Buy online, pick-up in store. Is it time to take your dispensary online?

After working with businesses across the country, there can be a lot of confusing and misleading information when it comes to cannabis payments.

This article will help you know what questions to ask of a digital payment provider.

These questions will help you make sure you are working with a best in class solution that will be a long term partner.

• Compliance - Make sure you are working with a payment provider that is compliant for cannabis. Ask questions and understand all bank relationships. Look for a legitimate website that speaks about their experience in the cannabis industry.

• Onboarding - Ask how long it will take to get started and learn what requirements are needed from your business. Anything that sounds confusing or lengthy should be a red flag.

• Settlement Times - Understand how long it will take for the funds to actually land in your business's bank account. For most credit card or debit card companies, it can take 3-7 days. With AeroPay, settlement time is same day or next day.

• Customer Experience - What is it like for a customer to create an account. How long does it take and is the company someone that your consumers will trust? If a customer has a question about their payment account how fast will they receive an answer and what support information is available to consumers?

• Tracking and Reporting - Take a look at a payment provider's dashboard to understand how it is organized and how it can be utilized within your organization. Businesses should be able to trace all payments and export the data as needed.

• Flexibility for Voids and Refunds - What happens if someone orders for pay online dispensary pickup in store but never picks up the product? Or if someone orders a product that is no longer available? Your cannabis payment provider should allow for a business to easily void and refund the customer for various use cases. 

• Security - In today's world, credit card hackers and security are prevalent. It is important to work with a provider that is safe for your business and your consumer's personal data. When evaluating digital payment solutions for the cannabis industry, ask about what PII, personally identifiable information, is required when a consumer creates an account.
  

• Support - Make sure your payment provider will work with you to train your budtenders and answer any questions that you have. Your business should be a priority which is why AeroPay provides every business with a named customer success manager to help them every step of the way.

• Innovation and Scalability - Understand how long a payment solution has been serving the cannabis space and what their track record is. Get a feel for how frequently they are updating the product and understand what their roadmap looks like. If they seem like a small company, ask about the number of employees and how the business is funded. Employees based outside the US or a business without substantial capital funding may not be compliant or a long term solution for your business.

If you have any questions about cannabis payment solutions, contact the AeroPay team to learn more or see a demo.