To operate dispensaries, compliance is critical. From customer advertising to payment processing, some restrictions must be adhered to for the safety and prosperity of all parties.
Solving payment processing in regulated industries is difficult. This is why a select few tediously construct their technology stack to suit the industry’s regulations and jurisdiction.
Three critical elements separate Gratify from other BNPL providers, allowing Gratify to be the only BNPL able to operate in highly regulated markets.
Table of Contents
Advertising to Consumers
A core component of other BNPL platforms is their approach to consumers. They are consumer brands; focused on increasing consumer spend and disintermediating merchants from their customers.
These styles of aggregator websites cannot operate in a dispensary. In other industries, we see buy now pay later providers aggressively advertising to consumers, taking consumers away from retailers and pushing them to increase spend at the BNPL’s preferred merchants.
At Gratify, we don’t advertise to consumers in this way. We believe that buy now pay later is a payment method. And consumers don’t want to get bombarded with ads from their payment method of choice.
Payment Processing
There are specific ways money needs to move to remain compliant with dispensary regulators. This routing of transactions is incredibly simple in pay-now and more complex in pay later modalities. In regulated industries, the merchant of record must be the dispensary. Sophisticated payment routing is needed to keep the dispensary as the merchant of record. This is non-negotiable and rules out most BNPL providers.
Further, payment processing in regulated industries is done by a select few. Gratify has partnered with Merrco to process these payments in Ontario, leveraging Merrco’s expertise in this burgeoning industry.
Business Focus
Gratify is focused on helping businesses be more efficient, including turning more inquiries into sales, creating a single platform for online and offline sales, and improving data for bookkeeping and accounting. Today, dispensaries are seeing operational pressure across three inter-woven areas:
- Low and reducing margins for dispensaries
- Competitive pressure on store viability
- Some areas reaching saturation of dispensaries
To relieve some pressure, dispensaries are turning to higher-margin accessories. The accessories and paraphernalia market is booming, and buy now pay later is perfectly suited for dispensaries moving into these higher-priced, non-perishable goods.
Consumers expect payment choice at the checkout and consistent experiences regardless of the environment. Bringing buy now pay later to dispensaries meets consumer demand and, as the market matures, levels the customer experience playing field across all retail environments.
It’s time to change the game. 15min is all it takes to learn more about BNPL.
