Twenty Your CBD Store shops across the USA are to use an analytics platform from Canadian firm Loop Insights. If successful, it will be rolled out across all the firm’s 550 cannabidiol outlets.

Loop provides contactless and artificial intelligence (AI) products to drive real-time insights, automated marketing and contact tracing to the brick-and-mortar space. The pilot agreement is with Sunflora, which runs the Your CBD Store retail locations.

Your CBD Store is the largest CBD brick and mortar retailer in the USA, selling SunMed products. Upon successful completion of the pilot, the plan is to implement Loop’s artificial intelligence driven analytics platform across all 550 Your CBD Store locations in 41 states across America.

“There’s no greater time to utilise top-tier artificial intelligence technology to gain an edge in this industry,” said Sunflora president of franchise systems Jay Benge. “Our customer base is huge, and it’s important to understand their needs and preferences to maximise basket size, loyalty and wallet share. We look forward to working with Loop and building unparalleled experiences for our customers.”

Last month, Loop announced a reseller partnership and first sale with PoS company Vend, used In 25,000 stores across 140 countries. In that announcement, Loop and Vend announced the first sale to a Vend client with 30 stores across North America.

The CBD announcement represents the second deal through Vend in ten days.

“Our Vend partnership has already demonstrated great value for Loop by rapidly accelerating our entry into large verticals such as CBD retail,” said Loop Insights CEO Rob Anson. “CBD sales are seeing massive growth rates since the start of the pandemic, so this pilot with Sunflora puts Loop in a very strong position to become a partner to the massive CBD retail market.”

CBD product sales in the USA grew 706% per cent from 2018 to 2019 ($620m to $5bn) and have a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2018 and 2023 of 107%. In comparison, cannabis sales are expected to see a CAGR of around 25%.

Experts believe CBD’s growth is due to its entrance into major pharmacy and retail chains. Loop’s ability to provide real-time insights to Sunflora across its storefronts will help manage its inventory and supply chain, while building robust customer data and engagement.

Loop Insights is a Vancouver-based IoT technology company that delivers AI-based automated marketing, contact tracing and contactless products. Its Fobi IoT device enables data connectivity across online and on-premise platforms to provide real-time, detailed insights and automated, personalised engagement. Loop operates in the telecoms, casino gaming, sports and entertainment, hospitality, and retail industries in Canada, USA, UK, Latin America, Australia, Japan and Indonesia.