Point of Sale Software in the Cannabis Industry – Mid-Year 2019 Report

Guest post by Ed Keating, Co-Founder and Chief Data Officer at Cannabiz Media

In Cannabiz Media’s 2018 cannabis industry point of sale vendor report, five vendors accounted for 80% of the market. Fast forward to mid-year 2019, and things look a lot different.

Cannabiz Media’s new white paper, Point of Sale Software in the Cannabis Industry: Mid-Year 2019 Report, is now available for free download here.

For the mid-year 2019 report, the Cannabiz Media team used a convenience sampling method to gather data from 2,178 of the 5,148 active cannabis dispensaries and retailers nationwide. New for the mid-year 2019 report is how the team counted software vendors. If a store had both a dispensary and retail license, the point of sale vendor was only counted once. This impacts values in states like Colorado and California where multiple licenses have been granted.

The Cannabiz Media team will continue its point of sale vendor research and include all of the current data in the enhanced data feature within the Cannabiz Media License Database.

Key Findings for Mid-Year 2019

The number of point of sale software vendors in the cannabis industry increased by 58% between the end of 2018 and the middle of 2019. There are now 68 unique point of sale vendors being used by the license holders that provided information for this report.

Shake up of the Top 5 Vendors

At the end of 2018, five vendors accounted for 80% of the cannabis market, but they’ve lost market share in the past six months. In addition, Adilas dropped to sixth place and Indica Online jumped to fifth:

BioTrack: 24% (down from 28% in 2018) Green Bits: 21% (down from 26% in 2018) Flowhub: 10% (down from 12% in 2018) MJ Freeway: 8% (no change from 8% in 2018) Indica Online: 4.82% (up from 1.1% in 2018) Adilas: 3.81% (down from 5.4% in 2018)

Today, the top five point of sale software vendors only account for 68% of the market. Similarly, in 2018, the top 10 vendors accounted for 93% of the market, but in mid-2019, they only make up 84% of the market.

Changes in Medical-Only and Adult-Use States

In Cannabiz Media’s 2018 report, BioTrack dominated in medical-only states with a 53% market share (nearly twice the market share of the closest competitor). Green Bits and BioTrack dominated the market in states with both medical and adult-use cannabis. However, things look different six months later.

Cannabiz Media’s research revealed that there have been significant market share changes during the first half of 2019. BioTrack’s market share dropped from 53% to 29% in medical-only states, and both Green Bits’ and BioTrack’s market shares dropped in adult-use states (29.8% to 28.0% for Green Bits and 23.7% to 20.8% for BioTrack.

All Eyes on Oklahoma

Oklahoma has issued more licenses per capita than any other state. Cannabiz Media found 28 point of sale providers in the state, but five of them account for 65% of the market. Indica Online leads with a 20% market share followed by BioTrack with a 13% market share.

Significant Changes in California

There has been a drastic decline in the number of active cannabis licenses in California since the Bureau of Cannabis Control stopped issuing temporary permits at the end of 2018 and required businesses to apply for provisional or annual licenses. Despite the expiration extinction event, California is still filled with “one state wonder” point of sale software vendors.

The number of vendors operating in California increased by 55% from 18 in 2018 to 28 in mid-2019. Eleven of these vendors are currently only serving the California market. The top five vendors in the state make up 58% of the market, led by Treez with a 15% market share and Indica Online with a 12% market share.

Learn More in the Full White Paper

Download the full white paper to get all of the insights and data from the Point of Sale Software in the Cannabis Industry: 2019 Mid-Year Report, including:

The complete list of 68 point of sale vendors in use in the cannabis industry (including “name brand” companies like NCR, NetSuite, Salesforce, and more)

Overall market share details

Specific Oklahoma market share information

Specific California market share information

Medical-Only and Adult-Use state market share details

METRC states data

2019 vs. 2018 comparisons

Data charts and tables

About the author:

Ed Keating is a co-founder of Cannabiz Media and oversees our data research and government relations efforts. He has spent his whole career working with and advising information companies in the compliance space. Ed has overseen complex multijurisdictional product lines in the securities, corporate, UCC, safety, environmental and human resource markets and focuses on workflow products. Ed has spent the last twenty five years in the information industry. During that time he has worked for both startup and established information companies where he has led marketing, product management and sales organizations. These companies include Wolters Kluwer/Commerce Clearing House, CT Corporation, EDGAR Online and Business & Legal Reports.

At Cannabiz Media Ed enjoys the challenge of working with regulators across the country as he and his team gather corporate, financial, and license information to track the people, products and businesses in the cannabis economy. Ed graduated from Hamilton College and received his MBA from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University. He has been active with the Software & Information Industry Association for his whole career and managed the Content Division for six years. He’s was recently a Trustee at the Country School in Madison CT and a Little League Coach for seven years.

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