Why 4/20 Keeps Breaking Software and How GrowFlow Plans to Fix It

SEATTLE, April 16, 2019 (Newswire.com) - ​​​​​Predictably, weekends for cannabis retailers are busy. But as the market matures, additional trends are noticed and interesting consumer rate spikes emerge.  

Notably, April 20 is by far the most popular day for reported sales on the cannabis retail level. Everybody is familiar with Black Friday, that dreaded day after Thanksgiving when stores across the country open their doors. In the cannabis space, it has become known as “Green Friday,” a popular holiday wherein weary shoppers look for deals and recharge. But the most interesting jump in consumer spending occurs on April 20.

Each year, year after year, manufacturers and retailers alike are scrambling to put together enticing deals that stand out and tip the scales. 4/20 is the date where even the largest, busiest stores see double in retail sales. Point-of-sale systems in highly regulated recreational cannabis must meet standards set forth by each state and there are a handful of decent systems worth checking out. Many of them have a history of crashing on this busy holiday.

Cannabis point-of-sale software companies had not factored in the loads that the servers experience on heavy usage days. So, like a traffic jam, things get slow and some systems even go down because they can't handle the massive quantity of transactions on this singular day. GrowFlow has a retail solution designed to handle traffic. 

Rufus Casey, CEO and founder of GrowFlow, explains the need for software that can handle the impact of a day like 4/20, “We became really popular for compliance software, but mainly served inventory tracking for cultivation and manufacturing. We were aware of certain problems that retailers were facing with their software not being able to handle the speed on 4/20; it was causing interruptions.”

GrowFlow would know. They are the leading software of choice in Washington with a staggering 50 percent of cannabis licensees using their software. In addition, they have become the most recommended software in California and Oklahoma. GrowFlow has consistently worked to solve issues for license holders in cannabis. They now have released a platform designed to handle the impact of retail’s busiest days. 

Historically, interruptions on 4/20 have been feared by retailers, as an inability to communicate with the designated state traceability system could mean that business is at a standstill. Problems with retail store software systems have crippled business and threatened profits for years since the inception of legal cannabis. The retail point-of-sale offered by GrowFlow hopes to relieve the software woes of yore.