Consider Your Dispensary Website’s User Experience!

What’s the first thing you should think about when building your dispensary website? It’s a tough question. Maybe it’s your brand logo & messaging. Maybe it’s amazing content + an SEO strategy to help customers navigate to your site. You probably spend a lot of time researching the actual checkout process because – at the end of the day – that’s where the sales are made. And it’s also something that needs to be considered to stay in regulatory compliance.

Whatever you deem most important, the fact remains that there is a huge list of considerations when creating a website that functions well. But all of the things on that list boil down to one all-important factor — UX.

What is UX?

User Experience, usually referred to as UX, is the experience you and your customers have when visiting your website. When you consider your content, images, checkout, load speed, and the architecture of the actual site, how is the entire experience packaged? It all comes down to how your website performs for the people you serve. Your customers don’t see what goes on in the back end of the site. What they see on the surface includes things like:

• Is the website easy to navigate?
• Can I find what I want?
• Does the website make it easy to find the best products for my needs?
• Is it confusing to navigate depending on the page I land on?
• Do all of the buttons work?
• Can I see and access everything from my mobile device or iPad?
• How complicated is the process to purchase?
• Are there any broken pages or site errors?

Think of your website as your digital storefront

For your dispensary, creating a positive user experience is important because it speaks to your brand. Your website is a deciding factor if customers will come to your store. A positive UX can improve customer loyalty, retention and sales. Do they get the same experience online that they do in store?

How To Improve Your Website’s User Experience

Your website needs to be easy to navigate. How many clicks does it take to get from the home page to your menu? How about the most recent blog post? Do the images load quickly?

Different visitors have different expectations

Realize that you will have a variety of visitors. Some will be new to buying cannabis and will want to rely on your expertise to help them find the right products to meet their needs. Other customers will be old pros – they are educated on all of the products and often know exactly what they want.

Ask yourself these 4 questions

Here are some of the most important factors to consider when developing an online experience for your customers:

1. Do you have an integrated Dispensary Menu?

You want your customers to be able to find everything on your site without opening a new website. Using a menu that resides on a different domain means that your visitors will move off of your site, which can lower your ranking in search and annoy your customers.

2. Is your site easy to navigate?

Make sure that you make all items and pages easy to find. When the customer can find what they need easily, they’re more likely to come back to your site. It builds customer loyalty and helps with overall satisfaction.

3. How’s your site speed compared to competition?

Site speed is one of the key factors to help you rank well and retain visitors. Long loading times lead to high bounce rates and they can also make people uneasy because they worry about the safety of their personal information when a website doesn’t function well.

4. Is your product information up to date?

One thing that many dispensary customers find problematic is that some low cost or DIY websites don’t update their product information adequately. They can’t order what they need if the site isn’t up to date with what is available. This is a problem that can be solved when your website is integrated with the POS system. It’s updated automatically to help you keep administrative records, as well as making it more convenient for your customers.

Customers on your dispensary website are looking for easy to use functions. Make sure that you have information available for customers to find the answers to their questions easily. You can also provide a chat box or easy to find contact information for customers who may have specific questions about the different types of products and their best uses.

Treat your website as an extension of the customer service you provide in person, and you’ll do just fine. 🙂