The smart money is on Smart Menus to unlock new growth at your dispensary

"Sorry, we're out of crème brûlée."

Is there a more deflating way to end the evening than to hear those fateful words from the waiter at the end of a good meal? What’s the use of a menu if it’s out of sync with reality? It doesn’t matter if you’re running a restaurant, a furniture shop or a cannabis dispensary, you can’t raise your customers’ expectations and crush them in the next breath just because the product they wanted from the menu turns out to be out-of-stock.

You need a Smart Menu, Fyllo’s new digital menu solution. 

What is unique about Smart Menus?

Automated updates - The defining characteristic of a Smart Menu is that it’s fully integrated with your store’s POS system to show real-time pricing and inventory. Digital has an edge over paper here, of course, but it’s a big mistake to think that just because a menu is digital, it’s automatically up-to-date. Many of the digital menus found in stores today are static PDFs or templates that require time-consuming manual updates and still don’t come close to the level of accuracy that customers expect.

Easy and flexible menu creation - You shouldn’t need a Javascript certification or a degree in software engineering to create a digital menu for your dispensary. An intuitive, self-service interface should allow you to easily define important specs (display fields like price, weight, quantity, or THC content, but also layout, colors and background) and have everything up and running across all screens in your store without delay.

Why do you need a Smart Menu?

Smart Menus are a no-brainer on both sides of the accounting ledger:

Time- and cost-savings - The time that your staff used to spend editing menus can now be spent interacting with customers, stocking shelves or tending to other important tasks around the store. And if you’re still in the business of printing out paper menus, switching to digital menus is a great way to cut down on your printing and paper costs and help you meet your sustainability objectives.

Media revenues - On the revenue side, a dispensary may use on-screen space alongside the menu to promote house brands or limited-time offers, or to show ads for its partners if it’s connected to a retail media network like Fyllo Connect. The menu is highly valuable real estate, and a flexible media unit on that page is a great way for a dispensary to monetize its progressive audience segments and help its brand partners optimize their targeting efforts to in-store shoppers who are ready to make a purchase.

Enhanced customer experience - At their core, Smart Menus are there to help customers navigate the products available at the store, especially when those products are new or when shoppers are relatively inexperienced, and that too is a boost to the bottom line. Shopping for cannabis products can be intimidating, and a well-organized menu can make a big difference for product discovery. During the holiday season, for instance, topicals and beverages were in high demand, and astute dispensaries were able to feature them at the top of the list on their digital menus—or conversely near the bottom if they wanted to promote more perishable flowers first.

Smart Menus are an integral part of the modern retail ecosystem

As good as Smart Menus are, they’re but one part of the ecosystem that modern dispensaries need to meet customer demand today and remain competitive. They also need self-service ordering, personalized product recommendations, loyalty program integrations and other interactive features that can help streamline or kick-start the sales process.

We recently launched the Fyllo Retail Suite, an in-store hardware and software solution that includes all of the above, and Smart Menus sits at the core of our product offering. Interested in learning more? Please get in touch with us and we’ll be happy to demo our solutions and help you find what’s best for your business.