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By Acro Commerce, Government of Yukon on
With the arrival of legal recreational cannabis in Canada, provincial governments across the country were tasked with creating government-run retail outlets, both physical and online, for customers wanting to purchase the newly available product.
Many provincial governments turned to non-Drupal solutions, such as Shopify, for their ecommerce platform, but the Government of Yukon didn’t want this. They didn’t like the idea of being locked into a restrictive SaaS platform. They also had a requirement to self-host their ecommerce solution and have control over their customer’s data. For the Government of Yukon, Drupal was an attractive option because they were already using it for their government website. Drupal Commerce, the native Drupal ecommerce platform, was exactly what they needed for their online cannabis retail offering. After months of planning and development, CannabisYukon.org was launched.
Why Drupal was chosen:
The Government of Yukon considered all options for their ecommerce store. Shopify and other hosted SaaS solutions that many other provinces were using didn’t fit what the Government of Yukon needed. For them, it was of the utmost importance that they were able to control their customers data in order to respect and safeguard their privacy. This was a primary reason why Drupal was chosen. Drupal’s open-source, self-hosted nature gave the Government of Yukon complete control over their data.
Drupal was also selected because it was already a familiar platform for staff. The Government of Yukon’s main government website, Yukon.ca, is run on Drupal, so it made sense to them to continue using it. Staff training could be streamlined.
Finally, as a public entity using tax-payer money to fund their online venture, there was a strong desire by Government officials to provide a cost-effective solution to their constituents. Again, the open-source Drupal CMS and Commerce module was a perfect fit. The Government of Yukon was able to avoid expensive licensing and usage fees by using open-source software, and because of it, their ROI will be much quicker for both them and their taxpayers.
Describe the project (goals, requirements and outcome):
RETAIL & B2C
Cannabis Yukon
How a flexible architecture helped the Government of Yukon safely and securely manage their customer data within a strict regulatory framework for online cannabis sales.
Project highlights
- Third-party integrations for shipping &fulfillment
- Custom functionality to meet federal regulations
- Open source flexibility & scalability
Retail & B2C businesses need flexible platforms and customer experiences to be competitive in the marketplace.
Retail and B2C businesses are focused on:
- Secure platforms for storing and leveraging customer information.
- Integrating ecommerce and brick-and-mortar operational systems for automation and inventory control purposes.
- Enabling personalization to deliver better, seamless customer experiences, while upselling and cross-selling in the process.
- Developing scalable strategies that need to be backed by a flexible digital solution.
Our work with Cannabis Yukon highlights the level of security and customization that a Drupal-backed solution can provide along with the flexibility for exquisite customer journeys to match the in-store experience. The end customer shouldn’t have to sacrifice the user journey or experience due to a regulated product or industry. Providing a guided buying experience is key to allowing customers to research and purchase along the way without interruption.
Background
Cannabis sales online require strict security and privacy controls and a flexible ecommerce platform that integrates with brick-and-mortar systems.
The legalization of cannabis in Canada required provincial governments across the country to provide their residents with access to cannabis products through an online store, in addition to physical stores.
Considering the nature of this business and being that it is government-run, security and privacy for their customers were of the utmost importance. The Government of Yukon required a solution that allowed full control of their customer data and a flexible ecommerce platform that seamlessly integrates with third-party vendors while following strict restrictions and regulations enforced by the Federal Government.
With the pressure to launch on legalization day, and their determination to not be constrained by costly SaaS platforms, and avoid revenue sharing with the platforms available, the Government of Yukon proceeded with an open-source ecommerce solution to take control of both their customer’s data and their profits.
Objective
The Government of Yukon had specific digital objectives.
The importance of this ecommerce solution was heightened as most of their customers live in remote locations with no access to a physical store. The government-run online store would be the only option for those customers wishing to purchase cannabis products.
Government of Yukon required:
- A dedicated development team to successfully launch on legalization day.
- A service provider who knows open-source development, ecommerce, and all the intricacies that come along with both.
- A secure, agile and flexible platform they could customize and adapt within a potentially changing regulatory framework.
- Full control of their customer data and orders to respect and safeguard their privacy.
- Integration with the federally regulated shipping provider, Canada Post.
- Custom functionality to meet maximum purchase regulations, age restrictions, and advertising restrictions enforced by the Federal Government.
- A cost-effective solution to ensure tax-payer money was being spent effectively.
The challenge was designing a solution that provided a world-class ecommerce experience that met the strict regulations and restrictions presented by the federal government.
Solution
Cooperatively design a state-of-the-art open-source ecommerce solution with Acro Commerce's forward-thinking development team.
We’re big fans of transparency and accountability, which is why we think it’s important to work closely with all stakeholders to ensure they get a feel for what we do and how we actually do it.
This process involves:
- Uncovering and accommodating the requirements of all stakeholders.
- Creating a visual diagram of the digital workflow and server architecture.
- Identify the purpose of individual modules: which would be used and which needed to be custom-built.
- Providing a detailed UX and technical blueprint.
- Quality assurance and functionality checks by internal and external teams.
To build the complete solution that the Yukon government needed, we used the following functionality in the Drupal Commerce platform:
- Adhere to the Cannabis Act — Introduce a data security solution that is PCI and PII compliant.
- Allow anonymous checkout features to respect Canadians' right to privacy.
- “Age-gate” implementation to deny access and restrict exposure for individuals under the age of 19.
To improve the existing functionality, we also installed the following modules:
- Commerce Canada Post — API integration with Canada Post providing real-time shipping quotes, tracking, information, etc.
- Custom Commerce Equivalency Weight module — Created to follow the federally imposed restriction limits for the amount of cannabis that an individual can purchase.
For orders over the legal purchase threshold of 30 grams, checkout becomes disabled, and various elements (both visual and message-based) are used to let the customers know why.
Outcome
Open-source ecommerce provided an effective, responsive and flexible system that created a seamless user experience that met government standards and was delivered on time.
This open-source commerce solution gave the Government of Yukon:
- Full control of their customer data and purchases.
- Anonymous checkout feature to respect Canadian's right to privacy.
- API integration with Canada Post providing real-time shipping quotes, tracking, information, etc.
- “Age-gate” implementation to deny access and restrict exposure for individuals under the age of 19.
- Adherence to all federally mandated regulations and restrictions in regard to online sales of a controlled substance.
- Cost-effective solution for their constituents.
Project Statistics
As launch day approached, this open-source architecture was put to the test
- On this single day, 736 visitors accessed and purchased products online.
- Sales combining online and in-store totalled $59,900, with roughly 25% of sales happening online through the Cannabis Yukon website.
- The average online order was $120, while the average in-store transaction was $73.
Technical specifications
Drupal version:
Drupal 8.x
Key modules/theme/distribution used:
Why these modules/theme/distribution were chosen:
Commerce
The Commerce module was used because the Government of Yukon wanted an ecommerce solution that was open source, Drupal based, and could support unique, custom development in order to fulfill federally imposed guidelines. The Commerce module was a perfect fit.
Commerce Equivalency Weight
This module was created to provide a formula for calculating total weight of cannabis oil, seed and flower added to the customer’s cart, ensuring no one can checkout with more than the legal limit of 30g. This pass/fail was displayed to the customer via green/red indicators as items were added to the cart, and triggered additional messaging when over the allowed threshold.
Commerce Canada Post
The mail distribution of cannabis in Canada is handled specifically by Canada Post. This module connects to the shipping providers web services API for calculating shipping estimates, getting tracking information, and more.
Commerce Bambora
The Bambora Payment Gateway integration was built from the ground up to accommodate the requirements of the Government of Yukon. This was their preferred payment provider but the integration with Drupal Commerce didn’t previously exist.
Community contributions:
A number of modules created for this project were contributed back to the greater Drupal Commerce community. Here are some of the highlights.
Commerce Equivalency Weight
This module was created specifically to meet the guidelines imposed by the federal Canadian government as mentioned earlier. This module was then packaged up and released to the wider Drupal Commerce community for general use.
Commerce Canada Post
Significant development work was done porting this module for use with the Drupal 8 version of the Commerce module.
Commerce Bambora
This payment gateway integration was created for this project and then released to the Drupal Commerce community.
Organizations involved:
Project team:
There were many people within Acro Commerce and the Government of Yukon, as well as other stakeholders, combining forces on this project as a whole, this is the core team who worked on the Cannabis Yukon ecommerce site.
Within Acro Commerce
- Greg Galbraith - Project Manager
- Jason Poole (jjpoole) - Creative
- Dimitris Bezelos (krystalcode) - Senior Software Developer and Team Lead
- Jace Bennest (thejacer87) - Software Developer
- Safallia Joseph (safallia-joseph) - Software Developer
- Shabana Navas (shabana.navas) - Software Developer
- Viki Spagnolo (quietone) - Software Developer
- Clayton Bildstein (cbildstein) - Frontend Developer
Within the Government of Yukon
- Lee O’Mara (leeomara) - Software Developer
Sectors:
E-Commerce
Government
Retail and Distribution
Startups
