GREEN THUMB INDUSTRIES CASE STUDY

CHALLENGE

To transform the e-commerce cannabis experience

OUTCOME

Launched a new site including filtering for desired feelings and activities

ROLE

Advise and oversee 1 Delivery Director, 1 Product Strategist, 1 designer, and 1 engineer

The Challenge

Green Thumb home screen

Greenthumb Industries (GTI) is an industry leader in conscious cannabis culture and retail. They operate RISE dispensaries in multiple states, and after the cannabis industry was categorized as ‘essential’ during the pandemic, their revenue grew by 46%, primarily through online sales. Nevertheless, GTI wanted to improve their e-commerce experience and better serve cannabis customers in this unique industry.  To this end, they invested in Philosophie’s experiment-driven design process, seeking to better understand their customers and identify innovation opportunities in the marketplace. 

What we made

Across this 16-week engagement, the Philosophie team partnered with the GTI marketing, business and tech stakeholders team to redesign the entire RISE e-commerce site. Our efforts included: six full cycles of user research that validated persona models and identified key opportunities to differentiate the RISE e-comm experience; fresh new art direction in keeping with their deeply-American brand identity; integration of cannabis educational resources into the overall user experience, and more.

Technologies

Figma for interaction designs and a React tech stack including Typescript, Redux and Material UI to develop the front-end of their new website. 

Green Thumb persona

Research Approach

In talking with 27 RISE customers, we fully validated the Primary Persona, Jill, a relative newbie to cannabis and recreational user who’s a digital native, and Secondary Persona, Freddy, an experienced medical & recreation cannabis consumer who doesn’t love shopping online. In addition to cannabis customers, we also spoke to eight Budtenders to get deeper insights into the purchasing behaviors and needs of cannabis customers.

Key Research Insights

The overarching theme for design improvements was “personalization”, as the use of cannabis is multi-faceted and individualistic. We incorporated calls-to-action for users to join the RISE community, and followed through with powerful, customizable filter controls as well as the crucial additions of Favorites and Order History into the shopping experience. 

The Results

Green Thumb filters

  • Customer Journey and site map

  • New Art Direction applied to entire site

  • Unification of disparate education resources and blog posts into a powerful and flexible design that supports users throughout their personal cannabis journey

  • New, sophisticated Product Detail views plus an easier Add to Cart experience and an updated checkout flow

  • New RISE sign-up process and integrated framework for the cannabis industry loyalty program

  • Rich personalization options in the customer’s profile, including:

    • Loyalty Points

    • Order History

    • Favorites

“I’ve  now witnessed a fresh, deeply user-centered approach to business that every business should practice.”

- Jennifer Dooley, Green Thumb Industries Chief Strategy Officer