Cannabis track-and-trace software provider Metrc is rolling out a new feature for brands and retailers to streamline product labeling and inventory management.
Metrc’s new product, Retail ID, combines QR codes that contain product information with inventory barcodes in a single label that can be affixed to a stock-keeping unit (SKU) after clearing testing requirements.
According to Metrc, the free and voluntary add-on holds several benefits for operators, including:
- Eliminating additional product scans during distribution and on the retail floor.
- Integration of Metrc data and third-party point-of-sale systems, which likely will save significant time and resources.
- Automated and unique QR labels from Metrc after product testing.
For adult-use consumers and medical marijuana patients, Retail ID also offers proof of authenticity and product transparency by providing access to certificates of analysis (COA) as well as cannabinoid and terpene content.
“We think the standardization of cannabis product labeling requirements is what’s going to benefit consumers at the end of the day,” David Eagleson, Metrc’s director of product, told MJBizDaily during a product demo.
“In addition to benefiting consumers, we see a lot of efficiency opportunities.”
California calling
A pilot program for Retail ID recently launched in California, the 16th and largest market where Metrc has debuted the program since June.
“California’s cannabis consumers will benefit from instant access to product information and testing results, which will build greater confidence in products and empower consumers to make more informed choices,” David Hafner, a Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) spokesperson, told MJBizDaily via email.
“As this technology emerges in California, DCC looks forward to seeing it adopted by licensees and embraced by consumers.”
The DCC extended its contract with Florida-based Metrc in July.
The four-year deal, which carries an option for the state to extend an additional two years, will not exceed $28.4 million annually, or $113.6 million for four years.
Metrc has been gathering feedback on integration, use cases and other factors from more than 300 licensed businesses as it plans to expand the service to more states, officials told MJBizDaily.
Retail ID is available in Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota and West Virginia.
Montana also requires QR tags on marijuana products, a rarity across the country.
Responding to recalls
Metrc’s new feature, two years in the making, should help retailers respond faster to product recalls, an industrywide challenge as the number of recalls climbs in markets such as California, where operators and regulators have been trying to rein in a pesticide scandal for months.
“Retail ID can help facilitate more awareness on the products that are being recalled at any point in time,” Metrc’s Eagleson told MJBizDaily.
A recent MJBizDaily analysis found the time between a product hitting shelves and being recalled often lasts months – and sometimes more than a year.
An October administrative hold on nearly all K.U.S.H. Collective products in California fueled an inventory-management nightmare for retailers as they sorted through dozens of Metrc alerts and cross-referenced them against in-house SKUs on shelves or in stock.
Retailers such as Perfect Union told MJBizDaily the sheer volume of alerts and trying to track down individual products under embargo was nearly overwhelming.
Early returns or early case studies
Sonoma Hills Farm, a cultivator and brand in Northern California’s wine country, is a pilot partner that helped Metrc identify pain points in the track-and-trace system, a requirement in nearly every regulated marijuana market in the country.
The ability to load a QR template with product information immediately after receiving a COA – and standardizing that across SKUs – is saving the Petaluma-based company time and money.
“It’s shaved maybe a week off go-to-market for every product that we’re putting out,” said Joyce Cenali, chief operating officer of Sonoma Hills Farm and its parent, Big Rock Partners.
“And we put out about 50 individual SKUs a year.”
Automating specific Metrc details across SKUs also has helped eliminate data-entry errors, Cenali added.
The ability to scan a case of products rather than individual packages has been a big time-saver for Glass House Brands, another pilot customer.
“Since we have 10 stores in a tough market, we are all for reducing time/labor/costs,” Graham Farrar, president of the vertically integrated California marijuana company, told MJBizDaily via email.
The initiative, if adopted at scale, likely will help the cannabis industry align more closely with traditional retail for consumer packaged goods.
“We need to have a standard, much like the grocery stores have,” Cenali said.
Consumer alert
For consumers, product transparency should improve significantly with updated QR tags, according to Metrc officials and California regulators.
Months of field research unveiled wide gaps in details about product origin and lab-testing results – pertinent information included in COAs issued by cannabis testing laboratories.
Chris Cox, Metrc’s vice president of customer success, said many QR codes nationwide simply bring up a Metrc unique identifier, or UID, for that package and little else.
“They don’t provide any additional information about the product, the test results or any of that stuff,” he said.
Though the validity and reliability of COAs have come under fire this year, with numerous examples of recalls issued for pesticides and other contaminants months after cannabis products cleared testing, consumers in certain markets will have the ability to track a product through the supply chain.
“In some cases, that was a very challenging process – or almost impossible for a consumer – when it came to their final product,” Cox said.
Chris Casacchia can be reached at chris.casacchia@mjbizdaily.com.
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