Baker is a marijuana dispensary technology that just raised $1.6 million in seed funding. Find out how the company’s unique platform works today in our Baker review.
What Is Baker?
Baker Technologies Inc. is a Denver-based startup founded in 2015.
The company initially launched as an “order ahead”-style app, letting customers order products from a dispensary before they arrived, then pick them up as soon as they walked in the door.
Today, Baker is much more than that. Baker is an entire dispensary marketing platform with features that help dispensaries win over new customers, eliminate long lines in stores, and retain and reward their best customers for loyalty.
Baker is designed for both medical and recreational dispensaries.
So whether you’re in a state where recreational marijuana use has been legalized, or if it’s just medical marijuana use, Baker’s platform may be rolled out at a dispensary near you in the future.
Why can’t Baker use the same CRM software used by other brick-and-mortar retailers? Why does the world need a specialized CRM software for dispensaries? The reason is simple: dispensaries exist in a confusing legal area.
There are far too many federal and local regulations to keep up with. Baker takes this information into consideration in its platform.
Right now, Baker can be seen at dispensaries in Colorado, Washington, Oregon, and Ontario. With the latest injection of seed funding, the company plans to expand into California, Nevada, Arizona, and Massachusetts.
How Does Baker Work?
Baker initially launched as an order-ahead platform. Today, it’s a complete customer relationship management system that also had marketing features and a loyalty rewards program built-in.
As TechCrunch explains, “think FiveStars or Belly, but for the cannabis industry”.
Baker takes local and federal regulations into account when recommending products and managing customers.
Baker also analyzes the expertise of a customer – like whether they’re a tourist or a long-time marijuana user who may be more knowledgeable than the staff.
Baker provides customers with extensive information online. Once they arrive in-store, they won’t need to talk to staff, form long lines, or figure out what to buy: they’ll already have a good idea of what they want.
Baker Benefits
Baker comes with many benefits. However, the official website condenses it down to five simple reasons why you might want to implement Baker at your dispensary:
- More Revenue: Baker claims its top clients generate up to an additional 15% per month.
- Bigger Orders: Baker claims you can increase the average order size of customers by as much as 40% through online ordering. Put simply, customers are tempted to buy more when shopping online than in-store.
- Higher Conversion: Targeted marketing campaigns from dispensaries can raise conversion rates nearly 12 times.
- Better Retention: Double the number of repeat customers, according to Baker.
Baker Features
Some of the core features of Baker include:
Online Ordering:
This is obviously a key feature of Baker. 80% of shoppers do an online search before visiting a dispensary. Customers can see your inventory and pricing before they arrive. Baker claims its top clients generate $30,000 per month through online sales.
Real-time Analytics:
Baker gives you a Google Analytics-like dashboard that provides extensive information about your business and its metrics. You can see online orders, sales growth over time, new leads, customer retention, and more.
All of it is clearly displayed in a colorful online dashboard. You can also see things like your most popular products, the busiest and slowest times of the week, and customer shopping cycles.
Promos, Specials, and Prizes:
Baker claims its promos are the most effective way to grow your list of customers. You can setup promotions on a “set it and forget it” basis, or create one-time special promotions and user-specific promotions.
Connect SMS & Email:
As an example, Baker lets you text customers with messages like, “It’s game day! Get ready for the Seahawks game with our Sativa Sunday Specials [link to online store]”. You can leverage customer information into more sales.
Baker claims its text messages have a 98% open rate – which is far superior to email marketing.
You can also use Baker to track things like the number of customers who received your message, the total number of clicks on your message, and the number of customers that came into the store after receiving your message.
Check-ins & Loyalty:
Customers can check in to demonstrate their loyalty (say, like your Facebook page or retweet a tweet to get $5 off their order).
The company claims that loyal customers only make up a small percentage of most dispensaries’ customers, but spend 60% more per purchase and visit 90% more frequently.
About Baker
Baker describes itself as a “customer engagement platform for cannabis dispensaries & brands”. The company’s core products include an online sales platform, personalized messaging, loyalty programs, and more.
Baker is based in Denver, Colorado. The company was co-founded by Joel Milton (CEO), David Champion (CPO), and Roger Obando (CTO). Baker was launched in 2015.
You can contact the company using the online form on their website.
Baker Summary
Baker is a popular platform for dispensaries across North America. The company just raised $1.6 million in seed funding. It plans to continue expanding across the United States and Canada over the coming months.
Currently, Baker has a particularly large presence in states where recreational marijuana usage has been legalized (as well as a presence in Ontario, Canada).
However, the website mentions future locations like Arizona, British Columbia, Connecticut, Hawaii, Nevada, and New Mexico under its service area.
You can request a demo of Baker online today through the official website at TryBaker.com.
