1. Understand Your Needs

Before investing in an app or software, understand your dispensary's needs thoroughly. Identify bottlenecks or areas where your team needs support to enhance overall business and customer experience.

Ask questions like:

• Where are our customers shopping, and how do they shop?
• What are our marketing needs? Are you looking to bolster your loyalty program and decrease acquisition costs by investing in your existing customers? If you're noticing a drop in your loyalty program's usage, consider an app that offers robust loyalty features that can complement your current rewards program.
• What specific features do we require from an app or software? List them down. SoIf you're considering including features like delivery and order pick-up tracking, advertising spaces, blog content sync, and push notifications, list what you have in mind. Discuss these with potential developers to see if they're flexible enough to incorporate these features into your app.

The answers to these questions will help inform your decision, ensuring you get value for your money and avoid unnecessary expenses further down the line.

2. Vet Your Potential Provider

After identifying your goals, it’s time to vet potential developers. 

Some key considerations include:

• Are they focused on the cannabis industry or they have scattered focus?
• Are they knowledgeable about compliance issues?
• How long have they been in the software industry? 
• Whom have they helped in the past and what was their portfolio like?
• Do they have a good relationship with key software providers in the cannabis industry?

This information will help you gauge their level of expertise and reliability. 

3. Understand Their App Service and Collaboration Process

You'll be working with your chosen provider for a long duration, so it's crucial to ensure compatibility. Understand their app service and collaboration process by asking:

• How do their features compare to other app providers? Ask for a competitive analysis during the call.
• How can these features support your business goals?
• Will you be owning your mobile app? 
• What type of data will you be able to access or own?
• What the migration process will look like if you already have an existing app, or when you want to switch further down the line.
• How are they staying compliant with state laws?
• Do they take on many clients simultaneously or work with a limited number to ensure quality service?
• Are their contracts flexible or binding?
• How involved will their experts be in the project?
• What is your collaboration process like before, during and after the project?
• Do you offer any after-sales support services?

These questions may help you determine if the provider can meet your expectations and work well with your team.

4. Consider Pricing

Budget is a significant factor in any business decision. Ensure you can accommodate the provider's charges in your budget for at least a year or depending on your ROI projections. Many providers offer monthly pricing schemes, which can be negotiated based on your cash flow and requirements.

5. Check Integration Capabilities

A good cannabis app should seamlessly integrate with e-commerce, rewards, delivery, POS for inventory and compliance, and more. Check if the provider can integrate with your existing software to reduce costs and provide a comprehensive solution. 

Why Choose Digital Awesome for Your Cannabis App Development?

Given these tips, we'd like to share how working with Digital Awesome can benefit your cannabis dispensary:

• Experience: We are a team of experienced developers and cannabis industry lovers, having worked with leading dispensaries across the US and Canada.

• App Service & Collaboration: Dispensaries can benefit from sales-boosting and high-converting app features, seamless integrations, migrations, and much more. We're not just dictating how things should be; we work hand-in-hand with brands. Each client is provided with a dedicated project manager to ensure alignment and quality.

• Pricing: Our proprietary custom app engineering cuts costs by 90% compared to traditional custom mobile app development. With a low start-up and flexible monthly subscription, we offer the best value custom apps in the cannabis industry. 

• Integration: We integrate with leading cannabis business software, providing app experiences beyond what the current custom app market can provide. Integrations include Dispense, Springbig, POSaBit, Dutchie, Meadow, Treez, Blaze, Cova, Alpine IQ, Sweed, Proteus 420, Flowhub, and Greenbits.

Our custom mobile app solution is perfect for dispensaries looking to increase revenue, stand out from the competition, retain customers and directly communicate with them about special deals and customer service.

See how one of our clients grew its user base in just 6 months, with customers averaging $100 in spend and visiting 3x per month.

Interested in seeing what Digital Awesome can do for your dispensary?

Schedule a demo today.