In the cannabis industry, seed-to-sale tracking involves using special systems to track cannabis plants and packages as they’re delivered to license holders across the supply chain – from the cultivator’s seeds all the way through processing, manufacturing, testing, delivery, and final sales to patients or consumers by a dispensary.
The purpose of seed-to-sale tracking is to reduce illegal cannabis production and sales as well as to provide a digitized system for reporting and inspections in order to ensure license holders are complying with all relevant laws.
There are many seed-to-sale tracking system providers in the cannabis industry, and not every state that has approved medical and/or recreational marijuana requires seed-to-sale tracking. Among those that do require it, 21 states had awarded exclusive seed-to-sale tracking contracts to four specific providers as of a September 2018 report from Marijuana Business Daily:
- METRC: 11 contracts
- BioTrackTHC: 7 contracts
- MJ Freeway: 2 contracts
- Kind Agrisoft: 1 contract
These numbers have changed a bit since that report was published. In 2019, METRC was selected as the seed-to-sale tracking system for Missouri while BioTrackTHC won the contract in Maine and MJ Freeway was awarded a contract in Utah. However, METRC is still the market share leader, and METRC and BioTrackTHC still hold the vast majority of exclusive state contracts.
Want to learn more? Download Leafy Green Agency’s free resource: Cannabis Industry Seed-to-Sale Tracking Systems.
Benefits of Seed-to-Sale Tracking in the Cannabis Industry
Seed-to-sale tracking systems are typically thought of as benefiting state governments the most because they make compliance monitoring easier by enabling state officials to quickly see where cannabis and cannabis products have been and where they’re going.
However, seed-to-sale tracking industries also help cannabis businesses by streamlining compliance processes, optimizing operations, and reducing costs thanks to a variety of additional features built into the software that help businesses operating across the supply chain.
Benefits for Cultivators
Cultivators can leverage the real-time data in a seed-to-sale tracking system to monitor harvest data and record and track plant genetics and cross-breeding. As a result, they can optimize processes to grow larger yields, monitor clone potency, and more.
They can also create custom workflows within the seed-to-sale tracking system and collect data at multiple points during cultivation, which helps with everything from applying nutrients to grading product quality.
Benefits for Processors and Manufacturers
Processors and manufacturers use seed-to-sale tracking systems for compliance as well as to track and analyze data and make process improvements based on the insights they gather. For example, all product details, including inventory, labeling, potency results, expiration dates, and more can be tracked in the system, which saves time and money by enabling the system to automatically complete related processes in the future such as instantly “locking” a product when it expires.
A seed-to-sale system can also be used to track and report transactions and transportation manifests so regulatory reviews are easy to prepare for and opportunities for improvements are easy to spot and act on.
Benefits for Dispensaries and Retailers
Seed-to-sale tracking systems allow medical cannabis dispensaries and adult-use retailers to analyze consumer trends, optimize inventory, minimize human data-entry, reduce human error, and maximize profits.
For example, the system can track consumer purchase limits, track inventory, automatically update menu displays, and facilitate online ordering, among other things. Dispensaries and retailers can also use their seed-to-sale systems to set up automatic discounts and loyalty programs as well as to create customer profiles to track purchase histories, preferences, rewards, and more.
Using this data, dispensaries and retailers can send targeted, personalized email communications to boost repeat purchases and customer satisfaction through the email marketing and customer relationship management (CRM) tools built into most seed-to-sale tracking systems.
How to Learn More About Cannabis Seed-to-Sale Tracking Systems
Understanding seed-to-sale tracking systems takes some time and research. To make it easier for you, Leafy Green Agency put together a simple resource that you can download for free right now: Download Cannabis Industry Seed-to-Sale Tracking Systems.
This free resource introduces you to the market’s dominant seed-to-sale tracking systems so you can begin your research into each one.
To learn even more about these systems, register for one of Leafy Green Agency’s upcoming seminars. Leafy Green Agency offers in-person cannabis industry certification seminars across the country for entrepreneurs, businesses, job seekers, budtenders, brand ambassadors, dispensaries, cultivators, investors, and more.
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