7 Marijuana Marketplaces That Will Take You Places

• Marijuana is a commonly cultivated plant that is trafficked, used as an illicit drug and as the wave for its legalization grows, it is gaining the attention of investors, manufacturers, and researchers.

There are many operating in the online marijuana marketplaces for order and delivery – the market is ripe and waiting to be tapped to reach its full potential.

Despite the plant being illegal under federal law, the U.S. legal marijuana industry was pegged at $14 billion last year with 350,000 jobs for handling of plants. A total of 33 states have legalized marijuana for medical use and in them 14 lets adults legally use the drug for recreational use.

That number will rise as more people are accepting the idea of legalizing marijuana across the US.

Medical cannabis will become more prominent. Medical was highly responsible to get the cannabis industry up and running this decade, but then got derailed for recreational use. People aiming for adult-use of marijuana are also looking at how they can use cannabis for wellbeing and medical purposes.

A lot of states will vote based on the future of medical cannabis in the 2020 elections. We take you through a detailed version of the opportunities in the cannabis industry and how online marijuana marketplace is giving customers the high they yearn for.

Legalization of Cannabis

There is acceptance of the plant as a legitimate option for people suffering from medical problems like chronic pain or seizures.

Cannabis industry is promising to turn into an attractive opportunity for investors due to promising returns, expansion to other states and diverse product offerings.

Lot many states are welcoming the legalization of cannabis as there had always been a strong push from the market to make cannabis legally available. And legalization will in all probability curb crimes relating to underground markets for cannabis.

There isn’t much doubt that the expanding European cannabis market will make it an attractive investment landscape.

Tapping Into Online Marketplaces

Majority of online marketplaces for cannabis are targeting customers with apps that lets you browse for nearby dispensaries, order, make payments and get it delivered to you quickly. The growing consumer demand, Geographic limitations, and quick order fulfilment has opened new avenues for cannabis.

Although the basic offering of most marijuana marketplaces is order management and delivery, newer marketplaces are trying to offer value to target their audience.

Sale of Cannabis in Weight

A few of online marijuana marketplaces are

greenRush: is considered to be a dominant player in cannabis delivery circuit. They currently offer their services in California, Colorado, Nevada, and Oregon. With a recent series of funding, they plan to expand to several more states.

Eaze: Eaze delivers medical marijuana in San Francisco region but will take effect in California post-legalization.

B GREAT which produces full-spectrum upscale CBD items. There are even more products like deodorant, hand soaps, throat sprays and nasal sprays that has CBD as one of its ingredients.

Meadow: has an app called Meadow MD that connects patients and doctors for effective consultations. The differentiating factor in comparison to other online marketplaces, is that it develops tech solutions for the marijuana industry

Grassp: Like Hospitals and Medical centers, Grassp focuses largely on the security of medical marijuana patients and their records.

Jane: This California based start-up focuses on customization via data analytics and real-time updates on dispensary products.

Say Hi: One of the latest entrants in the domain, Say Hi is a highly edited online marijuana marketplaces. Consumers can find sophisticated, design-minded cannabis products that aren’t available at other outlets.

Growing Opportunities

CEO of Vanguard Scientific, a firm that provides service resources for cannabis and hemp botanical extraction, says just the ongoing discussion of legalization and decriminalization will continue to drive market growth.

Today Medical Cannabis is legal in 32 states in the US and District of Columbia and 14 allow recreational use, but the drug is still illegal at Federal level. Business owners and members of the National Cannabis Industry Association is pulling all strings to legalize marijuana, or at least to align banking and tax laws accordingly to rope in funding.

Canada is capitalizing due to the situation in the US. Canadian companies can export to any region, making them to be among the first firms signing international cannabis trade deals.

Although the growth is slow in the US, opportunities are galore and many small and medium businesses are cropping up to capitalize in this growing market.

Exploring the B2B Space

A marketplace, Confident Cannabis, offers solutions for growers, sellers, and labs so that you are in the know as to what you are smoking. They are creating software for labs to test and track potency of the cannabis.

By 2021, medical cannabis should be legal on the Federal level, and individual states can decide whether they want to legalize it recreationally. There are multiple of factors that will lead to this: the election cycle, and providing U.S cannabis firms access to capital markets.

Existing brokers and other businesses rely on the offline network which has led to the shutting down of a couple of large B2B marketplaces.

Entourage Effect Capital a cannabis-only private-equity firm that has deployed more than $50 million into 34 companies is confident that firms will take efforts to be more efficient.

Conclusion Marijuana Marketplaces

According to the Marijuana Moment, there were 975 cannabis-related bills drawn awaiting state legislatures and Congress for 2020 sessions. There would be a lot more regulatory activity in 2020 at both the state and federal levels.

The world is split into two with regards to marijuana, one half feels it would destroy the society while the other half believes that there are too many positives in marijuana to be overlooked. At the same time, an oversupply of marijuana and the cost of operating in such a highly regulated industry is taking its toll.

But the data continues to show a rising curve. With legalization picking pace, this is the right time to intrude into this industry and capitalize on the growing demand.

Breaking New Horizons Through Last Mile Drone Delivery

Home » DelivX » Breaking New Horizons Through Last Mile Drone Delivery

• Sasi George
• May 23, 2020

A Drone belongs to the category of an ‘unmanned aircraft vehicle’ (UAV). These have been utilized by defence forces in various capacities such as remote-controlled aircrafts or missiles for years. In the recent past there has been an increase in the usage of drones for commercial purposes.

Such drones are designed to safely deliver goods to customers at the shortest possible time – and the service is referred to as last mile drone delivery.

The Federal Aviation Administration now allows firms with the know-how to operate Drones to apply for certificates that allow them to utilize (non-governmental) ‘civil’ drones for research, development, deliveries, photography, agricultural requirements and real estate purposes.

The global drone package delivery market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 44.7% for the forecast period (2019-2025). Development of drones that function in diverse regions and incorporation of IoT in the ecosystem of drone deliveries are few major options for players in this domain.

Benefits of Drone delivery

A delivery drone is an autonomous aerial vehicle, often unmanned that is utilized to transport packages, food or other items. Drones are particularly of use commercially to transport goods because it is safe, quick, not hampered by terrain and does not cause congestion.

E-commerce giant Amazon is working on Prime Air, a – futuristic delivery system that is designed to safely deliver packages via drones to customers in 30 minutes enhancing the last mile delivery domain.

Although Prime Air is in the pipeline and will see the light of day soon, drone delivery service will bring few significant changes in E-commerce and retail segments.

Drones will take up majority of deliveries

Drone technology for commercial use is still at a nascent stage and the finer points of Amazon’s plan for last mile drone delivery has not yet been revealed. The ground-breaking, needful and innovative of all the potential impacts of drone delivery would be majority of the deliveries would be taken over by drones.

Due to shortened delivery time schedules, firms would take up this aspect on priority to deliver goods within the vicinity as it would reduce infrastructure and enhance profitability.

Quick purchases made possible

Many retailers do already offer quick deliveries. Nowadays you could order anything and get it delivered to you on the same day. Prime Air’s promise of 30 minutes drone delivery will only encourage people to hit that ‘Buy’ button more frequently.

You could get anything you need delivered, as in food during a last minute decided party or an apparel for a high profile meeting being held at a short notice.

And to top it off, these purchases will not be limited to deliveries to your home. As in online delivery now, drones will be able to drop off goods/items that you need wherever you are – that is whether you are at home, in the office or traveling.

No Limitations To Reach Out For Products

There’s no coffee at home, your favourite brew? You need to purchase your kid’s camel-hair paint brushes for the competition on the very next day. Your printer needs a colour ink cartridge to print a document urgently.

To solve all these pressing problems that most folks face at regular frequency takes time, money, patience and resources. But soon that would be a thing of the past after the introduction of last mile drone delivery.

All you would have to do is login to the apt website or get on to an App and with a few clicks it’s done. Drones will bring your necessities to you wherever you are in the shortest possible time. This sort of convenience and haste could be an able competition for brick-and-mortar stores.

Drone delivery could be automated

Commercial application of drones is a subject that is not everyone’s cup of tea. Personnel who man these machines require hours of training on how to carry out a successful delivery or what needs to be done in case of an anomaly.

The pilots would be placed far away and would have to go through complex training to learn how to control the drone device. There should be systems/procedure in place on how to react during an emergency.

Indications are in place that Amazon drone delivery could be automated and without human intervention to overcome such situations.

Even though there is evidence that automation inculcates safer versions machine activity and technology, not everyone is comfortable with systems and algorithms.

UPS, FedEx and US Postal Service will take a beating

There are many agencies that handle shipments of Amazon and other retailers, hence when these firms turn to newer technology those firms could face a drastic drop in business. When you look at the $1 billion worth of business that Amazon offered to UPS in the year 2016, you can fathom what could be the situation as of now.

Experts estimate that USPS handles almost 41% of Amazon’s deliveries. Therefore it is fair to say that Amazon Prime-Air’s service is a Damocles sword that is hanging on the future of UPS, FedEx and the USPS.

Consumer rights protection

Grey regions in this kind of a service exists, as they would reveal only when the service in taken up extensively. There are many topics that have not been broached, one certainly is the consumer protection laws.

Consumer rights as how would authorities handle a situation when the merchandise is stolen along with the drone? What steps could be taken in the event the goods delivered to a client is damaged? How can these be returned after a drone-delivery? Of course these would be taken up, worked upon and solutions discovered before the services are pressed into action.

Conclusion Last Mile Drone Delivery

Even though there is a lot to be instilled in  the various aspects of drone delivery, there is no doubt that this a part of the future. There has always been teething problems whenever newer technology is imbibed on a large scale.

There could be other issues to consider with new technology, such as problems that have occurred with self-driving cars. There could be a failure in software that could cause collisions and damages.

Also drones could have restricted air space to complete the 30-minutes delivery promise schedules. Therefore online retailers such as Amazon or Walmart that deliver goods, will need more facilities and warehouses within reach in urban and suburban areas.

So there could be a consideration to collaborate with brick-and-mortar retailers as JioMart has resorted to that would in turn create a win-win situation for all entities.

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COVID 19 Impact On Apps In Diverse Domains

• Sasi George
• May 19, 2020

Businesses across all domains and regions are experiencing the ill effects of the pandemic. COVID 19 impact on apps has been not been difficult to fathom. The pandemic has shown how vulnerable we humans are without technology and how significant apps have been in keeping us engaged, informed, and sane.

People spent 21% more time utilizing apps in the first quarter of 2020 compared to last year. Consumers spent over $24 billion in app stores in the first quarter this year, the largest spend recorded for a quarter.

Pandemic-induced physical distancing has changed the equation consumers have with apps. Now with the physical world hibernating, consumers are reliant on apps for communication, shopping, health, and entertainment.

Some industries like travel, hospitality, mobility, and real estate are facing the strain of the pandemic and others such as web conferencing, fitness, telemedicine are enjoying a well-deserved growth.

Consumers are looking at innovative ways to manage their daily routine while in lockdown and apps could provide a suitable answer.

Apps Purchased By Different Age Groups

COVID 19 impact on diverse domains 

Fitness Apps 

Fitness apps have observed high incidence of usage with a surge in daily and weekly active users. These apps now offer free lessons and is engaging users through their social media accounts to organize daily lessons and increase engagement.

There is a positive influence as users come to the app daily. Apps now focus more on providing quality content to the end-user so that they become loyal to the platform.

Fitness apps are tailoring their communication to help users to work out from home using mundane objects like chairs, water bottles, electric equipment, etc.

Spiritual Apps

Spiritual apps have recorded a massive dose in user activity, installs, and other KPIs. These apps have espoused a holistic approach to CRM and user acquisition.

They rolled out crisis management content to help consumers unwind, relieve the stress, and deal with anxiety. Such content is being offered free and is accessible to all those who download these apps.

Brands have changed from a premium to a freemium model and introduced meditation programs for all age groups.

Popular App Usage Categories

Games Apps 

Gamification platform is offering customized solutions to businesses thereby reporting good acquisition while retaining existing users.

Most of the new users come from inbound efforts as more and more brands realize that the gamification app for learning is not just a bonus but an acceptable need.

Language Apps

Language learning apps observed a huge boost with an upswing in DAU and installs. They are now offering ad hoc personalizations without being too stingy and are focusing on providing a positive distraction in people’s lives.

The high-priced all-language package has seen more adoption. Not many people used to buy it because of the price and the proposition of learning multiple languages simultaneously. But change in this behavior can be attributed to the availability of solo-space.

Web Conferencing Apps

Given the sheer volume of people working remote – video chat and online conference apps are experiencing an explosive growth. In the US these apps witnessed a humongous 600% increase in downloads, and a 120% increase in daily users (DAUs).

Apps Deleted By Age Groups Due To Poor Aesthetics

Insurance Apps 

Insurance apps noticed an initial dip as consumers went about securing food, shelter, and essentials, which has stabilized. Insurance providers are focusing on educating users about being insured during a crisis.

Working part-time would not consider them as full-time employees. Creating content that assists to comprehend policies is being looked into.

Delivery Apps

Delivery Apps have shifted focus and strategy from food & restaurants to grocery and essentials. On-demand courier service is working with charity organizations to deliver products free to senior citizens and helping the medical industry.

Social Media

Social media usage soared from 20% of total mobile app usage in January, to 25% in mid-March. In fact, between January and March, daily active users on Instagram and Facebook climbed to 124 million and 196 million, respectively.

Steps to stay afloat

Businesses are concentrating on verticals such as Pharma and Retail. They have also changed their social media strategy by increasing their presence on LinkedIn. Brands have gone from publishing weekly to posting every day to show clients that they haven’t stopped working.

Brands have leveraged opportunities to enter other categories like grocery, which is experiencing a steep growth as people during a lockdown prefer ordering groceries online.

Average Time Spent On Various App Categories By Age

Brands are introducing personalization in their welcome flow, and point to offers such as podcasts, one-month free for students, and one week of free trial. They are also strategically modifying their user acquisition norms and engagement design to increase content frequency with engagement patterns in mind.

Most of the brands echoed the same sentiment of prioritizing users and helping them instead of aiming for profits even if it meant incurring short term losses.

Right now, it is about showing your app is a genuine need and can resolve pain points, and which can have a long term positive effect on the LTV.

Content assets i.e. copy and creative are focusing on stress reduction without talking about the COVID 19 impact. They noticed CPI/CPS has dropped considerably, making user acquisition cheaper.

Brands doing it right are already recording upswing in retention and session duration.

Measuring the COVID 19 Impact

Healthcare apps in South East Asia are categorized as emerging even though they have minimal active users. Although DAUs of healthcare apps are declining, there has been a 110% increase in spend on these apps during the pandemic

Real estate is seeing a coincidental increase and decrease worldwide. In Middle-East Asia these apps are exploding in popularity, but elsewhere it’s a slowdown. This could be due to restrictions being lifted in certain regions.

Apps have allowed us to remain connected in a time of crisis, and facilitate spread of reliable information during lockdown. Marketers usually prioritize ROI, but now isn’t the time to focus on profits, instead be an empathetic brand.

In conclusion, the essential learning across all verticals has been to empathize with the user during these tough times and focus on helping them solve pain points rather than hard selling.