Weedmaps and BLAZE Partner to Simplify and Streamline Online Cannabis Ordering Experience

Industry's leading tech innovators announce software integration to enable dispensaries to better serve end customers

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Nov 12, 2020, 12:02 ET

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 12, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, two of cannabis' leading tech innovators, Weedmaps and BLAZE, announced a first-of-its-kind partnership that will instantly improve the online buying experience for dozens of cannabis operators and millions of consumers across the legal U.S. market.

Weedmaps is the largest technology company in the legal cannabis economy, connecting consumers to retailers and brands while also advocating for accessible cannabis for all patients and adults, and BLAZE is the leading enterprise resource planning and point of sale platform in the industry. By combining their respective tech prowess, Weedmaps and BLAZE are now able to go past real-time menu syncing, deepening their relationship with a direct integration of the Weedmaps Orders product into dispensaries' point of sale system. BLAZE's point of sale platform now offers cannabis retailers a single sign-on to both update Weedmaps menus and receive customer orders.

"Weedmaps is the leading source of consumer demand for our retailers and an innovative partner to BLAZE," said Chris Violas, BLAZE CEO. "We're excited to launch this key integration for our shared customers. This is a first in the cannabis industry and ultimately both companies want to deliver intuitive technology that drives automation to simplify and streamline the cannabis ordering experience for both consumers and retailers.".

With this new integration, retailers can increase operational efficiency and order accuracy and focus on creating great patient and consumer experiences. Their staff will no longer have to recreate the order in the point of sale platform, with the integrated Weedmaps demand channel connected in BLAZE. In a highly regulated industry, manual entry opens up the potential for inventory and compliance errors that can impact the customer if a mistake is made. Retailers can reduce the risk of potential revenue loss and focus more time delivering excellent customer experiences.

"To move the cannabis industry forward, we need to continue to provide technology that can evolve with ever-changing regulation, legislation and rapidly increasing consumer demand," said Justin Dean, Chief Technology Officer at Weedmaps. "At Weedmaps, we seek to be the growth engine for the entire industry by building the platform that underpins it. We are excited to partner with BLAZE to offer this integration that will further enable businesses and consumers to seamlessly operate in compliance with regulatory requirements."

Almost immediately, cannabis operators were able to see the benefit of the new integration. Weden is a longtime customer of both BLAZE and Weedmaps. They operate in San Diego, Oakland, Santa Ana, and Yolo County and were eager to bring this new integration to their storefronts and delivery routes to improve operations and thus boost the overall consumer experience.

"Everything we do here at Weden is customer-centric, and 'speed to lead' is a top priority, especially with deliveries, so this integration was a no-brainer for us to try out. We saw results almost immediately," said Pierre Rouleau, Chief Operations Officer. "Integrating our two main platforms has drastically improved our agent's response times and given us more time to engage customers. Seconds count in our industry, so being able to seamlessly view all critical information from the Weedmaps dashboard via BLAZE was a breath of fresh air! This integration has proven to be a real game changer for us and has allowed us to better serve our customers."

BLAZE will be hosting a BLAZE Connect webinar on the value of the orders platform and the future of retail cannabis in California with Team Lead at Weden, Ben Ramsey and Weedmaps' Project Manager, Patrick McCleary, on December 3rd 2020, at 2pm PT.

About Weedmaps: Weedmaps is the leading technology and software infrastructure provider to the cannabis industry. Founded in 2008, the company holds a strong belief in the power of cannabis and the importance of enabling safe, legal access to consumers worldwide. Since then, Weedmaps has worked tirelessly, not only to be the most comprehensive platform for consumers, but to build the software solutions that power businesses compliantly in the space, to advocate for legalization, social equity, and licensing in many jurisdictions, and to facilitate further learning through partnering with dozens of subject matter experts on providing detailed, accurate information about the plant.

Weedmaps' mission is to power a transparent and inclusive global cannabis economy. Now in its second decade, Weedmaps has been a driving force behind much of the legislative change we've seen in the past 10 years. Headquartered in Irvine, California, Weedmaps employs more than 400 professionals around the world, including in Denver, Tucson, New York, Barcelona, and Toronto. Visit us at weedmaps.com.

About BLAZE: Founded in 2017, BLAZE, a VC-backed California technology company, offers unified seed-to-sale software and apps for the cannabis supply chain. Developed by tech entrepreneurs and former cannabis company operators, BLAZE makes tech simple with an easy-to-use frontend powered by an enterprise backend for dispensaries, delivery services, distributors, and cultivators. Customers can be more profitable and productive while creating a better user experience for end customers and employees. The company's software ensures compliance with local laws and taxes. BLAZE offers full APIs and integrates seamlessly with over 40 technology vendors in the cannabis industry.

Media Contacts:

Travis Rexroad ([email protected]), Weedmaps
Raj Chauhan ([email protected]), BLAZE

SOURCE BLAZE