In 2022, the American cannabis industry was valued at $13.2 billion and it’s projected to grow 14.2% each year between 2023 and 2030. Clearly, there’s money to be made in a cannabis retail dispensary. The value of these products and strict regulation surrounding them also emphasizes the need for cannabis POS RFID tracking.
As a relatively new (legal) industry, many store owners are learning about how they can leverage RFID like other retail stores have been doing for years. If you’re one of them, we’ve put together this article to help you learn how an RFID solution can benefit your business.
| RFID technology is not just a tool, but a strategic asset that brings about a new level of visibility and control over operations. – Sean, President, Lowry Solutions |
What is Cannabis POS RFID Tracking?
Cannabis POS RFID Tracking is a system used in the cannabis industry to track inventory and sales of products. POS stands for point of sale and RFID stands for radio frequency identification. The RFID technology facilitates the tracking of individual products while the POS system manages the transactional aspect of sales.
These two technologies work together to keep a strict count on inventory sold. When individual RFID tags pass through the POS system, inventory counts are automatically updated in real-time.
7 Ways Cannabis Retailers Can Use RFID Technology
1. Inventory Management
When you attach RFID tags to your products, you can track each item in real-time. This helps you ensure compliance, promptly restock as needed, and better predict when new inventory will arrive.
2. Maintaining Legal Compliance
Many dispensary owners must use the METRC (Marijuana Enforcement Tracking Reporting Compliance) database if they work in any one of the 20 states where it’s active. METRC is a cannabis tracking system that uses RFID tags to track and trace product movement. That means RFID tracking is essential for keeping within regulatory compliance in these states.
3. Inventory Accuracy
In the cannabis industry, an accurate inventory count is about more than just business efficiency. Cannabis retailers may be subject to fines if their inventory count does not match their actual inventory. The amount may vary between states, but as an example, it could be up to 50% of your average daily sales in the state of California.
| What Else Can You Achieve With RFID? |
That means there’s little room for human error. RFID tracking eliminates that risk with highly accurate real-time counts.
4. Improving Security
Many retailers use RFID to catch shoplifters red handed, cannabis dispensaries can certainly use it for this purpose. It can also be used to alert the appropriate personnel if unauthorized access to products occurs at any point in the supply chain.
5. Maintain Plant Health
Some RFID plant tags have environmental sensing capabilities. Growers find this incredibly useful to help them maintain healthy products. Cannabis plants can only grow under certain temperature and humidity conditions and this type of RFID tag can help you keep watch on yours.
Source: Surna
6. Verifying Product Authenticity
RFID tags can help ensure product authenticity by providing a clear record of the product’s journey from the grower to retailer. This helps prevent counterfeit or tampered products from going onto your store shelves.
7. Improving Customer Experience
A popular use for RFID in retail stores is to help employees immediately access product information. You can use it for this purpose at your dispensary too. RFID tags can track information such as strain, potency, and origin so an employee can quickly access it. This improves the customer experience because staff are able to quickly answer questions.
Trust A Partner With Extensive RFID Experience To Help Your Cannabis Business
From seed to sale, you need complete control and visibility across your inventory. While this is true for any retail business, it’s especially crucial for cannabis retailers who operate under strict regulations.
That’s why you need a reliable, experienced RFID partner to help you achieve compliance. Lowry Solutions has 20 years of experience deploying effective RFID solutions to clients across industries. We’ve worked with other highly regulated industries, like healthcare and pharmaceuticals, so we’re well-equipped to help yours.
Contact Lowry to request a quote and get started.
