - but they don’t open until 9, and they won’t fulfill an order until they’re open. I put 2 packages of sugar-free dark chocolate edibles and 2 packages of sugar-free gummies into my cart. They require a $50 minimum purchase for a free delivery.”

Papa and Barkley

“I went online again and searched for keto-friendly edible, and I was directed to Papa & Barkley. The stores that were listed that would deliver to me now included one in Port Hueneme (that’s the problem, by the way - the first 3 stores that would supposedly deliver to me actually did not, and I only found out at the end).

Anyway, Papa & B have this keto-friendly “Berry Burst” gummy - so I ordered 2 packages (you have to order more than $35 from the Port Hueneme store for delivery). When I tried to check out, my only choice was payment at delivery, because they aren’t open yet. So I’m waiting until 9 when they open to see if I can prepay with a credit card (I assume so, but we’ll see).”

(Btw, this was a Jane indirect-to-consumer menu for Papa & Barkley, followed by From the Earth in PH as the retailer)

Major takeaways:

1) Papa & Barkley is doing well with SEO and driving people like Geoffrey directly into the right environment

2) Shoppers become frustrated when seeing inventory they can’t ultimately order with their preferred fulfillment method (dad was seeing pickup-only retailers and delivery retailers listed in the same view, and it was confusing)

3) People want to pay online (I told him you can’t pay with credit cards, don’t worry)

Leafly

“I started over and searched for “cannabis delivery near me” and saw a link to Leafly. I input my search parameters and came up with 4 stores, between 15 and 35 miles away. When I picked product at the first one (not exactly what I wanted) I got the message again that I’m out of the delivery area.

I finally found a dispensary, though, through Leafly that would deliver to my house. I put in the order and it was accepted. But someone from Leafly called me about 30 minutes later to tell me that they no longer had my in stock. She couldn’t come up with a good substitute that wouldn’t take another day or two to delivery, so I canceled my order.”

🤔 Options abound

In Part 2, we’ll examine the order he ultimately placed, and why. We’ll also sample product and give some feedback.

📚 tl;dr

I made my non-smoking father shop for cannabis
He found multiple ways to get a delivery - from Pantryfoods.co, from Weedmaps, from Papa & Barkley, and from Leafly (all with varying degrees of success)
Customers are trained to expect to shop a large, wide-ranging inventory, then have it delivered quickly
Customers want to pay online
Customers don’t want anyone to track them too early in the process (they have to get comfortable with your platform first)
SEO is king
It is Wednesday