Caliva, California’s largest vertically integrated cannabis company, is swiftly gaining notoriety for their innovative approach to the manufacture and sale of cannabis products, and for their recent collaboration with Jay-Z on the high-end cannabis line Monogram.
With their recent successes and subsequent rapid growth, the Caliva team was ready to facilitate an even more integrated customer experience by creating a groundbreaking mobile e-commerce application.
In what will be an ongoing project, the Yeti team is working with Caliva to create one of the first-ever mobile apps to provide customers with the ability to purchase cannabis products in-app, as well as offering a unique customer experience with features such as a loyalty program, referral system and curated product suggestions based on each customers personal preferences.
When we began this app project with Caliva, Apple did not allow app's that facilitated the purchase of cannabis products. However, with more cannabis friendly politicians being elected in 2020 the Caliva team recognized the strong potential for these rules to change.
To help ensure that they would be well positioned once in-app cannabis purchasing was allowed, the Caliva team wanted to build out a loyalty and order tracking service, allowing them to remain ahead of the game and quickly iterate as regulations changed. In the meantime, we would be able to provide their customers with an app that featured great functionality, while simultaneously building their presence in the app store.
In July of 2021, the in-app purchase of cannabis was approved by Apple within cannabis-friendly states. Yeti was able to very quickly adapt the application to facilitate e-commerce transactions and geofence the app so it could only be used in states where cannabis sales are legal - a requirement to be approved by Apple's App Review team.
The Caliva Mobile App is one of the very first applications to offer customers the opportunity to purchase cannabis products from their phone. While currently a native/web-view hybrid, the Yeti team is adding new, fully native features to the application each week.
Once logged into the app users are directed to choose whether they would like their products for pick-up or delivery. Based on their choice the application will populate with products available in the geographical area or store the user has selected.
Users are then able to search products by keywords and categories, and are additionally provided with a constantly updated list of products curated to their specific taste, based on the preferences they’ve indicated within their profile.
Once the user has added products to their cart and are ready to check out, they are able to choose a pick-up or delivery window that is convenient for them, and provide their delivery driver with any pertinent information.
Because bank transactions associated with the buying & selling of cannabis products are severely limited due to federal restrictions, we chose to utilize Hypur’s white label SDK to provide users with a safe and reliable electronic payment option.To create the feeling of a singular app experience we modified Hypur’s styling to flow with the rest of the Caliva app.
Once the order has been placed the delivery can be tracked in-app through OnFleet’s white label SDK, which provides the expected delivery time window and a map showing the driver's current location.
Because cannabis is only legal in select states the Apple Store required that we include a geofence within the application. This geofence ensures that users are within California by asking users for permission to access their geographical location. If the user is in fact in California, the full functionality of the app is unlocked. However, in the case that the user is outside the state, the app will allow the user to browse while preventing them from adding anything to their cart.
Beyond the order and delivery tracking features of the app, we also created an editorial tab that contains a list of blog content that Caliva has created, coming from an API. When a user taps on one of these pieces of editorial content they are taken to a new screen to read the full post.
Additionally, Caliva has a referral system which appends a unique code to a URL so that users can share it with their friends to mutually earn credits. We’ve built an informational screen where users can copy this unique link so that they can share it on social media, text messages etc.
Similarly, Caliva is currently working on a loyalty program using Yotpo that gives customers points based on the number of dollars they spend online or in the dispensary. To help users keep track of their loyalty points we’ve created a screen in the account tab that displays their accumulated loyalty points as well as other Caliva Club benefits available to them.
The Caliva Mobile App has successfully launched and is generating a large percentage of the companie's daily sales! This unlocks a larger potential for Caliva's Parent Company to expand through acquisiton into more regional markets with a sales channel that enables delivery anywhere in the state. We're currently continuing our work on Caliva's fully integrated suite of software products, including many exciting new features and improved experiences. Stay tuned for updates!
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