Question
Hello. I saw the MJ Freeway WooCommerce Integration post in your forum and I'm wondering if you got the opportunity to work on integration between WooCommerce and MJ Freeway. If so, how did it go? We're bidding on a potential opportunity to do the same and might be looking for a partner to help.
To be clear, we're only in the proposal phase right now - our potential client hasn't officially adopted MJ Freeway yet but it's apparently in the lead among the systems they're considering. And they don't yet have a website - that's what we're bidding on.
This type of integration is definitely something we'd be looking for a partner like you to help with - and I'm also in Chicago, so that makes it super convenient.
Here's what I know about the potential project thus far:
- Client intends to use MJ Freeway for inventory management (they think)
- They're a national company that intends to open dispensaries in multiple states
- Only a few states (maybe only 1) allow online-ordering of marijuana products but the dispensaries can't accept payment. So in those states, the ecommerce solution would act as a reservation system for in-store pickup. There's no online transaction.
- In the states that don't allow online ordering, the ecommerce solution would act as an up-to-date "product availability menu". Visitors wouldn't be able to order anything, but they could see an accurate representation of the available inventory at each dispensary. And then if the state's guidelines change to allow online ordering, we simply have to enable that function for the dispensary stores in that state.
- We're proposing a multi-site WP/WooCommerce network installation where each dispensary has its own storefront pulling data from the individual location's inventory management.
Because of the strict inventory and chain-of-custody tracking that most states require of medical marijuana sales, I'm assuming location-based inventory would already be built into their workflow. They might be able to get away with pooling inventory between a handful of dispensaries in the same city, but there's no way they'll be able to share inventory between dispensaries in different states. That's where I think the strategy of using a network installation of individual WooCommerce storefronts for each dispensary location will work well.
If you need any more info or just want to chat about an estimate, please feel free to let me know. Thanks! Sean
Answer
Thank you for your interest in Modern Retail. Yeah, we made “some” progress last year working with Ike over at MJ Freeway. However, things stalled because the client pushing us lost interest in developing a website. However, we’d love with you and the MJ Freeway team to get this integration going again.
From what I remember the MJ Freeway system is pretty extensive but I’m unclear if all the calls for the API have been created. Specifically, we’re going to need to dig into what we call “Location-Based Inventory” which of course is essential for In-Store Pickup. Right now we’ve only mastered in-store pickup on the Magento platform but your solutions of using a WooCommerce website for each store sounds interesting and seems like it could work. You might find the following article interesting about Location-Based Inventory and In-Store Pickup:
May I make a suggestion? Could you please ask your client to e-mail their representative at MJ Freeway and let them know they’re interested in getting MJ Freeway integrated with their website? If you copy me on the message, I’ll immediately reply asking to set up a meeting with MJ Freeway. Getting our developers to talk with their developers, even for 30 minutes, makes a huge difference and can really help to “jump start” the integration efforts.
You’ll find we’re experts at POS and ERP integrations, it’s something we been doing for over a decade and have amassed a great deal of knowledge and technology doing 1,300+ integrations. Here are just some of the articles that I can share with you that make us different.
- Building a Better Mousetrap
- Avoid Overselling (Allocation) - Absolutely a brilliant feature!
- Difference Engine
- 100% Inventory Accuracy
- Connecting Disparate Systems
- Integrating Existing Products
You’ll love our WooCommerce Integrator Dashboard, which gives you an overview of the status of your integration.
I suspect you’re also interested in how the integration works from the WooCommerce side, so please read:
Please let me know if you need anything else or would like to jump on a call before getting with MJ Freeway. Thank you.