CBD, short for cannabidiol, is a phytocannabinoid of the cannabis plant. Since the extraction and sale of CBD was legalized, its demand has been soaring.
Now selling CBD is one of the most profitable business ideas. And the good part is that you don’t have to set up a physical CBD store and shell out for rent and other expenses.
You can create an online store, start selling your CBD products and make a fortune. Many CBD entrepreneurs make six figures without any major stress.
To create a successful online CBD business, you need to go the proper way with it. There are various questions you need to ask (and answer) yourself before you start selling.
1. Have I Met All the Legal Compliances?
The main thing that people focus on with CBD legality is whether the product is within acceptable THC limits. In America, your CBD products must not contain more than 0.3% THC.
But then there are other legal compliances needed for a CBD business [1]. CBD has been anecdotally suggested to have medicinal benefits, but you must not label your CBD products as having medicinal value. Some people who have defied this law have been raided.
Various states have rigorous testing processes to guarantee product safety, and various states impose restrictions on specific CBD products. For instance, CBD tinctures and topicals may be legal, but then smokable CBD products may be prohibited.
And so, check to see whether you’re complying with the laws within your state and district before launching and operating your CBD business.
2. Do I Have A Quality Website?
One of the mistakes people make while creating their online business is publishing a low-quality website. Most of them do this to avoid paying a website designer and to keep the costs down as much as they can. This is the wrong way.
The importance of publishing a quality website cannot be gainsaid. Most website visitors are fickle as hell and so you shouldn’t play around. If the website takes so long to load, or if the website appears slapped together, that’s how your visitors click away.
With setting up a quality website for your CBD business, you will need to collaborate with an outstanding website designer, and buy quality hosting. A great website gives your business a great image and the buyers have no problem trusting you.
Heaven knows I wouldn’t submit my credit card details to a rickety wheezing website.
3. Have I Chosen the Best Niche?
Products in the CBD industry are massively diverse, and as a novice CBD seller, the last thing you want to do is sell CBD products arbitrarily. You want to choose your niche properly.
CBD tinctures, CBD capsules, CBD creams, CBD massage oils, CBD vaporizers; CBD smokables, CBD edibles; CBD sprays. Ideally, you should go for a niche that you’re familiar with; for instance, if you have a background with e-cigarettes, you may choose CBD vapes.
But when choosing a niche, you also need to establish your target customers and find out what the demand is like. If you fail to research properly around the niche and demand, you leave your business in a vulnerable position.
4. How Will I Market My Business?
Marketing is what makes all the difference. I mean, you could have amazing products, but if people are not seeing (or hearing about) your products, you needlessly limit your revenue potential.
The CBD industry is slowly being saturated, and so, you need to be consistent with your marketing, and you have to have a unique angle so that you increase your brand visibility and attract customers [2].
With the internet, marketing has become affordable, and there are numerous marketing channels. For instance, you can hire influencers, or you can buy media from traffic networks or social media networks and stay within your budget.
Some social media networks are anti-CBD but there are numerous platforms to collaborate with and reach your marketing goals.
5. Do I Have a Roadmap to Success?
Running a successful CBD business is like running any other successful business, but you need a roadmap to achieve the success that you want.
A roadmap means a strategy. You need to strategize how you’re going to do everything that involves your business and create time-sensitive goals.
Having a roadmap not only helps your business become successful but is also essential when looking for funding. I mean, investors will ask to see your business plan.
6. Is My Supplier Reliable?
Your long-term goal is probably to be able to grow and manufacture your own CBD, but as a new business owner, you have to depend on a CBD supplier.
Don’t sign up for the first supplier that you come across. You should take your time and see that you’re settling with the most reliable CBD supplier.
Some of the factors to consider when looking for a supplier include the quality of their products, their reputation, and their costs.
7. Are My Products of Good Quality?
Unless you’re sociopathic, you should care whether your products are of good quality. The thing is .. since you’re not involved in the creation of these products, it’s hard to know.
It’s upon you to make a deliberate effort to establish whether you’re selling quality products. And if you’re selling inferior products, it doesn’t always mean that the supplier is to blame.
Maybe there’s a process or a culture within your company that affects the quality of these products. For instance, if you have poor storage, it can affect some CBD products.
Always make sure that you’re offering your customers superior products. And some customers usually investigate to see whether your products are of great quality [3].
8. Could My Products Be Under-priced or Overpriced?
The thing about setting up your own business is that you can sell your products at whatever price you wish. But then certain prices could be unfair to the customer or yourself.
If your products are under-priced, you put your business in a vulnerable position, and if your products are over-priced, you risk losing customers and developing a bad reputation.
None of that is good.
It’s important to make sure that your products are reasonably priced, and considering the internet grants us easy access to information, finding that out is not hard.
9. Do I Have A Good Payment Gateway and Processor?
When you launch your first online CBD store, you will probably go ahead and link it up with PayPal, except that PayPal won’t like you back.
PayPal, Stripe, and other online payment gateways and processors have a hard-line stance on CBD businesses, and you have to rely on CBD-centric payment processors.
But then make sure that you have collaborated with a payment processing company that isn’t draining the life out of your business. Some payment processors are chaotically expensive.
10. How Can I Grow My Business?
Once you start making steady profits, it’s easy to sit back and stop being innovative. But that’s a dangerous mindset that can potentially ruin your business.
Never stop being innovative. If your business performs so well, you need to find a way of reinvesting the profits to expand your business.
But then you need to research properly so that you don’t end up wasting your resources. Creating a long-term successful business comes down to consistency.
The Takeaway: What to Ask Yourself before Starting an Online CBD Store
As the demand for CBD is growing, many people are finding success with online CBD stores. If you’re looking to set up an online CBD store, you need to ask yourself the above 10 questions. In 2022, CBD might be legalized in more countries, thus the environment will be more enabling for CBD merchants’ success.
Sources:
- Hilderbrand, R. L. (2018). Hemp & cannabidiol: What is a medicine?. Missouri medicine, 115(4), 306.
- Schmitz, S. M., Lopez, H. L., & Marinotti, O. (2020). Post marketing safety of Plus CBD™ products, a full spectrum hemp extract: A 2-year experience. Journal of Dietary Supplements, 17(5), 587-598.
- VanDolah, H. J., Bauer, B. A., & Mauck, K. F. (2019, September). Clinicians’ guide to cannabidiol and hemp oils. In Mayo Clinic Proceedings(Vol. 94, No. 9, pp. 1840-1851). Elsevier.