2022 Year in Review
Learn about features we built in 2022 to help our customers grow.
2022 was a busy one for Team LeafLink. We aspired to be even more user-centric, building features that ensure brands and retailers like you save time on operational tasks and gain more connectivity between your order management, fulfillment, and payments workstreams. The outcome? Improved productivity, simplified ecommerce workflows, and more time back to focus on what matters – like scaling your business! Keep reading for a full recap of what we were up to this year.
Marketplace
Incentivize buyers to place larger orders
Select sellers can now apply volume discount pricing to product lines (very common in B2B marketplaces), so buyers are rewarded for purchasing more of a product with an increased discount. Volume discounts incentivize buyers to purchase larger quantities to restock for less, which means you can sell more product and reduce your inventory levels more quickly.
Collaborate digitally on orders
Sellers and buyers can now collaborate and review orders directly in LeafLink. When a seller creates an order on the buyer’s behalf (SGO), the buyer can formally review the order before it is processed and confirm or change pertinent order details (product quantity, delivery information, or price) before it’s added to the seller’s fulfillment queue. Gone are the days of having to manually text or call off-platform when confirming orders.
Attract new customers with public promo codes
Sellers can now drive more revenue with public promo codes, which are displayed to buyers on both the Brand Menu and Shop Brands Page (make sure you check-mark the “Display on Brand Menu” box at the time of creation!) With public promo codes, you can encourage existing and prospective customers to try new products or services, help introduce new product lines, and sell excess or unwanted inventory to make room for newer products.
As a reminder, Promotions, alongside Volume Discounts & Custom Menus, now live on our brand-new Pricing tab!
Easily restock across multiple locations
As buyers expand their footprint and open up additional storefronts, they need the tools to better manage multiple stores in a simplified way. With LeafLink’s License Switcher, we’ve streamlined the steps needed for purchasing managers to view and purchase inventory for various store locations.
Buyers can take their repurchasing workflow across their various locations a step further by leveraging the Buy It Again Page, providing quick access to your purchase history and store favorites. This helps retailers decrease the amount of time it takes to place a reorder, be it for one or multiple locations, helping you meet product demand a lot more quickly.
Buy Now, Pay Later
Select buyers are now able to purchase net terms directly within the Marketplace experience, at the time of checkout. Buy what you want, when you want it, and increase your purchasing power with an approved purchasing line of credit! Whether you decide to increase order sizes to grow sales or invest in more equipment or labor, you can use the extra cash flow where you need it most.
Maintain one menu for multi-warehouse inventory
If you’re a large seller that has multiple locations from which you fulfill your orders, you can leverage Facility Inventory to indicate the products and corresponding quantities assigned to each location, while still maintaining one retail menu for your buyers. This removes the need to manually determine which warehouse should fulfill an order by toggling between LeafLink and your inventory management system as orders come in. Maintaining one menu also ensures that your customers can readily search for products that are available across all locations, versus the single location the product is stored in.
Payments
Onboard to LeafLink Payments in under 5 minutes
We kicked off the new year by integrating our Payments experience with Marketplace, which means you can use LeafLink to manage orders and carry out transactions quickly and conveniently from a single place. But we didn’t stop there! We also wanted to give our customers a simple, quick, self-serve workflow to help them onboard to LeafLink Payments faster, without needing to schedule a call or wait for direct assistance. We introduced Digital Onboarding, so users can upload the necessary documents and information, including their license number, financial information, and EIN, and get approved for LeafLink Payments in real-time! Just toggle over to “Payments” in LeafLink.
Once you’re onboarded, you can seamlessly connect your bank account without having to leave the platform, thanks to our integration with Plaid. Plaid is a highly secure online banking solution provider that connects to thousands of online banking websites and financial institutions worldwide, and if you’ve used apps like Venmo, Acorns, Chime, or Expensify, it’s likely you’re already using Plaid without even knowing it!
Take advantage of bank-to-bank ACH transfers in 16 markets, for FREE
LeafLink introduced Direct Payments, a low-cost, digital B2B payment solution, to 15 additional markets in 2022. Buyers can quickly and easily make payments following delivery confirmation, and the money will go straight into the seller’s account with next day settlement! By digitizing the highly manual cash collection process, cannabis operators can lower transaction costs and speed up time-to-cash. Direct Payments is free of charge for all customers until June 30th, 2023.
Carry over your preferred payment method from Payments to Marketplace
This year we introduced Default Payment Programs, so users who are opted into LeafLink Payments automatically have LeafLink Payments applied to their marketplace invoices. This prevents double data-entry, and provides more uniformity across invoices. Sellers also have the option to set a default for non-Payments customers, and can add as many payment options as necessary, to cover the scope of all their customer relationships.
Where both buyer and seller have opted into LeafLink Payments:
Where seller isn’t opted into LeafLink Payments:
Create disputes directly within LeafLink
We’ve brought dispute management directly into the LeafLink Payments user experience. Users can enter the dispute and its supporting documentation directly in LeafLink, and check the status of a dispute in our newly created Disputes tab from the left side nav menu! As disputes are responded to or resolved, we will notify users via email. This enhancement will result in faster time to dispute resolution, a centralized dispute and relevant documentation storage, and seamless in-app communication between sellers and buyers.
Get paid faster with funding on delivery
LeafLink has recently introduced funding on delivery, an early disbursement incentive in which LeafLink pays participating sellers on LeafLink Payments sooner for eligible Flexible Payment invoices, bypassing the requirement for buyers to confirm certain order deliveries. Historically, sellers would have to wait for their buyers to confirm delivery of each Flexible Payment order prior to receiving payment from LeafLink, which often delayed the payout date by adding additional and sequential steps to the process. Now, sellers can provide the estimated ship and delivery dates and speed up their time-to-cash! Buyers also receive 2 additional days on their net payment terms.
Logistics
We now store, pack, and deliver wholesale cannabis in CA and MI
LeafLink started offering fulfillment services this year to licensed cannabis businesses in California and Michigan. If you struggle to ship orders to customers quickly, are tired of using different systems to manage orders, or need access to more inventory storage space, we can help. LeafLink’s growing partner network empowers brands and retail stores to store inventory in a nearby warehouse, and control order fulfillment with LeafLink technology. Our precise order fulfillment and fast delivery services are creating scalable cost efficiencies for businesses. Can we help yours?
Opt into fast, secure shipping services in CO, PA, & IL
We also expanded our shipping services to Colorado, Pennsylvania, and Illinois! Spare yourself the flurry of phone calls, emails, and spreadsheets, and easily schedule and track shipments online with LeafLink. We’ll make sure shipments arrive on time and in pristine condition. Our flat rate per shipment keeps monthly costs low and predictable.
In Pennsylvania and Illinois, sellers can schedule deliveries online regardless of where the order was placed. Whether you’re purchasing on our Marketplace, or somewhere else, we can ship the products anywhere in the state.
See the states where we offer wholesale shipping services:
Avoid stock outs and negotiate better volume discounts in Michigan
It’s vital for retailers to have popular products on the shelves when a consumer is ready to buy, and make great margins on those products. That’s why we extended our Fulfillment for Retail service to the state of Michigan. Retailers can store products from multiple brands in one warehouse, negotiate lower COGs, and replenish inventory at a store directly within LeafLink when stock levels run low. Standardize the intake of inventory across various vendors on set days and times of the week.
See how March & Ash saved its team hundreds of labor hours per week with LeafLink’s Retail Fulfillment service.
Set up Metrc at the time of onboarding
We’ve made it easier to integrate with Metrc, the seed-to-sale tracking system used in most US markets, by making the process more intuitive. Easily enter the API key, select the license, and turn on data syncing with our inventory or manifest generator features. Then you can choose staff members who are permitted to use them. Lab test states and locations can be excluded, making it easier to focus on the products that can generate revenue for the business now.
See when your warehouse products are going to expire
Retail fulfillment customers can now see product expiration dates directly in LeafLink. We’ve also built a freshness countdown that displays how much time remains until a product expires. Cannabis products are perishable, and a product that has expired is not attractive to consumers. With this feature, buyers can now strategically identify the older products that should be sent to a store first, and which products have more time to sell. This ensures that inventory investments have ample opportunity to yield a profit, with increased visibility into the warehoused inventory.
And that wraps up our major product highlights from 2022! We are proud of our industry-leading platform and the efficiencies it provides to our customers, and we look forward to continuing that mission in 2023 and beyond. Happy holidays everyone.