How to Sell Weed Online
3 Clever and Affordable Options
Written By: Jay Hyung
Bong Engineer
It’s 2023 and selling weed is not the same as it was before – at all.
Due to the rapid legalization and decriminalization of marijuana in the US, two opposing cannabis markets have emerged: the legal dispensaries and the cannabis gifting market.
Like most people trying to learn how to sell weed, you may not have a lot of capital to invest in a legal marijuana dispensary, and that’s ok.
In this article, I share 3 creative and low-cost ways to start making money selling weed online focused primarily on providing unique products to the gifting market of cannabis.
Best way to sell weed:
Gifting cannabis online
Gone are the days you buy an ounce of weed and break it down into grams for profit.
The new way to sell weed these days is through the gifting method as it allows much safer opportunities with little to no barrier to entry.
What is gifting weed: Gifting cannabis is simply selling someone an item such as a t-shirt, sticker, or a downloadable file, and attaching a free cannabis gift at the end. For example, buying a $50 eighth of weed you would buy a $50 t-shirt first, and then they would gift you the eighth at the end for free. This can only be done in a state where gifting cannabis is legal such as the DC weed market (states you can gift weed).
Why buy from a gifting store: Gifting stores have the same and oftentimes better cannabis products than legal recreational and medical dispensaries. On top of that, their prices are usually much lower with zero signups or medical cards required. Sadly, in many cities, legal dispensaries are having trouble staying afloat due to the competitive nature of the gifting market.
3 ideas on how to
start selling weed in 2023
2023 was a tough year for wholesalers and cultivators of cannabis. The best way to sell weed is by sourcing your own weed and selling it directly to the consumer to maximize margins.
Here are 3 great ideas for anyone looking to sell weed in a gifting-friendly cannabis state.
1. Sell weed as a
Leafedout vendor
Sell cannabis literally today
Lowest start-up cost: Just source your weed, take some photos, and have a car to deliver.
Simply go to Leafedout.com and type in your state. Zoom out so you can see all the vendors selling weed near you.
Vendors will be the green weed leaves and the customers will be the blue weed leaves.
A good sign is you see a few vendors and a ton of customers. Take a look at the Richmond area how there are three vendors and a healthy amount of cannabis customers.
Click on each of the vendors closest to your home. You want to see that their cannabis menu has the words: gifting or donations.
Seeing the word gifting or donations means that this is a gifting store and that means this is most likely an area in which gifting cannabis is accepted.
Do not sell weed in an area where gifting is not accepted.
The term “donations” are more popular on Leafedout compared to gifting but it’s the same thing.
For example, if you sell a quarter of weed you would say it’s a gift and ask for a donation. The “recommended donations” will be put on your menu on Leafedout so customers know your “price”. (donations = price)
As you can see you can easily get set up to sell weed online but it takes a little bit of understanding on how to properly use verbiage first.
This is one of the fastest and easiest ways to sell cannabis (if you live near a gifting community).
2. Create a unique
B2B cannabis product
Only one transaction a month
One of the safest ways to sell weed is by selling weed B2B (business to business).
This is actually the safest of the three methods of selling marijuana online because you usually are only doing one transaction per month with just one or two brands – let me explain.
The trick here is trying to find a niche cannabis product that has not yet been fulfilled in your area.
To do this we will pull inspiration from what is working in more established markets.
For example, say you want to sell weed in Richmond. Take some time and look at all the gifting brands and see what cannabis products they have in Richmond.
Next, start looking at the most popular stores in California and you will notice they probably have many more unique cannabis products.
For example, in California, they have what is called “Jeeters” which is about a quarter of a joint dipped in kief. It’s a power-packed mini joint that is getting a lot of attention out here in California.
The gifting stores in Richmond may not yet have “Jeeters” so I can actually make them myself.
You can source a bag of shake (you don’t need nugs for joints and shake is much cheaper) and some kief.
Make a bunch of Jeeters and slap your own brand on it and your own custom packaging.
Once you’ve made enough, all you need to do is contact the cannabis stores in Richmond and try to wholesale your products to them directly each month.
For example:
- For edibles, you can make a vegan line of edibles that are dairy free
- You can buy high-end buds but really focus on the packaging and experience
- You can create a three-sampler pack of Indicas for Indica lovers.
It’s all about the experience these days. So if you can come up with some cool concepts and keep the cost down for the dispensaries then it will be a no-brainer for them to buy from you.
Customer experience can increase the value of a product, so be creative!
Factor all cost in before you source your cannabis, often times selling weed you need to vet ideas on paper and make sure the math makes sense.
3. Create a Shopify
cannabis delivery service
How to sell weed online
Start-up cost: Source your weed, build a website/brand, and you need a car to deliver.
One of the most popular ways to sell weed online is by starting a website that offers delivery on a cannabis product.
This is a bit different because you are actually making a brand here, and the way your brand is reflected will be through the website you build.
I recommend Fiverr to build your logo and website for all under $300.
As usual, you need to vet the area first. Go to wheresweed.com and see if there are any weed delivery services nearby that are not medical.
Wheresweed.com does not use the term “gifting” and “donations”.
Pro-tip: what I like to do is find what looks like a gifting delivery business on wheresweed.com and then find that business’s actual home page. Their home page (search their brand name in Google) is a quick way to find out if it’s gifting or not.
Once you have determined that there are delivery gifting services succeeding near you then you know it’s a safe market to enter.
You want to create a Shopify page but do not use their Stripe payment processor, in fact, don’t use any payment processors. Select the payment option in Shopify that you will be collecting cash in person.
Cannabis businesses require a high-risk merchant processor and just about no bank is going to help you process payments if you are selling weed without a license.
Once your website is complete and you have all your cannabis inventory what’s next?
If you have additional capital you can actually pay wheresweed.com to boost your position up on their site so you get a ton of traffic and sales to your listing.
There are other ways to get traffic to your website such as cannabis SEO and paid traffic.
This option for selling bud requires more upfront cost and work, but the rewards are much more than that of option 1.
How to make money
selling weed online
This section is full of tips on selling cannabis to increase brand perception and user experience. Implementing brand perception is what some of the most successful cannabis companies do (yes even the small brands).
Cannabis Branding
Branding increases product worth
Branding is the process of creating a unique identity and image for your cannabis products. This can be done through your product packaging, your logo, your website, and just how you present your company as a whole. The best cannabis brands think of their entire branding as a cohesive package and all choices they make with their brand must follow their branding guidelines.
Cannabis copywriting
Copywriting increases conversions
Copywriting is the art of using written word for the purpose of persuading your target audience to take a specific action such as purchasing your product. From the content on your website to the product description on your packaging, you can use copywriting to help further increase sales and conversions.
Amazing product photography
Photography increases conversions
This is a huge one. Most people take pretty poor photos of their cannabis buds. Images come out dark. You want to hire a photographer or learn about the proper lighting to really shine a light and bring out all the trichomes and colors of your bud. There is a ton of ways you can use amazing product photography and videography to help boost conversions when selling cannabis online.
How to sell cannabis FAQ
Here are some of the most commonly asked questions people have when trying to learn how to sell weed legally.
What cannabis market
should I sell weed in?
White Market: Any medical or recreational dispensaries fully licensed and paying taxes are considered white market marijuana businesses. This is the safest way to sell bud, but also the most expensive. According to research, the average dispensary start-up cost can range from about $250,000 and up. If you are looking to start a legal dispensary for cannabis then I recommend you read this article instead: How to open a dispensary.
Gifting Market: The cannabis gifting market was considered a “grey area” back in 2017 but as of 2023 there are gifting dispensaries in major cities such as Washington DC and New York. Essentially, these are recreational dispensaries that don’t sell weed but instead “gift” it. This is a legal loophole that allows someone to sell you a sticker or a digital download, and gift you the cannabis (evading the sales of weed on the books). As long as you uphold the verbiage “never selling weed only stickers”, legally that business can still operate. The cannabis gifting business has opened the doors to many opportunities for the average person to start selling weed legally.
Black Market: If you live in a state where cannabis is illegal recreationally and you sell weed this is 100% illegal. I absolutely don’t recommend it, even though it’s decriminalized you can lose all of your investment and wind up with a hefty fine as well.
Do I need to incorporate or
create an LLC to sell weed?
With a legal medical or recreational dispensary you absolutely should incorporate.
With a gifting business if you are only operating as a vendor then you don’t need to worry about incorporating or creating an LLC.
Many gifting businesses incorporate only once they create a brand or have a storefront, because with a store front and employees there is much more liability.
How do I learn more about
cannabis business law?
You definitely want to stay up-to-date with cannabis laws because that directly impacts how you do business. Gifting may be legal now but it may not be by 2024.
It’s best to always check the cannabis news in your area on legal updates and changes to the law. It’s also a great idea to have access to a lawyer as the gifting laws are constantly changing and you want someone to help you stay within the legal red tape.
Incorporating and having a legal time is more suited for a larger operation such as an online delivery service, a cannabis gifting storefront, or if you have employees like cannabis delivery drivers or budtenders.
Final Thoughts on
How to Sell Weed Online
Selling weed is not the same as back in the day. Flipping weed and trapping isn’t how it is anymore. You cannot just buy a pound and bag it up. Cannabis customers are now in retail and no longer doing shady deals.
So if you plan on learning how to sell weed you want to really make sure your product is at the retail quality level. Once you elevate your branding and product experience it’s much easier to increase the worth and need for your product. You can use Instagram to build quite a following. We hope this guide helps you learn how to start selling weed in 2023 and you have amazing success with your cannabis ventures.
