Uber, the app you are using to hire the cab has not only revolutionized the mobility industry, but it has also authored many new businesses and changed the ways of running many old businesses. Thanks to Uber, our world has been witnessing a very profitable on-demand industry which provides benefits beyond our wildest dreams. Currently, almost all business owners prefer to run their business on the on-demand business model as it lets them run a business without owning too many resources.

After amalgamating laundry business, cleaning business, restaurant business, and lots of other businesses, the on-demand industry has recently married with Weed or Marijuana or Cannabis business.

Cannabis planting, processing and delivering is one of the fastest-growing industries in the USA. Where Cannabis is legal, people and companies associated with it have been making a huge profit. And now with the Uber for weed app, they are successfully creating more revenue streams and earning double than in the past. So, if you are a startup and want to derive benefits from this emerging industry by developing a weed delivery app, keep reading this blog.

In this blog, we will discuss the market, business challenges, profitable business model, workable business strategy, top weed delivery apps and cost of developing Uber for weed app.

Legal weed/cannabis/marijuana market size and growth

• According to the most recent survey (2016), 13% of American are actively using weed which was twice as many since 2013.
• The same survey also reveals that 22.1% of American aged 18-25 used Weed in the past month (of that survey).
• As of February 2019, marijuana has been legalized in 10 US states for individuals over age 21. These states include California, Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Maine, Colorado, Nevada, Vermont, Michigan, Massachusetts, District of Columbia. Whereas, medical marijuana is now legal in 33 US states.

• Medical marijuana sales in Maryland crosses $95. 4 million in the first year.

• In 2018, investors invested $10 billion in North American marijuana market.
• According to an estimation, North American marijuana market will raise $16 billion by the end of 2019.
• In January of 2019, North American public companies have raised an average $24.6 million.
• By 2030, the US cannabis industry will reach $80 billion.

Two most purposeful business models for weed delivery business

 
Before we reveal the list of top weed delivery companies, let’s understand different ways of running weed delivery companies.

You can start your own store where you entertain customers and deliver their orders through your hired delivery executives. To run a weed delivery business in such a way, you will require a lot of resources. So, it is not a feasible idea for a startup.

You can run a weed delivery business in Uber-style. In such a business model, weed companies list products on your app and using independent contractors, you deliver the weed to the buyers. This isn’t a resource-heavy business model which means you can earn more while not acquiring a single weed processing plant!

So, now when you know the two types of weed delivery business models, let’s list out top weed delivery companies and the way they are doing their business.

Top on-demand weed delivery apps

 
Looking at its benefits, many governments are creating a favourable business environment for companies to deliver weed on-demand by withdrawing many decades-old restrictions. And the results of this very acclaimed step are clearly seen in the market. In the last few years, many companies have started delivering cannabis in many parts of the USA.

Here is the list of top weed delivery companies which have been running their business successfully with the help of the feature-packed mobile app.

➛ Eaze

Eaze is the USA-based medical cannabis delivery app. It was launched by Keith McCarty in 2014 with the ambition to deliver medical cannabis to patients in California.

The company offers a mobile app to users to order cannabis and other types of legal weed. Since Keith is running a cannabis delivery business in the Uber-style, his company Eaze has been nicknamed ‘the Uber for Weed’.

Eaze is a successful weed delivery company. In 2017, it reported 300 per cent growth. It had 81 employees and over 250000 users.

In 2015, Eaze had raised $10 million in its series A of the funding round. In October 2016, Eaze had raised more $13 million in its series B of the funding round. In September 2017, Eaze raised $27 million in venture funding. Overall, Eaze has successfully bagged $52 million since its inception in 2014.

➛ Weedmaps

Weedmaps is a tech company which enables users to discover nearby cannabis shops and order cannabis for medical use. Weedmaps doesn’t follow the Uber model. But running a business on the conventional model with a large user base is what makes it profitable.

It combines reviews of local clinics and social networking functionality to create an online community. A user can discuss cannabis and its medical use in Weedmaps’s forum and also ask questions to fellow patients.

If you are not business-ready to run weed delivery business in Uber-style, developing Weedmaps clone app is the best choice for you. You can contact us to know the cost of Weedmaps clone script.

➛ Budly

Budly software is a software development company which has developed a cannabis delivery app and named it Budly. It delivers legal cannabis in the whole of California. A data published on its official website says that Buddy has 100 products and a team of 120 drivers has delivered more than 1 million orders to 15000 customers.

The interface of Budly app is really simple. However, while signing up, the app asks users to add photo ID and doctor’s recommendation.

Now, let’s discuss some very common features of the weed delivery apps. You should consider these features while developing your weed delivery app to meet the market need and to attract customers more easily.

Top features you have to take into account while developing Uber for weed or weed delivery app

 
If you are planning to run weed delivery business in Uber-style, you will need three apps – one for users, one for drivers, and one for store owners – and an admin panel (for yourself).

Weed delivery app’s User app features:

• A registration module allows users to sign-up easily. The same module also asks users to add personal ID and doctor recommendation.
• With the search button, users can search for the products and see the information about each product like price and availability.
• To order the product, there must a module which asks users to add a delivery address, note, delivery time, and payment method.
• Letting users pay using multiple payment channels like debit/credit cards and eWallets is the fundamental requirement.
• Users should have an option to see their previous orders and payment history.
• A notification module sends all important notifications to users and keeps them updated.
• After the driver picks-up the order and marks himself ‘on delivery’, a user can track the driver in real-time.
• Rating module of the app takes a user’s review for the product as well as for the driver and shows it to other users.

Weed delivery app’s Driver app features

• Like a user app, there must be a feature in the driver app which enables anybody to apply to be driver by uploading all necessary documents. If his application is approved, he can now login using his credentials.
• When someone places an order for any product, a nearby driver should get a job request. The driver can either accept the job or decline it.
• If he accepts the job, he can know the pick-up store with the navigation option.
• When he picks-up the order from the store, he can mark himself ‘on delivery’.
• As soon as he marks himself ‘on delivery’, he can know the drop-off location.
• Drivers can contact the buyers from the app itself.
• Drivers can know their online time and earnings with just a single click.
• Drivers can add their banking details and when the company pays them, they get notified.
• Drivers can rate pick-up stores as well as buyers.

Weed delivery apps’ Store owner app features

• Store owners can list out the products.
• They can change the price.
• They can know the business performance and a number of orders with earnings details.
• They get a notification when they receive an order.
• They get a notification when drivers approach their stores.
• They can rate the drivers.
• They can also know the status of the delivery after driver picks-up the order.

Admin panel features

• On the dashboard, admin can see total orders, the status of orders, earnings heat-map and active drivers.
  With the user management module, admin can edit/delete/update the profile of users. Admin can also know the status of all users and their past orders.
• Like the user management module, using a store owner and driver management modules, admin can manage the stores as well as drivers. He can know the ratings of all drivers, their online time, number of deliveries and vehicle details.
• Through the payment module, admin can keep an eagle eye on successful and failed payments.
• Dispute management module presents all queries raised by the users, drivers and store owners.

Now, let’s wrap our minds around the technologies Coruscate is using to actualize apps for users, drivers and store owners.

Also read : How to begin with your own Cannabis Delivery business with our Cannabis Delivery App Development?

Best-suited technologies to develop weed delivery app

 
Properly selected and precisely integrated technologies write the fate of an app. With the right technologies, an app development company can develop your app in such a way that it offers pleasant user experience to users along with futuristic features which eventually double the user engagement rate and your revenue. Coruscate is the research-oriented Uber-like app development company which has already carried out research to discover the best technologies to develop weed delivery app.

Using many serviceable APIs, we give unique functionalities to apps. For instance, we use Google Map API to add live tracking feature in the app. We also use API of cloud communication provider which helps admin to send custom SMS to the users.

Payment module is one of the most complex modules of the weed delivery app. But with the help of the Stripe payment processor/gateway, we bring effortless payment to life. For long-term data storage, we are using Riak and Cassandra. And for distributed storage and analytics, we are relying on Hadoop.

Proven business strategies for app-based weed delivery business

 
Weed delivery market hasn’t been intensified yet. Meaning, you still have a large market to jump in and acquire a maximum number of users. But to do so, you have to follow some business strategies which have been disclosed by our business experts.

Demand for medical cannabis has been increasing. Clinics have started storing cannabis in their warehouses. So, tie-up with local clinics and allow them to order fresh cannabis on-demand.

Moreover, you can also tie-up with cannabis cultivation facilities and not with cannabis store owners to earn more bucks in commission and to sell fresh and authentic products to the customers.

Introducing premium services for the clinics and users increases brand awareness as well as the revenue. A premium service which costs more than the regular service keeps revenue-per-employee high and you can earn more with fewer humans in staff. This is the only reason, Uber is offering UberBlack – a premium service.

Top challenges associated with Uber for weed delivery business

 
When it comes to challenges associated with Uber for weed delivery business, there is nothing to get excited about. Weed delivery business is a very controversial business and controlled by the government. Which means, the first business challenge you need to decode is to keep your business out of legal trouble. For that, you have to study government rules related to weed and figure out the ways to not run your business beyond the expectations of the government.

Another business challenge associated with the weed delivery business is, maintaining the supply-demand ratio. You have to make sure that there are enough drivers available to satisfy the demand on time. Not only this, it is your call to convince cannabis store owners to list out their products on your app. Because users hate limited options!

As if this is not enough, many governments have recently shown concern over the gig economy. Thus, it is also advisable to study the government rules related gig economy workers of your business area and then decide whether you should hire delivery executives or you should allow anyone to be a driver as an independent contractor.

Why you should hire Coruscate to develop weed delivery app?

 
Coruscate is the top Uber-like app development company which entertains many queries related to on-demand app development including weed delivery app. Our highly-skilled developers and designers are clever enough to identify your requirements and develop your app using the latest technologies so that you can dominate the market within no time.

Our business experts understand the requirements of a startup. And so, they help startups to craft the profitable business model and get government approval. In this way, we become a business strategic partner of our clients and assist them throughout their business journey.

With our rapid app development technology, we can develop a weed delivery app within 45-55 business days and under $10000.

To know more about app features, ask for app demo and discuss your custom requirements, feel free to contact us. One of our business experts and a senior developer will give you a free consultation for 30 minutes.

FAQs related to app-based weed delivery business

⇢ How to earn money from weed delivery app?

 
There are several ways to earn money from weed delivery app. You can take a commission on every order. You can charge customers a flat processing fee for using your app to order product. You can charge them a delivery fee. You can introduce a premium business model and charge more fees for premium services. You can also put a surge pricing model to work to make more money when there is high demand.

⇢ Is it a safe bet to start a weed delivery business in a small town?

 
If selling weed is legal in that small town, if the people of that small town have awareness of weed’s medical benefits, and if the people of that small town have already been taking weed, it is totally safe bet to start weed delivery business even in the small town.