E-commerce technology company Squarespace Inc. (NYSE: SQSP) announced a partnership with dispensary tech company Jane Technologies to offer its products to cannabis businesses in Canada.
“At Square, we’re always looking to solve sellers’ pain points and we know cannabis dispensaries have limited options when it comes to reliable and integrated commerce tools,” said Roshan Jhunja, Head of Retail at Square. “Sellers are looking for an easy-to-use, fully integrated omnichannel solution to help them run their businesses in person and online. We’ve been fortunate to partner with Jane to develop a robust online offering and encourage cannabis dispensaries to test our software, hardware, and payment solution in person through our Early Access Program.”
This new partnership with Jane will allow cannabis dispensary processing with Square to supplement their brick-and-mortar business with an online store, where customers can select items from an up-to-date menu and order for pick-up or delivery.
According to the statement, Square has announced an Early Access Program for licensed cannabis dispensaries, which allows authorized cannabis sellers in Ontario to begin testing the Square for Retail point of sale (POS) solution in stores ahead of the service being launched more widely.
“Square’s reputation as a leading global commerce platform speaks for itself and, given our shared ethos of empowering brick-and-mortar retailers with best-in-class digital tools, the partnership with Jane developed naturally,” explained Jane CEO Socrates Rosenfeld. “We are thrilled to integrate the robust infrastructure of Square’s point-of-sale and APIs with the powerful Jane e-commerce platform to unlock a best-in-class omnichannel experience for Canadian cannabis retailers.”
Mainstream retail companies have been reluctant to enter the cannabis space, especially those with a banking-related service. While major banks in the U.S. have avoided cannabis since it is Federally illegal, that hasn’t been the case in Canada where the product is completely legal. Still, companies like Square have been slow to embrace the industry making this new partnership a sign that the stigma of cannabis may be waning. (Full Story)