As 2024 winds down, we can’t help but look back on an incredible year here at BLAZE®. It’s been a whirlwind of innovation, recognition, and collaboration, all focused on one goal: empowering cannabis retailers to thrive. Let’s take a moment to reflect on some of the highlights from this year that made us proud and excited for what’s ahead in our Year-in-Review.
Making Waves at Industry Events
This year, we had the privilege of powering the mobile apps for two of the biggest cannabis events in the industry: Hall of Flowers and the Flower Expo. These apps didn’t just streamline event logistics; they transformed the attendee experience. We introduced our Scan to Shop feature, which allowed dispensary buyers to scan QR codes at brand booths to add them to their cart and purchase online. Once their order was fulfilled, attendees received a push notification was ready for pick-up.
This new feature streamlined order fulfillment, reduced wait times, and provided valuable information to brands about potential opportunities with dispensary buyers. For us, it was a chance to show how dispensary technology can elevate the cannabis industry and pave the way for smarter, more efficient business practices.
Game-Changing Collaboration with Weedmaps
One of our standout achievements this year was teaming up with Weedmaps to launch the BLAZE + Weedmaps Global Product Catalog. This first-of-its-kind feature makes life so much easier for inventory managers to create new products in their dispensary POS system. Easily search a database to populate product names, images, descriptions, and potency levels —no more duplicate entries or mismatched inventory. It’s a huge time-saver and ensures customers see the right information for products online and in-store.
This integration provides retailers with standardized brand-verified product data that makes it easier to track and analyze. This integration will continue to improve as more brands list and update their products on Weedmaps. We recommend encouraging all of your vendors to list their products on Weedmaps to make it easier for your inventory managers to create new products with a simple search.
A Fresh Take on Point of Sale
This year, we introduced our new hardware-agnostic dispensary POS system, and it’s been a hit. Why? Flexibility. Cannabis retailers can now choose the hardware setup that works best for their unique needs. And with an updated user experience (UX) and user interface (UI), everything’s faster, sleeker, and easier to use. From smoother transactions to happier staff and customers, our reimagined POS is helping businesses operate at maximum efficiency.
Whether your dispensary uses desktop computers or iPads to process transactions, BLAZE Retail® is compatible with your existing hardware. We rebuilt our cannabis POS system to give retailers an easy path to migrate away from their current provider if their experiencing issues with support, outages, or inconsistent data. Check out our video on the new BLAZE Retail® below and rest assured we will continue to release new features and improvements in 2025.
Award-Winning Innovation: Scan to Shop
One of big goals for 2024 was to bring new innovation to cannabis retailers. We delivered on this promise and were subsequently recognized for our efforts. Our BLAZE ECOM™ Scan to Shop feature earned us the Cannabis and Tech Today Innovation Award. This feature is all about empowering in-store shoppers with a mobile checkout experience. Customers can scan products in-store, check out right from their phones, and skip the lines. It’s another example of how we’re rethinking the retail experience to make it more convenient and efficient.
We battle-tested this feature at both Hall of Flowers and the Flower Expo to streamline the checkout process for buyer samples. Building mobile apps for both events, allowed attendees to interact with brands, scan the QR codes of samples, purchase via the app, and receive a push notification when they were ready for pickup at the on-site dispensary. We were able to reduce the fulfillment times with our new BLAZE Fulfill web application which streamlined back-of-house operations for online orders.
Streamlining Compliance with Metrc Retail ID
For enterprise retailers, inventory intake can be a headache. That’s why we integrated our dispensary POS with Metrc Retail ID, simplifying the inventory intake process with retail-ready product QR labels. This integration saves time by eliminating the need to relabel products and automatically merges the products to the correct batch. The QR code can be scanned to add to inventory, check the price, and even add the product to a customer’s cart.
This integrations is another step forward in our mission to make cannabis retail operations as seamless as possible. The time and savings for vertically integrated cannabis retailers will positively impact their bottom line, as there will be no need to purchase an additional label or spend hours relabeling products once they are ingested into the dispensary POS system at the retail level. Watch our BLAZE Embers on exploring the Metrc Retail ID integration to learn more about how this can benefit your business.
Leveling Up BLAZE ECOM
E-commerce is an essential part of an omnichannel sales strategy, and we’ve been working to enhance BLAZE ECOM™ to meet the moment. This year’s updates brought improved mobile app adoption tools, such as smart banners and checkout CTAs. We also released advanced deal management that provides new tools to help cannabis dispensaries highlight current deals on their e-commerce menu.
Additionally, we’ve developed an AI recommendations section that suggest products to customers based on their previous purchase history. This feature is still in it’s infancy and we will be enriching these recommendation in 2025 to help retailers deliver seamless online shopping experience. To learn more about these features check out our BLAZE ECOM Q4 Product Updates Webinar.
Building Stronger Partnerships
Collaboration has been at the heart of everything we do, and 2024 was no exception. We’ve partnered with a wide range of cannabis software vendors to bring even more robust tools and features to our retailers. Together, we’re helping businesses stay competitive and thrive in a fast-moving industry.
Some of noteworthy integrations were with Birchmount Network to enable gift card sales and redemption. We completed our integration with Solink to seamlessly seach video surveillance by transaction number. We partner with FundCanna to provide capital for cannabis retailers in need of financing for expansion, inventory, or improvements. We finalized our Distru integration to help retailers streamline adding inventory from distributors. Our integration with Surfside provided a new revenue stream for cannabis retailers by helping monetize their e-commerce menu banners with sponsored brand ads. We believe in an open ecosystem and using the right tool for the right job. Expect even more integrations in 2025!
Celebrating Recognition and Growth
Our Year in Review wouldn’t be complete without mentioning some of the accolades we achieved during 2024. We’re humbled to have been nominated for The Emjay Awards this year for two categories, Business Software of the Year and Retail Software of the Year. We also ranked in the Inc. 5000 List of Private Growing Companies for the second year in a row. These milestones remind us of the impact we’re making in the cannabis space and inspire us to keep pushing boundaries.
Looking Ahead to 2025
As we close the book on an amazing year, we’re already gearing up for what’s next. With big plans on the horizon, we’re more committed than ever to supporting the incredible cannabis community. Here’s to another year of growth, innovation, and collaboration. We can’t wait to see what we’ll achieve together in 2025!
