"Innovative Loyalty Platform Revolutionizes Cannabis Industry Customer Engagement and Retention"
Jonathan Bohun, founder and CEO of Weedar, joins Dan Humiston to discuss his cannabis industry loyalty and distribution platform. With a background spanning nine years in the industry, Jonathan recognized the lack of effective loyalty programs for regular cannabis consumers spending over $400 monthly. Weedar offers an innovative approach using individual QR codes for product authenticity, customizable rewards, and gamification, aiding brands in customer retention while minimizing acquisition costs.
MJBulls - https://podconx.com/podcasts/raising-cannabis-capital
Dan Humiston - https://podconx.com/guests/dan-humiston
Jonathan Bohun - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-bohun-27517a61/
Weedar - https://www.weedar.io/
Recorded on Squadcast - https://squadcast.fm/
[00:00:00] Today on the MJ Bulls Raising Cannabis Capital Podcast, we are joined by Jonathan Bahoo, the founder and c e o of we are Jonathan, welcome to the show. I.
Hey, the.
Yeah, really excited to to dive right into it with you because we are, is a, a loyalty and distribution platform per cannabis companies and,, when I first wrote it down, it sounded a little bit vague. Like it could mean a lot of different things. But when you get on your website, it's not vague.
It's really straightforward what you're doing and , who better to explain what needs you saw in the industry and , what drove you to this idea?
That's a great question. Been in the industry for almost nine years now and started from a delivery driver. Made my way up to license owner today. We have our [00:01:00] own dispensary and During this journey, I just, like one of the dispensaries that I was managing we're seeing from 800 to a thousand people a day, and it just clicked to me that there is no good platform.
For people who smoke daily, who spend 400 plus monthly on cannabis, there is no good platform for them to spend that money wisely and get the most for their buck. While we're. We find out that most of the loyalty programs in the market are attached to the location and they're like pretty simple. I call it gas station style.
Spend a hundred dollars, get hundred points, collect thousand points, get us $10 store credit, which [00:02:00] is better than nothing in the same time.
It's all about experience, and one of the core values that we have in the company is gamification. We wanna make it interesting, engaging so because loyalty programs. No such tool for a cannabis brand to be able to communicate with their customers directly and be able to track their customers regarding, regardless of location. That's the problems that we notice and that's the problem that we are.
Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. I know I've seen studies before how substantially more expensive it is to raise a new customer than it is to maintain an existing customer, [00:03:00] and I think you're. What you're doing is designed in a lot of ways to keep the existing customers in place, , is that one of the real advantages to, to companies working with you is maintaining their existing client base.
That is right. We position ourself as a customer retention and loyalty platform. So keeping customer and make sure that customer is happy that's one of the things that we believe every brand must do, and we're. The tools that can make
it real.
Yeah, let's talk about some of those ideas that you have or been implemented within some of the companies that you work with?
Yeah. Whether it's just not just one. This is a ecosystem where we have first, and [00:04:00] that's where we started with every brand we provide an individual QR codes that brand have, have the, has used to label every single item
qr. First of all, this is counterfeit protection and customer knows that he's getting a real product from a real company. Each QR code is individual. So another things that you can do with that. You can assign number of points. A batch. We also use brand can use a sticker as a evidence which is required by cannabis law here in California. And we offer a customization of[00:05:00]
scans, QR code.
You want your customer to see just on the one page. So you, you don't need 2, 3, 4, 5 QR codes anymore. Being on the onboard on gives you an opportunity to have just one QR code. The customer gonna scan and it's. As I said, individual, so it gives you a really advanced capabilities in terms of what you can do
in designing your
loyalty program.
I see, I see. And like within that framework you can provide like, Free swag or maybe discount on products or maybe [00:06:00] free products, is that based on, based on however you wanna design your internal loyalty program, but you make it so that it's really easy to to track monitor the, the the activity.
I see, I
see that.
exactly, This is completely up to brand to do the math and what makes sense for them? Like, is it like if you buy five products, you get one for free or you need to buy 20 of the same products to get something for. Brand can come up with any idea how, how, how they want to reward their customer. It could be tickets to event, it could be a t-shirt, could be a free product. There is no limitation for that. It's very intuitive, very straightforward. Upon onboarding for each, we [00:07:00] offer full support. We have account managers that handle from four to six brands and Monday to Friday our account manager is reaching out to a brand admin on the brand side to make sure the catalog is up to date.
All information is correct. List of dispensaries where you can pick up the product is up to date. Trauma product selected properly. We do have some recommendations how to do it better, and we'll also offer a separate package. In terms of marketing. We give it full marketing support. We partner up.
With one of the most famous and experienced marketing companies in a cannabis field called and mortar that company is more than 17 years in a cannabis market.
Mm-hmm.
They developed hundreds of different brands all [00:08:00] across United States. So besides just being on a platform, we are opening up doors to be able to do marketing on their own new level.
And our goal is for our clients to succeed because if our clients successful,
we.
This show is raising cannabis capital. And so I always ask all of our guests if there's an opportunity or some they see on the horizon where maybe they will be raising capital to fund the gr their growth. Will there ever be an opportunity for investors to partner up with you?
Of course we're always open to partnership, either to bring somebody as an investor or maybe partner up in a different state, for example in terms of do we have a next round of [00:09:00] investment open the. Ways together with.
I see. Well, I think the key to what you said, I probably the most important thing is the experience that you had starting from being a driver right down to the, getting a license to running your own dispensary and then applying all those things that you learned I'm sure gives you a huge advantage in this marketplace.
And I'm gonna say if anybody who is there who is. A interested in growing their brand, there's nothing more important than retaining your existing customers. They're so expensive to get, and it, and there's so many people that would love to have 'em, sometimes people take them for granted.
They're always looking for the next customer instead of just like, let's just keep the customers we have. And I'm gonna have all the links to radars in the in, in our show notes. So if you're, Find yourself in that position. [00:10:00] I think. I think somebody from Jonathan's team would love to talk to you, give you some ideas as to how you can better retain your existing client base and, .
grow your company.
And if you're interested in maybe investing , I'm sure he'd be happy to talk to you, Jonathan. I wish we had more time. But I really appreciate you , explaining everything that you're doing and, and excited that you're helping out this, these businesses.
'cause now, this time, right now with the way the industry is, they need help. Like this. Everyone needs help. So this is great and thanks for being on the show.
Hundred percent. One. One like few more sentence that I wanna leave for brand owners out there. Dear colleagues, if you understand the value of having a database of your loyal customers with a verified information, you will be happy to hear that with, with our, your customer acquisition cost. Varies from 50 cents to $3, [00:11:00] which is insanely long.
If you go to any other channel such as social media it's gonna start from $3 and up. So for everybody who is caring about their brand I don't know any other solutions that I can offer. A, in terms of building a loyalty program and such a low user, come check us out.