Tech Company Aims to Revolutionize Cannabis Supply Chain

The legal cannabis industry is a work in progress. In many ways, the industry shapes itself as it grows and as more and more places continue to legalize weed.

A key part of this evolutionary process is figuring out what aspects of the burgeoning industry work and what parts don’t, and then searching out solutions to improve the system.

Cannabis logistics company WAYV is the latest example of this evolution. The company just announced the rollout of its “Dynamic Distribution” technology. Designed to streamline the entire supply chain, Dynamic Distribution aims to improve the legal cannabis industry for everyone involved, from cultivators and distributors, to retailers and consumers.

WAYV Launches Dynamic Distribution Technology

On the surface, buying weed at a legal dispensary seems like a very smooth and simple process. You walk into the shop and see a huge range of products and brands. You browse around, select what you want, make your purchase, and you’re out the door.

But what isn’t visible are the numerous processes, companies, and players that operate behind the scenes to move a product from the original grow site to dispensary shelves. This reality is much more complicated and messy.

Before a product makes its way to the final consumer, it passes hands multiple times, moving between growers, manufacturers, distributors, and more. Coordinating all these players and the movement of products between them can quickly become a daunting challenge. And each point along the journey is another potential for inefficiencies, mistakes, or delays to creep in.

That’s exactly what WAYV aims to fix. The company’s Dynamic Distribution technology integrates all points of the supply chain into a single, easy-to-use interface.

Retailers log on to the platform’s marketplace, where they can learn about new brands and products, place orders, make payments, and track shipments in real-time. Distributors and brands likewise have access to a massive network of retailers, and have a single tool for managing shipments, inventory, payment processing, and more.

With Dynamic Distribution, what has always been a fragmented process involving multiple companies and steps is now a single digital platform.

Using Digital Technology to Solve Cannabis Challenges

There are a couple of key technological innovations that undergird all of this.

One of them is a streamlined payment processing technology. Given the legal tensions surrounding weed, financial transactions have always been a problem. Typically, the industry relies almost exclusively on cash. Now, with the Dynamic Distribution platform, companies make payments just once and then the software quickly and securely disburses payments to all upstream players.

The other key technology has to do with optimizing inventory and shipping. Specifically, WAYV has created an algorithm that predicts what products need to be in which locations—before they’re ever actually ordered.

This feature allows for faster-than-ever shipping. In fact, WAYV says that Dynamic Distribution is capable of delivering orders on a next-day turnaround.

“Dynamic Distribution optimizes all aspects of existing distribution infrastructure to provide the best overall experience for brands and distributors and next-day delivery for retailers and customers,” WAYV CEO Keith McCarty said. “Brands and distributors have never had this level of choice, speed, and quality throughout the supply chain.”

Innovating the Cannabis Industry…Again

According to McCarty, WAYV’s Dynamic Distribution is largely the result of his prior experience in the consumer-facing side of the industry.

Prior to his work with WAYV, McCarty was co-founder of Eaze, an online platform that connects consumers with dispensaries and delivery services. Working on this project gave McCarty insight into some of the industry’s biggest challenges.

“We learned that there’s a lot of friction in the supply chain,” McCarty told High Times. “When companies become successful they face constraints on supply. There are problems getting product from the brand to the distributor to shops to finally getting products on shelves. It seemed like there were big problems we could solve via technology.”

As a result, McCarty launched WAYV in August 2018. In the company’s first year of operations, it quickly caught on amongst some of California’s biggest cannabis companies. So far, companies like High Style Brewing Company and Goldrop have already started using WAYV’s tools. In fact, many have already started utilizing the Dynamic Distribution platform.

“Part of a Movement”

For now, Dynamic Distribution will serve only the California market. But McCarty said that all aspects of the software have been designed for scalability. Next up, he says, is Canada, the rest of the United States, and the world.

“This isn’t just about building a technology that gets adopted, it’s about being part of a movement that connects to a lot of other social issues,” McCarty told High Times. “We are extremely passionate about solving the industry’s biggest problems because we believe this is a good thing for the world. We believe that technology plays a big role in this, and we take that responsibility seriously.”

He added: “There’s a lot of passion behind what we’re building. We want the industry to know that we’re here to support them in whatever way we can.”