Cannabis Dispensary Design 101: What to Know Before Hiring a Pro

Based on the SevenPoint Interiors process, here are 5 questions to ask yourself before hiring a professional cannabis dispensary design firm.

Congratulations – you’re licensed and ready to talk cannabis dispensary design. Not so fast. There are important decisions to make before you hire your interior designer, architect, and engineer, even your graphic designer. These decisions will help you determine how you will stand out in a packed North American market. Toronto alone has 400-plus dispensaries in operation; that’s a lot of competition. Come to the table prepared to talk to the design pros, or risk losing time and money.

Below are the five questions you need to ask yourself before engaging an expert. Once you’ve figured out the basics, you can concentrate on what will ensure you a reliable customer base – your superior product, your unbeatable retail space. This blog will prepare you for the design conversations to come and presents a one-stop cannabis dispensary design solution: SevenPoint Interiors. 

SevenPoint Interiors is a vertically integrated cannabis dispensary design expert. Started in 2017, SevenPoint Interiors offers start to finish design services to cannabis retailers in North America. SevenPoint’s team of experts provide turnkey graphic and interior design services and partners retailers with architects and engineers to build bespoke environments that are welcoming and intelligent. 

SevenPoint also supplies retail spaces with the necessary fixtures, both prefabricated and custom. How? SevenPoint Interiors’ parent company is Visual Elements, a 30-year-old retail fixture manufacturer of outfitting some of the greats, including Coach, Kate Spade, and Nordstrom. Operating an over 100,000 square-foot facility in Woodbridge, Ontario, Visual Elements’ manufacturing capabilities ensure that SevenPoint’s interior designs are outfitted with speed-to-market in mind.

Now that you’ve seen the solution, let’s review the five key questions you need to ask yourself before meeting with the pros.

5 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Dispensary Designer

1. What’s your brand?
2. Who is your customer and how do you plan to serve them?
3. Do you know the compliance rules?
4. What’s your flavour?
5. How do you want to proceed?

1. What’s your brand?

Some retailers have it all figured out. They are able to go to the design pros with a logo, a brand story, a colour palette, fonts, and even packaging ideas. For others, coming up with a name is a challenge. SevenPoint Interiors’ on-staff consultants and graphic designers are well-versed in how to make individual brands stand out in a packed market.

Here are 10 questions SevenPoint asks clients to get the ball rolling ahead of cannabis dispensary design:

1. What is your brand’s name?
2. What is the meaning behind your brand name? 
3. What are three words that describe your brand?
4. What is your brand message or mission statement?
5. What sets your brand apart from competitors?
6. What type of lifestyle is best associated with your brand?
7. What are your brand identity colours?
8. What aesthetic do you have in mind?
9. What does not inspire you?
10. What experience do you want to give your customer?

2. Who is your customer and how do you plan to serve them?

It’s essential to know who your customer is before you begin your cannabis dispensary design. If you don’t know their shopping habits how will you engage them? There are three types of customer to keep in mind as you plan reception, way finding, product displays and points of sale (POS). Let’s review.

The Newbie

This customer needs attention and information. They want to be greeted at the door and escorted through the merchandise. To make this Newbie a repeat customer, you must consider how you want to feature your products. Does the shop feel curated or full of possibilities? Will there be well-lit displays on both the wall and floor? Newbie preferences change: consider creating a flexible space so future merchandising plans are possible.

The Shopper

This customer knows what they want but are happy to browse independently. Having branded content to support the product is key. Will each product have documentation explaining the benefits and effects? Will there be placards or brochures for the Shopper to read? Will there be signage to help them navigate the space? And what about technology? Will your menus and educational tools be displayed digitally on monitors or tablets? Knowing the preferences of your customer will help you decide how hi-fi the space should be.

The Expert

This customer knows exactly what they want and don’t want to dillydally. They’re most likely to call ahead or order online and visit the store only to pick up their preferred product at an express checkout. For the Expert, an efficient picking room and vault pass-through system, as well as speedy POS, are must-haves.

3. Do you know the compliance rules?

Your cannabis dispensary design pros may be well-versed in your area’s compliance regulations but the onus is on you to know what they are and to follow them. And there is not just one set of rules for North America. Regulations around operating and even marketing your dispensary vary from country to country and state to state. Know the restrictions before making any plans. That marijuana leaf you’ve incorporated into your logo may not fly; same with that all-glass frontage you have in mind. 

How many signs you can hang and how large they can be, and if product and transactions can be viewed from the street are just two regulation examples. You also need to know how large a shop you can operate in your state or province. The acceptable maximum square footage in Arizona is 5,000 while there is no limit in Massachusetts. Is an age-gate required? In Canada – absolutely and across the board. Can you have the product on the sales floor in locked display cases? This is forbidden in Illinois and means that a vault pass-through system is a solution. Read up on the regulations before making any cannabis dispensary design decisions. Americans, you can find the info you require at your state’s department of health website.  Find Cannabis Division and from there find regulations for dispensaries. Canadians, mind the advice found here. 

4. What’s your flavour?

So, you’ve got a great brand story and product and you know how you’re allowed to display it. Let’s move on to your cannabis dispensary design. Do you have an idea of what you want your space to look like? And what’s your timeline? 

Great cannabis dispensary design depends on together fixtures – beautiful but locked display cases, efficient POS stations, a welcoming reception area inside, and of course a secure but accessible vault. Budget and speed-to-market affect fixture selection but cost and turnaround time should not be the only deciding factors. Quality materials and superior manufacturing should matter. 

Buying fixtures online is not recommended. Not only is the quality suspect, but these fixtures arrive in parts. And if a piece is missing, or the measurements are off you’re now further behind than ahead. Consider going the custom route or buying prefabricated solutions from a reputable manufacturer.

SevenPoint Interiors offers custom and prefab fixture solutions. After assessing floorplans and needs, SevenPoint designs and builds environments that reflect brand identity through a material and colour palette or the incorporation of logos. Take a look at The Hunny Pot in Toronto. Here SevenPoint created custom hexagonal signage and displays to bolster identity and create a memorable shopping experience. SevenPoint Interiors’ at-the-ready manufacturing capabilities saw The Hunny Pot outfitted in six weeks.

SevenPoint also offers prefab solutions. Its Module System is an a la cart offering. With your budget, product and space limitations in mind, SevenPoint provides infinitely configurable and scalable components in a wide range of finishes and colours. From partition walls and vault pass-through systems to cash desks, wall units and displays, the Module System has you covered. You pick the modules and SevenPoint delivers and installs. 

The Friendly Stranger in Toronto is a high-profile SevenPoint Interiors patron that went the hybrid route. After selecting its modules from the Module System catalogue, it then customized key components with bespoke colours and branding. The options to customize are endless – contact SevenPoint Interiors to learn more.

5. How do you want to proceed?

How do you plan to get your cannabis dispensary design underway? You might opt to do it piecemeal: you’ll need a graphic designer for your logo and signage, an architect and engineer for the infrastructure, an interior designer for the ambiance, and a fixture manufacturer for your counters and display. That’s a lot of outsourcing, which may hamper your speed-to-market plans. Consider hiring just one professional that will do it all, with budget and timeline top of mind. Consider working with SevenPoint Interiors.