How Big Data is Disrupting and Optimizing the Sector

How Big Data Is

DISRUPTING & OPTIMIZING The Sector

By Reva Seth

Until recently it was the LPs, as the product creators, who were both the foundation and the focus of the cannabis sector. But as the next wave and evolution of the cannabis industry emerges, it’s the tech start-ups and data analytics firms that will be the source of nimble opportunity and sector disruptions.

The cannabis sector is in a unique place. At a time when big data is the indispensable strategic tool at the centre of every global industry, the cannabis sector is struggling with a clear lack of data.

Management guru Peter Drucker’s most famous quote, “You can’t manage what you can’t measure.” holds true for the cannabis sector as well.

However, as a result of cannabis having been, until very recently, both illegal and stigmatized, the industry simply lacks information and struggles with the dominance of misinformation. For instance, there is little recent, high quality, controlled medical research from which to draw upon to support anecdotal reports of cannabis treatment success.

“The future of the cannabis sector cannot be based on the equivalent of Yelp reviews,” says Andrew Muroff, CEO, Strainprint Technologies, Ltd., “Real-time, validated data hasthe ability to both help patients in their journeys – but also help LPs adapt to serve their communities’ needs, with evidence-based product development.”

In turn, this lack of research hinders the acceptance of cannabis as a treatment by doctors, which deprives both the industry and patients from its benefits. Additionally, the industry is just starting to gather large pools of data on users, strains, the impact of ingestion methods, and statistical evidence of user preferences and buying patterns. As a result, existing users make do with what is available and large swathes of the potential patient user market are left disengaged and overlooked.

But this is changing. And fast.

And it’s the companies driving the collection and analysis of this data that are reshaping and really next-levelling the industry.

A research- and data based understanding of how cannabis impacts users will lead to improved product design, more effective prescriptions and improved patient experiences.

Strainprint Technologies is a mobile cannabis tracking app that currently has over 400,000 medical cannabis sessions tracked, and that number is doubling every two months.

In markets like California, tech companies further removed from the plant have now reached the scale at which

their customer base can be used to glean industry insights that are not reliant on user input, but a far more reliable and consistent indicator: consumer purchasing behaviour.

For instance, Eaze, an on-demand app that delivers cannabis across California, recently released an industry insight report based on 350,000 cannabis consumers as well as attitudes and usage data based on a survey with over 15,000 respondents.

This amount of data on purchasing trends, social behaviour patterns on times and usage forms, and the accompanying demographics is invaluable not just to marketers but for the development of effective public policy, as well as educational and safety purposes.

As emerging industries develop, the use of data to drive key business decisions is essential, so expect the level of data insights and analysis to grow exponentially in both impact and sophistication in the coming months.

Strainprint’s Muroff says, “The app has generated over 6,000,000 data points and Strainprint data is showing compelling, actionable trends for our LP partners.”