Ontario Selects Shopify to Run Mobile and Online Cannabis Sales

Flickr / Shopify / CC BY 2.0

With Canadian cannabis legalization slated to commence this summer, Ontario has been proactive in its preparations, being the first province to issue its market regulations and now announcing a partnership with a popular ecommerce platform based in Ottawa to run mobile and online cannabis sales in the province.

On Feb. 12, 2018, the Canadian Press revealed that Ontario is partnering with Shopify to run provincial mobile and online cannabis sales once the recreational cannabis market opens in July.

“We look forward to combining our expertise as a socially responsible retailer with Shopify’s world-class commerce solutions to deliver the safe, informed and reliable shopping experience that our new customers will expect,” said George Soleas, president and CEO of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, as reported by the Canadian Press.

The Ontario Cannabis Retail Corporation, a subsidiary of the LCBO, is responsible for opening the province’s one online cannabis store by July 2018 and then it plans to open 150 stand-alone cannabis retail stores by 2020, with the first 80 stores to be open by July 1, 2019.

While the Shopify platform will handle the online cannabis sales, it will also be installed on iPads in the stand-alone stores to process transactions.

“Bringing this differentiator to the LCBO on this historic project to consumers of legal age across Ontario, is a great example of a made-in-Canada innovation, which we are proud to be a part of,” said Loren Padelford, Vice President of Shopify Plus, the division that focuses on high volume merchants.

Caroline Cahill was the Managing Editor of MJINews from June 2014 through February 2018. She earned her BA in Communications from College of Charleston and her MFA in Creative Writing from Virginia Commonwealth University. You can follow her on Twitter @CtheresaC.

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