Post (Pay Upon Sale) guarantees payment to brands, improves visibility into inventory sales and reduces retailers' need for significant working capital.
LeafLink currently offers three payment methods developed to foster a secure, transparent and predictable cannabis commerce ecosystem.
NEW YORK, Sept. 26, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — LeafLink, the leading national cannabis wholesale platform, today announced Payment on Sell Through (PoST), the first payment option for cannabis wholesale that ensures brands are paid when retailers pay for goods sold. Along with Direct Pay and FlexPay, PoST is the third payment option offered on the LeafLink platform. In July, LeafLink acquired Dama Financial to provide customers access to reliable, secure and compliant banking solutions. This new payment option is another important step toward building a cannabis e-commerce ecosystem that helps businesses operate more efficiently.
(PRNewsfoto/Leaflink)
With PoST, brands (suppliers) are guaranteed payment and paid automatically each week based on retailers' sales from the previous week. This new model reduces payment delinquencies for brands, frees up needed capital for retailers, and provides data insights to help make better business decisions, helping to build a more profitable cannabis industry.
“Over the past two years, we've been focused on improving our platform to meet the needs of our customers, especially in the financial services sector,” said Artie Minson, CEO of LeafLink. “LeafLink places an average of 100,000 orders per month, and the need for a solution to address late payments is more important than ever. With PoST, we're introducing tools that create transparency and ensure payment for all parties involved, eliminating late payments and helping pharmacies reduce upfront product costs and back-end losses. We believe this technology is game-changing for the industry, ushering in a new era of efficiency and solving one of the industry's biggest pain points.”
Currently, brands are responsible for setting payment terms and tracking outstanding payments. Meanwhile, retailers are often forced to pay large amounts of cash up front to restock shelves through bulk purchases with little data to support their decisions. They are then saddled with large amounts owed that are disconnected from actual cash flow and the performance of the SKUs they stock. PoST aims to solve this problem with an effective payment model that mimics other consumer packaged goods, but also offers many more benefits. With PoST, retailers can keep more capital on hand and only pay when products are sold to the end consumer. Brands can increase product sales by driving foot traffic to retail stores through marketing campaigns that build awareness and interest.
PoST is currently available in Michigan, Mississippi and Colorado, with plans to expand to additional states this year and next. Customers interested in using PoST should contact their account representative for more information.
According to an April report from Whitney Economics, the cannabis industry is expected to exceed $3.8 billion in late payments in 2023, roughly 1.6 months of legal cannabis sales nationwide. Late payments are primarily due to late payments from dispensaries to brands and growers. Retailers are in a tough environment, struggling with cash flow constraints, limited start-up capital, federal tax issues due to the ongoing nationwide prohibition, and competition from the illegal market.
PoST improves inventory insights by identifying the right SKUs, quantities, and order frequency for each store. This detailed data helps brands avoid out-of-stocks and stale inventory by providing accurate data that is updated daily. This detailed visibility also assists brands in upstream product development based on actual consumer data. The result is a more collaborative partnership between brands and retailers to optimize product sales and meet consumer demand.
Real results: Improved data quality, increased savings, faster payments
PoST is already showing promising results in beta. Since the first trials began in June, more than 70 customers have implemented PoST into their workflows. Michigan-based grower Six Labs was one of the first to use PoST and has documented the results. Since June, the company has adjusted three SKUs to avoid stale and overstocked inventory, used transaction data to proactively replenish SKUs, increased order sizes to match discovered demand, and doubled sales of stale SKUs to make room for new items. Six Labs is now expanding PoST integration with four other retailers.
“PoST gives us visibility into the trends of our products and allows us to allocate the right order quantities to each of our retail partners and locations,” said Ron Gibori, CEO of Six Labs. “As a result, retailers can stock the right products for their customer base and increase revenue, and we receive more frequent and consistent orders.”
Michigan-based retailer Bloom City implemented PoST and has documented the results: Since implementing PoST, Bloom City has doubled sales of existing out-of-date products through discounting strategies, increased orders for SKUs that sold better than expected, preserved needed cash on hand by eliminating the need to prepay for inventory, and reduced out-of-stock days with improved visibility into sales data.
“PoST has changed the way my clients think about cannabis wholesale. On the selling side, Six Labs has seen tremendous value in direct access to sales data and the assurance of regular payments, and has already rolled it out to a number of additional customers,” said Sandra Lee, controller at CannaPro Solutions, a company that helps licensed cannabis dispensaries, processors, and growers with their back-office needs. “On the buying side, Bloom City Club has given them powerful insights into product performance, helping them optimize ordering for each store. I have since recommended the program to multiple other retail chains. The PoST model is a win-win for both brands and retailers, and I am excited to see it change the industry for the better.”
Contact: (email protected)
About LeafLink
Founded in 2016, LeafLink is the leading B2B technology platform for the wholesale cannabis industry, helping thousands of customers in over 30 markets buy, sell, pay, and ship orders. LeafLink believes that improved access to modern financial services will position the industry for sustainable growth. In July 2024, LeafLink announced the acquisition of leading cannabis banking platform Dama Financial to provide access to secure, reliable, and compliant banking. In 2024, LeafLink was named to Fast Company's list of Best Workplaces for Innovators in the Banking, Finance, and Fintech category and was also the recipient of Green Market Report's Best Cannabis Fintech award.
Source Leaflink
Want your company news featured on PRNEWSWIRE.COM?
440,000+
Newsroom &
Influencer
9k+
Digital Media
Outlet
270,000+
journalist
Opt-in
