Years ago, Brian was impacted by the blossoming online coupon industry, where companies like Groupon were generating great revenues by simply facilitating discounts from businesses to customers. That business model intrigued Brian so much that he sought out an industry that could greatly benefit from a company like this, but didn’t have one readily available. That search led him to the Cannabis industry and the creation of Canna-Saver. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, Canna-Saver launched in 2013 and has quickly become the authority on online Cannabis coupons. Canna-Saver has been dubbed the Groupon of Cannabis by CNN and is poised to not only take over the entire state of Colorado, but also scale itself to service the entire country.
Simply put, consumers love saving money and Canna-Saver is making that process easier than ever before.
Before entering the Cannabis industry, Brian researched how he could improve upon what already existed in the space. What revealed itself to Brian was a great need in the market for both consumers and dispensaries. On the consumer side, finding usable coupons or deals was almost impossible. In addition, if you were able to find something, chances are it would become outdated by the time you took advantage of it; either expiring or the dispensary would be out of that product. Not only was the coupon difficult to come by, there was no way to search for a specific product or neighborhood, further complicating the process of coupon use. This is where Brian captured his opportunity to enter the space, launching Canna-Saver. On Canna-Saver, customers can search for products and coupons by location and pull those locations up on a map, greatly improving discount utilization. Simply put, consumers love saving money and Canna-Saver is making that process easier than ever before.
The ‘Groupon’ for Dispensaries
Canna-Saver, though a company designed with the end consumer at the forefront, provides countless benefits to dispensaries as well. Working as a certified public accountant for over fifteen years, Brian learned the importance of inventory management in business. He took that knowledge and directly applied it when developing Canna-Saver. He created a marketing and advertising tool so simple, dispensaries could use his site to instantly promote new products or liquidate old stock. The process is simple. Dispensaries login to their account, fill out a pre-designed template, add a photo and post their deal. They can set a time limit or remove the coupon the instant the product sells out. Most importantly, by using Canna-Saver, dispensaries have unprecedented control over their inventory.
In 2013, Canna-Saver was awarded the ‘Invention of the Year’ at the Cannabis Business Awards.
By building a website that is truly more technologically advanced than its competitors, Brian has clearly set Canna-Saver ahead of anything else in the industry. Unlike most high priced traditional advertising, where you might pay out the nose for a page add or a website banner, Canna-Saver offers the total package of advertising, and typically at a much more affordable cost. With an established presence in the industry, especially high in Google rankings, and nearly 100,000 website views per month, companies can instantly improve their web footprint by working with Canna-Saver. In addition, dispensaries have the chance to advertise however they want, be it coupons, banners, print, emails or even social media. Canna-Saver prides itself on building long lasting relationships with both its customers and its businesses. Brian made this clear when he told us:
‘We won’t nickel and dime you. We want to make sure businesses get everything they can out of working with us. I would much rather give a business a little extra publicity on us rather than charge them a couple extra dollars. We’re in this for the long haul. We want to form long lasting relationships and continue to be there for them now and in the future.’ – Brian Shapiro – Canna-Saver
In 2013, Canna-Saver was awarded the ‘Invention of the Year’ at the Cannabis Business Awards. In addition it was featured on CNN as the Groupon of Cannabis. Though popular on social media(20,000+ followers across their platforms), Brian continues to reinvent his grassroots style marketing platforms. For example, the company distributes Canna-Saver branded lighters for dispensaries to hand out, free of charge, to consumers. This genius move allows thousands of consumers to see his logo, literally first hand. In addition to strategies like this, the company was also represented by industry star Tommy Chong, who was a spokesman for Canna-Saver in 2014 and wore t-shirts to promote the brand throughout countless press opportunities and performances. Brian uses innovative ideas like this to constantly add value to his business and his clients. He takes pride in introducing strategies to the Cannabis industry that have not been utilized before. Brian Shapiro and Canna-Saver have already revolutionized parts of the Cannabis industry, but perhaps the best is yet to come as Brian told us to ‘stay tuned’ because he has much more up his sleeve.
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