Dutchie Brings Safe Cashless Payment Options to U.S. Cannabis Stores: Dutchie Pay Expansion
“For too long, our industry has been held back by its reliance on cash,” said Dutchie CEO Tim Barash. “Retailers and consumers deserve access to modern and secure cashless payment options that are afforded to every other industry.”
Dutchie is “the technology platform powering cannabis commerce.” It provides easier ways for cannabis consumers to shop and safer ways for cannabis businesses to sell. Powering over 6,500 dispensaries throughout the U.S. and Canada and facilitating over $15 billion in sales annually, Dutchie is an essential piece to the growth of the cannabis industry.
For years dispensaries have had to make transactions in cash due to a lack of safe banking and government support. “Over 90% of cannabis transactions are made in cash,” notes an Aite report for the Emerging Markets coalition.
Dutchie Pay provides Cashless solutions for cannabis consumers.
However, cashless payment solutions allow for customers to have a smooth checkout and pick-up process for the cannabis products they desire. These solutions also help dispensary workers to avoid theft when moving cash or even just sitting in the store.
With Dutchie Pay, a service launched last year, Dutchie was able to provide cashless payment options for online cannabis consumers. Now, they have payment solutions for in-store shopping as well.
Honeysuckle spoke to the CTO of Dutchie, Chris Ostrowski, about the new in-store payment solutions. As the head of Dutchie Pay, Ostrowski runs everything from the launch to marketing implementation and customer support.
“This launch of Dutchie Pay in-store showcases the continued success that we’re having,” he says,” and that the company continues to make investments in new solutions.”
Dutchie Pay has proved itself as a successful payment solution for a cashless future in the cannabis industry.
Since the launch, Ostrowski mentions that they saw a 25% increase in the purchase amount when consumers are using Dutchie Pay, and that was drawn from e-commerce sales alone.
Along with an increase in products, about 65% of Dutchie Pay consumers are returning to use the payment solution again. This shows cannabis consumers in the U.S. and Canada are choosing Dutchie Pay over other options such as cash payment.
Dutchie plans to work with New York State through the Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensaries (CAURD) program.
Dutchie not only plans on providing its current dispensaries with payment solutions, but is branching out to future dispensaries in New York State. As New York-based dispensaries are starting to blossom, they will need compliant payment solutions to ensure safe and seamless transactions.
New York’s Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) launched their Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensaries (CAURD) Program in Fall 2022.
Over 900 CAURD applications were received when the portal was open between August and late September; to participate in the program, applicants had to be individuals with previous cannabis-related convictions (or direct relatives of such), or nonprofit organizations that could prove a cannabis license would benefit their mission.
To date, OCM has awarded 66 CAURD licenses and recently announced that they would expand the total amount of licenses to 300. However, only five CAURD operations have opened in the entire state so far, three in Lower Manhattan and two upstate in Binghamton and Ithaca respectively.
“We’re hoping to bring in Dutchie Pay to the New York story as well,” he mentions.
Alongside their current dispensaries and future New York dispensaries, the Dutchie team plans on continuing to find new compliant payment solutions for their consumers and further developing Dutchie Insurance, Dutchie POS and Dutchie Pay.
“We’re going to continue to invest in as many compliant options for our customers,” he notes. And we’re excited to bring about the full journey of Dutchie Pay.”
Hopefully, we will see government and bank support of the cannabis industry in the future, but for now, we have companies like Dutchie providing cannabis consumers with the payment solutions they need to enjoy the products they love.