How To Open A Head Shop

If yous're thinking most starting an online headshop, there has never been a better fourth dimension to requite it a endeavor. With nationwide legalization on the horizon (hopefully) and an increasing number of companies willing to piece of work with cannabis-adjacent brands, dropshipping cannabis accessories online is one of many ways to build a successful e-commerce business without investing thousands of dollars upfront.

(This postal service contains chapter links, so I might brand a committee if you click a link and purchase something. A daughter'southward gotta eat.)

How to Start an Online Head Shop

The first conclusion y'all'll need to make is where you're going to sell your products. If you're selling products you're creating yourself such equally glassblown pipes, Etsy is a great identify to beginning just the products do have to be handmade. If you plan on stocking your shop with wholesale or dropshipped products that you source from other companies, you'll want to go with Shopify instead. Both platforms are intuitive and simple to set for beginners.

Open a Shopify store and get a 14-mean solar day free trial.

Open an Etsy shop and get 40 free listings.

This mail service has a full tutorial on how to open up a Shopify store as an absolute beginner , so don't let a lack of knowledge about the platform keep you from opening your store.

Discover a Loftier-Risk Payment Gateway to Connect to Your Store

The one trouble about selling cannabis-adjacent products online, even if you lot're not selling actual weed or tobacco, is that payment processors still consider it a "high adventure" manufacture. Paypal and Shopify Payments volition non work with your shop, and so you lot'll have to discover one willing to work with yous and follow their instructions to sync it with your Shopify shop. Here are some of the well-nigh common high-risk payment processors:

Greenish Birdy

Green Birdy specializes in high-risk payment processing specifically for cannabis and CBD companies. They also offer website plans and social media services if yous'd like to outsource those parts of your business.

EMB

EMB specializes in working with high-gamble merchants on the Shopify platform. Bank check out the Eastward-Merchant Banker website for more information and to submit an application for your store.

Authorize.Cyberspace

Authorize.Net is some other high-risk payment processor to consider for your headshop. View their terms, pricing, and account options on their website .

Tower Payments

Tower Payments specializes in high-risk payment processing for all sorts of industries, including developed content and cannabis companies. Read more about their company and start filling out your application on their website .

Determine What Kinds of Products You Want to Sell in Your Fume Shop

Adjacent you lot'll want to determine what kinds of products you desire to stock in your shop. In that location are many directions you lot can go with this, whether you want a wide multifariousness or a small, highly curated collection. When choosing your products, information technology's of import to consider your ideal customer and what they might be looking for. If you want to cater to millennial women, your selection might look different than if you want to bro your shop out Cheech and Chong style. Accept your aesthetic and brand vision into consideration when choosing products and brands to work with. Here are some of the many products to consider for your shop:

Glass pipes, bongs, ashtrays, etc.

Silicone pipes and bongs

Vaporizers

Smoking papers and blunt wraps

Smellproof containers

Grinders

Lighters

Cleaning supplies

CBD products

Growing supplies

T-shirts and merch

Find Suppliers for Your Headshop

In one case you have an idea of what kinds of products you want to sell, it's time to find some suppliers and browse their websites for quality products. Here are some places to outset:

Smoke Driblet

Smoke Drop is a dropshipper of fume shop goods that syncs right with your Shopify store, and so it's by far the easiest to set up and manage if you apply Shopify. They have a wide selection of brand proper noun glassware, pipes, vaporizers, CBD products, and other accessories. If you lot already have a Shopify shop, you can install Smoke Drib through the app section and add their products directly to your store.

Fume Drop normally costs $99.99 a month to utilise, simply if you enter in the lawmaking JANEDOPE you'll become a 50% discount plus an extra 14-day gratuitous trial. Click here to bring together Smoke Drop and don't forget to use the code JANEDOPE at checkout.

Windship Trading Co.

Windship Trading is a wholesale distributor of proper noun brand smoking accessories. They offer dropshipping, wholesale, and individual label options and so you tin stock your store with Grav glass likewise every bit your own CBD product line. Check out their website for more information on the products they offer, their buyer'south guide, and to submit an account asking.

Green Goddess Supply

Green Goddess Supply is virtually well known for their armoire that contains an entire camouflaged grow setup . If you want to feature a growing department on your site, this would be a great product to feature as a high-end, stylish selection. They take both a wholesale and a dropshipping option for sellers, plus an app in the Shopify store that allows you to automatically sync their products. Aside from the armoire, they also take some nice quality forest boxes and trays that you could add to your choice.

Smoke Cartel

Smoke Cartel is one of the most popular online caput shops in the game, and they at present offer a wholesale programme so you tin can purchase and resell the products in their catalog . Apply for a wholesale account here and brand sure to too bank check out my interview with Fume Cartel CEO Darby Cox in this post.

Highlife

Highlife offers dropshipping, wholesale, and private characterization services for cannabis companies. Their selection includes brands like My Bud Vase, Diamond Glass, and Ronin Glass, and everything is shipped out of their warehouse in New Jersey. They fifty-fifty offer same-day fulfillment options, which can be hard to observe in the world of dropshipping. Find out more virtually what they do and sign upwards for an account on the Highlife website .

Expand Your Inventory With Print-On-Need Merch

Ane simple mode to grow your inventory is by adding printed merch to your store such every bit t-shirts and other clothes, mugs, and posters. This tin exist done past creating your own cannabis-themed graphic designs and press them through a company like Printful , which does on-demand printing and shipping of more than 300 products. Use this process to make 420 party shirts and seasonal cannabis-themed merch that your customers would desire to add to their order. You can even use this method to sell branded merch with your head shop's logo on information technology.

Read more about how to start a print-on-demand shop in this post .

Tips for Marketing Your Online Headshop

Marketing is one of the biggest struggles for many online smoke shops. Notwithstanding, I am of the opinion that it's because a lot of people who come into this space would rather dump a bunch of money on ads than put whatever effort into an actual sustainable marketing strategy. When y'all're selling cannabis-related products, you tin't pay for advertisement on almost social media platforms or search engines, which means you can't just ready an ad upkeep and phone call that your marketing strategy. Hither are some of the things you should do to marketplace your headshop and help your products stand up out without paid ads:

Keywords and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are Absolutely Essential

If you desire to stand up out from every other caput shop on the spider web, you have to know how to use keywords and SEO to attract the right customers. This is why it's of import o have an agreement of who your customer is and what keywords they'd blazon into Google to find the product you're trying to sell them. This is how you lot bring customers to you instead of spending all your fourth dimension searching for them. SEO is also crucial in expanding your reach on social media. The more keywords you have on each page of your website, the more likely it is that information technology volition show upwardly in search results all across the spider web.

This mail has some basic information on SEO writing for e-commerce businesses. The principal things you need to do for SEO:

Write detailed production titles using relevant keywords. If you're selling an Empire Glassworks daffodil-shaped glass pipe, brand sure all of those keywords are in your production title.
Write unique product descriptions instead of copying and pasting the manufacturer description. Y'all can use the manufacturer product description as a baseline to make certain all the relevant details are included, merely information technology volition make a huge difference to Google if you add a unique descriptive judgement or 2 at the kickoff that briefly describes your production using relevant keywords.
Customize your Shopify meta descriptions at the bottom of the page. Make certain your meta clarification of each product in your Shopify store is well-optimized and includes the most important keywords that depict your product.
Utilise Google Trends for keyword ideas based on actual search data.

Write Blog Posts on Your Store'due south Website

Shopify has an option to add a blog to your site. This is some other bully way to add more keywords to your website and create content to share on social media. Apply Google Trends to come up with content ideas based on common search terms or questions. You could as well use it to write product reviews and make listicles like "the coolest pipes you have to endeavor in 2022".

Order Samples for Social Media Posts, Reviews, Giveaways, or Unique Product Images

Dropshipping is great considering you can sell products without having to impact or shop them, merely it helps to order samples from each of your suppliers for several reasons. This volition requite you an idea of the production quality and how long it will take to ship to your customer, which is helpful information to know.

Product samples tin also exist used to have your own unique production photos that stand up out from your competition, for social media content, or for giveaways. Creating more than personal content that shows a real person behind your make helps add together trust and credibility to your brand.

Pin Your Products to Pinterest

Pinterest is a powerful still frequently underrated tool for e-commerce, and there is a large cannabis community on there looking for products like yours. Create a Pinterest business account for your Shopify shop and connect the accounts to create shoppable pins. And then, create some Pinterest boards in different categories or themes such equally:

Drinking glass Pipes

Silicone Pipes and Bongs

All-time Smoking Accessories

Cannabis Memes

Moms Who Fume Weed

420 Political party

Etc.

Pin a combination of your own products to your boards also as other related content on Pinterest. Your goal is to fill your boards with interesting products and content that will encourage others to engage, follow, click through to your products, and spread them around Pinterest. Cheque out Jane Dope'due south Pinterest page for reference.

This post has more than information about setting up a Pinterest concern business relationship and optimizing information technology for your store .

Check out some of our other posts about making money in the cannabis industry:

The Best Cannabis Affiliate Programs to Join and Promote

How to Offset a CBD Oil Business

3 Things I Wish I Knew Earlier Launching My Failed Online Head Shop

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