Multi-state medical cannabis operator, Columbia Care has announced the launch of its Columbia National Credit Program (CNC card), making it the first company in the United States to accept credit card payments for medicinal marijuana purchases directly.
The launch follows a successful pilot program which the company conducted during the second half of 2018 in New York.
Columbia Care recently expanded the program to the company’s Delaware and Pennsylvania markets and will be including Illinois and Arizona later this month.
The company plans to have the program implemented at the rest of its locations by the end of 2019.
“We are in the business of expanding the entire national cannabis market, and this is exactly the type of industry-wide challenge our team excels at solving,” says Columbia Care CEO Nicholas Vita. “By launching the first credit card in the country that can be used by consumers and industry participants to purchase cannabis products, we now exclusively offer an important capability that will serve Colombia Care’s national growth initiatives, including home delivery, automatic fulfillment, and e-commerce.”
Vita says that customers prefer to use credit over other forms of payment if they are given the option, though the cannabis industry has been primarily confined to a cash-based system due to federal restrictions.
During the CNC card’s trial phase, Columbia Care experienced an 18 percent increase in customers’ average basket size for in-store purchases as well as a significant uptick in repeat visits, home delivery orders, and automatic fulfillment.
In addition to being able to make purchases with the CNC card, cardholders may also be eligible for benefits such as cash back affinity programs, educational seminars, and priority access to new products and exclusive offers.
