Shopify online weed store is ready to take off in Canada.  The e-commerce giant based in Ottawa, Ontario, will be handling the online selling of cannabis in Ontario, according to reports. Shopify will be partnering with Ontario Cannabis Retail Corporation (OCRC) to tap into the thriving legal weed industry in the area.  

Shopify online weed store prospects

The sale of legal marijuana is growing in North America. A report by Arcview Market Research and BDS Analytics predicts that legal weed sales have hit $9.7 billion in North America alone in 2017. The figure represents an increase of 33 percent from sales recorded in 2016.  The same report predicted that the legal cannabis market would grow to nearly $25 billion in 2021 as more states in the US legalize marijuana.

Canada is also expected to further fuel the growth of the legal cannabis market. After all, the cannabis black market in the country is said to ship nearly half a million kilos a year. That’s a lot bigger than the legal weed market in the country which ships around 33,000 kilos of cannabis to more than 150,000 patients across Canada.

Ontario is a big market and provides huge growth prospects for Shopify. It has more than 13 million people. It also has the largest city in Canada, Toronto. Deloitte estimates that the retail market for legal weed in the country has the potential to hit $8.7 billion a year with the consumers in Ontario accounting for more than one-third of the sales.

Shopify online weed store isn’t the pioneer in selling cannabis online in Canada. In 2017, the biggest publicly traded cannabis company in Canada launched an online store. Canopy Growth Corporation launched the Tweed Main Street store in April 2017.

How Shopify online weed store works

Cannabis sold in Ontario will be sold exclusively through OCRC outlets instead of privately owned dispensaries.  The OCRC will use Shopify for its online and mobile system. Shopify online weed store will also be tapped nside OCRC outlets for handling of transactions, displaying product information and managing human resources and inventory.

The OCRC eyes to open about 80 weed stores by the summer of next year with another 150 stores to be launched the following year. It expects to get more sales from its online business especially from remote towns where it won’t have any outlets.