cultivating Digital Growth: Green Thumb Industries' E-Commerce Evolution

Green Thumb home screen

Challenge

Green Thumb Industries (GTI), a leader in conscious cannabis culture and retail, experienced a 46% revenue growth during the pandemic, primarily through online sales. Despite this success, GTI aimed to:

  • Transform their e-commerce cannabis experience

  • Better understand and serve their diverse customer base

  • Identify innovation opportunities in the unique cannabis marketplace

As the UX lead, I was tasked with redesigning the entire RISE e-commerce site to meet these objectives while navigating the complex regulatory landscape of the cannabis industry.

What I Did

Leading a team of a Delivery Director, Product Strategist, designer, and engineer over a 16-week engagement, I spearheaded the following actions:

Green Thumb persona

  1. User Research and Persona Validation:

    • Conducted six full cycles of user research

    • Interviewed 27 RISE customers and 8 Budtenders

    • Validated primary persona "Jill" (digital-native recreational user) and secondary persona "Freddy" (experienced medical & recreational user)

  2. Design and Personalization:

    • Developed a new art direction aligned with GTI's American brand identity

    • Created powerful, customizable filter controls

    • Integrated Favorites and Order History features

    • Designed sophisticated Product Detail views and an updated checkout flow

  3. Educational Integration:

    • Unified disparate education resources and blog posts

    • Created a flexible design supporting users throughout their cannabis journey

  4. Technology Implementation:

    • Utilized Figma for interaction designs

    • Oversaw development of a React tech stack including Typescript, Redux, and Material UI for the front-end

  5. Loyalty Program and User Profile:

    • Designed a new RISE sign-up process

    • Integrated framework for the cannabis industry loyalty program

    • Created rich personalization options in customer profiles

Outcome

Green Thumb filters

Our efforts resulted in a transformed e-commerce experience for GTI:

  • Launched a new site with filtering for desired feelings and activities

  • Enhanced personalization options, addressing the multi-faceted nature of cannabis use

  • Improved educational resources integration, supporting users' cannabis journey

  • Streamlined shopping experience with new Product Detail views and checkout flow

  • Implemented a sophisticated loyalty program framework

This project not only met GTI's immediate needs for an improved e-commerce platform but also positioned them for future growth in the rapidly evolving cannabis market. The new site reflects GTI's commitment to conscious cannabis culture while providing a personalized, educational, and user-friendly shopping experience.

Image of Green Thumb Industries logo

“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