The cannabis industry was born from entrepreneurs who paved their own way. The journey to success in cannabis is incredibly difficult with so many unknowns and it’s only compounded by the continuous changes to rules and regulations. While the industry is becoming more sophisticated, it’s still young. It can be difficult to figure out where to start, what tools are available, and how to stay compliant. LeafLink’s mission is to power cannabis commerce by making it easier and more efficient to run a business. Within the platform are a suite of solutions ranging from a wholesale marketplace, to fintech offerings, to cannabis-focused banking, and more. With all these tools in one place, an operator can easily manage critical processes and gain a holistic view of business operations.
Defining Wholesale Cannabis E-Commerce
To power cannabis commerce, LeafLink offers a trusted wholesale marketplace where operators can transact and interact more easily while also managing their critical needs in one system. Thousands of brands and retailers rely on the platform everyday to buy and sell products, but this is just the starting point. Within the LeafLink platform, customers can also access a suite of tools specifically designed for the unique needs of cannabis businesses.
2024 marked a pivotal year for the company, expanding its product offerings and announcing significant news around acquisitions. After spending a great deal of time speaking with cannabis operators, and understanding the major pain points they face, LeafLink built a brand new fintech offering that aims to tackle delinquent payments, a major issue in the industry.
This new product, called Payment on Sell-Through(PoST) guarantees payments for brands and reduces the need for retailers to front large sums of capital to buy in bulk. With PoST, retailers only pay when products sell to the customer. rands get guaranteed payments, in the form of automated weekly installments. In addition, both parties get critical information on sales data, helping to inform upstream product development, better forecasting/ordering, and better planning. All of these benefits add up to a solution that helps businesses not only be more profitable and increase their margins, but also operate more smoothly,using data to back up their decisions. PoST is the third payment option LeafLink has rolled out with the goal of defining how cannabis businesses streamline their operations, work more efficiently, and improve their margins.
For retailers, LeafLink has also rolled out a new offering called LeafLink Plus. This new membership plan for retailers includes PoST as well as Inventory Insights — a brand new tool to help customers make smarter ordering decisions. Tapping the knowledge of cannabis industry veterans at LeafLink and direct feedback from our customers, Inventory Insights integrates with a retailer’s point of sale (POS) system to analyze inventory and sales data, giving them actionable insights for better ordering decisions. With a LeafLink Plus membership, retailers have actionable data they can use to grow their profit margins.
Dama Financial Is Now Part of LeafLink
This past July, LeafLink announced the acquisition of Dama Financial, the leading cannabis banking platform that allows business owners to access reliable, safe and compliant financial services. Dama allows businesses to access banking services, manage cash, and connect to payroll and credit providers, all in a user-friendly interface. Due to federal prohibition, banking options in cannabis are limited and often come with risks, hidden fees, or increasing prices. It’s a common occurrence for operators to have their accounts shut down due to the nature of working in cannabis, oftentimes without any notice from the bank. With plans for a future integration into the LeafLink platform, businesses need one less login and can manage their finances in one place with peace of mind. This acquisition and integration will also help with further streamline payment functionality for customers using LeafLink’s fintech and marketplace offerings.
In November, LeafLink also announced the acquisition of Leaf Trade, another wholesale marketplace that primarily caters to larger multi-state operators (MSOs). This news marks another significant step for the company with the goal of taking industry-leading tools developed by LeafLink and Leaf Trade, and making them accessible to more businesses. Between the two companies, it’s estimated that nearly $9 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV) will be facilitated yearly through their wholesale marketplaces.
Real-Time Success With PoST
Since launching over the summer, several cannabis companies have already implemented PoST and are reaping the benefits.
Six Labs, a Michigan-based company, has been using LeafLink’s PoST software since June and keeping tabs on the outcome. In just a few short months, PoST has already helped them adjust SKUs to avoid overstocked inventory, use transactional data to restock and match order size to demand, and doubled sales on stale products to make room for new products. Read the details here.
Bloom City, also based in Michigan, doubled sales on stale products through a discount strategy, freed up cash, and saw zero days of stock shortages. This was all thanks to LeafLink’s PoST solution. Read the details here.
Bringing It All Together In One Platform
As an emerging industry built on a federally prohibited substance, many processes that businesses have come to rely on have been built from scratch. However, as the industry changes and evolves, these processes sometimes become outdated and not as effective as they once were. LeafLink’s mission is to power cannabis commerce by building new tools that solve these inefficiencies. In addition to their wholesale marketplace and financial services, LeafLink also offers a variety of other services that businesses can tap. Since many operators run on small teams, the goal of these offerings is to level the playing field and bring powerful tools to businesses of all sizes. Under one login, a business can sign up for advertising options, market insights, logistics support, and more.
2024 marked a major year for the industry and for LeafLink, 2025 has even more promise.
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