Smoketopia

Smoketopia is a growing cannabis retail business navigating unique challenges within the highly regulated cannabis industry. With restrictions around licensing and compliance, Smoketopia faced roadblocks in implementing a compliant POS system to streamline their operations.

Client Challenge

As an emerging cannabis retailer, Smoketopia was unable to secure the necessary cannabis license, preventing them from using compliant POS systems like Dutchie. Instead, they operated on Shopify, which is not designed for licensed cannabis sales and comes with significant limitations.

This created multiple challenges:

• Inventory Management: Manual tracking led to inefficiencies and higher risks of human error.
• Compliance Reporting: Difficulty in generating state-required compliance reports.
• Payment Processing: Barriers to integrating compliant, cannabis-friendly payment solutions.

Smoketopia needed a path forward that addressed immediate operational constraints while preparing them for long-term compliance and scalability.

The Herban Creative Solution

Herban Creative worked closely with Smoketopia to evaluate their current operations, identify compliance gaps, and outline solutions that would prepare them for future growth.

Our approach included:

• Compliance Consultation: Educating Smoketopia on the licensing requirements necessary to access compliant POS systems like Dutchie.
• Operational Review: Assessing how Shopify was being used, highlighting risks, and recommending workflows to reduce errors in inventory and reporting.
• Strategic Roadmap: Building a phased plan to prioritize licensing acquisition, which would enable Smoketopia to transition from Shopify to a compliant POS system with integrated inventory management, traceability (Metrc), and reporting tools.

Results

Through Herban Creative’s guidance, Smoketopia gained clarity on how to navigate their compliance and operational hurdles. By preparing for licensing acquisition and aligning their systems with industry requirements, Smoketopia is positioned to:

• Streamline operations with automated inventory tracking.
• Simplify compliance reporting and reduce regulatory risks.
• Integrate cannabis-friendly payment processing for a smoother customer experience.

While Smoketopia’s full transition to a compliant POS system hinges on licensing, our partnership provided the framework and strategy needed to set them up for sustainable growth in a competitive industry.