Business Featured Industry Insights

How to choose the best CBD Products to sell in your shop

cbd products
Written by Alexandra Hicks

CBD products are a dime a dozen these days. If you plan to sell these items in your shop, the products you stock will need to be at a certain level of quality to differentiate you from the competition.  

Consumers are tired of mislabeled, snake oil products with crappy ingredients from questionable sources. They are spending their hard-earned money on (often expensive) cannabidiol products, and as a reputable retailer, you intend to provide them with safe, high-quality brands. But what are the criteria here? What do you need to look for when shopping for CBD products to sell in your shop?

To learn more about medical cannabis products, subscribe to the Medical Cannabis Weekly Newsletter


Ingredients

Ingredients are incredibly important. When most people think of CBD products, they are thinking of wellness, and ingredients that don’t reflect that typically don’t bode over well. For example, when sampling some CBD gummies recently, they contained things like high fructose corn syrup, artificial food coloring, and ridiculous amounts of sugar. The only healthy thing about them was the CBD, so basically, it was CBD candy – not a CBD vitamin gummy which is more along the lines of what I was expecting.

Not everyone feels this way, but for me personally, nasty ingredients are a deal breaker, and a growing number of consumers are becoming increasingly concerned with the quality of ingredients in the products they are consuming. And rightfully so; after all, what goes into our bodies is at the root of our overall health and wellness.

Organic is a word that gets thrown around frequently, and although it’s a bit arbitrary considering that organic farming standards vary worldwide, but it highlights an important market need – the need for standardized and regulated, high-quality produce. Organic farming practices include utilizing natural resources while promoting ecological balance and conserving biodiversity.

Another factor to consider is where the ingredients come from. When you’re narrowing down the brands you’re interesting in working with, find out if the company puts importance on ingredient sourcing. In order to prevent time consuming and costly issues, there needs to be some dedication to determining the right ingredient, from the right supplier, at the right cost.

Is it FDA or EMA approved?

This is pretty unlikely, unless you’re working with Epidiolex/Epidyolex. This medication, the very first to be approved by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) is used to treat seizures due to certain medical conditions (such as Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, Dravet syndrome, tuberous sclerosis complex – TSC). It is not known how this medication works for these seizures. Cannabidiol belongs to a class of drugs known as cannabinoids.

Epidiolex Launch in U.S. Prompts GW Pharmaceuticals Sales Surge

This medication was first approved in the United States under the name Epidiolex. A few years later, it was approved by the EMA (European Medical Agency) under the name Epidyolex – same name slightly different spelling. It is now undergoing clinical trials in Japan.

In the future, we can expect more products to undergo FDA and EMA approval. Especially as big-pharma begins to hone in on the medicinal aspect of the CBD Industry. For example, products sold at major pharmacies such as Walgreens and CVS will likely need to be approved by the FDA.

Research and Clinical Trials

If you want consumers to feel comfortable buying products from your company, you’ll want those that have the research to back up their claims. Although limited, more and more research is becoming available these days and many CBD products are being tested for safety and efficiency. Additionally, you can find market research on many products by companies, like CBD Testers, who conduct thorough product reviews for numerous companies. And this includes physically testing the products.

You can find quite a few legitimate studies from across the globe and the effectiveness of CBD as an individual compound. As you likely already know, CBD can safely and efficiently treat many different conditions including but not limited to: pain, anxiety, depression, epilepsy, insomnia, gastrointestinal issues, and inflammation.

While most of these studies don’t look at specific products (by brand), they do look at different methods of consumption and application. For instance, one study looked at the effects of topically applied CBD on chronic pain management. Many use tinctures and sublingual mixtures in their research. Either way, it gives you an idea of what products are actually good, and why.

GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices)

When a consumer goes to the grocery store and buys a can of soup or box of crackers, there’s an expectation that one they’re buying today is identical to the ones they’ve bought before. This is the idea behind assembly lines and product labels – that each item will have the same amount of component ingredients, in the exact same measurements… every, single, time.

Global GMPs in the World of Legal Cannabis

Of course this doesn’t guarantee quality, but it does ensure uniformity. And in the world of mass production, uniformity is important because it creates a measurable standard for the product. This is what Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) refers to.

This concept is becoming increasingly relevant in the cannabis industry, especially when it comes to global products. If you’re trying to appeal to the European market, chances are, you’ll need to ensure that products you sell meet GMP standards. Although the U.S. is lagging in this area (for the time being), this is likely the future of the cannabis industry as a whole.

Brand and Company Info

It may not always matter, it’s not uncommon to find that many investors or business owners are only willing to work with certain brands. And it makes sense. You wouldn’t want your name and reputation linked to a company that has a questionable and unethical history. It looks bad, and ultimately, it’s bad for business.

That’s especially important today, when consumers have access to internet and social media; tools that allow them to discover much more about a brand or company than ever before. Make sure you work with brands that have a good name in the industry.

Final Thoughts

Your exact criteria will vary based on your country. For example, in the United States, you’ll be more inclined to on ingredients and brand awareness over GMPs. Regardless, at the root of it all is quality. When stocking CBD products for your shop, you need to make sure that whatever you’re buying is safe for your consumers – a product they can trust time and time again.

Thanks for stopping by CBD TESTERS, your hub for all things medical cannabis. Stop by regularly and make sure to subscribe to the Medical Cannabis Weekly Newsletter to keep up-to-date on all the most interesting industry topics.

Resources:

The Endocannabinoid System Explained (Why Cannabis Is Good for Our Bodies)
Everything You Need To Know About CBD Isolate (a deep look into hemp extracts)
Cannabinoids 101 – Spotlight on CBN (Cannabinol)
EU GMP Extracts: CBD Isolate, CBD Distillate and CBG IsolateYour Complete Guide to EU GMP-Certified CBD Isolate and Distillate – Spotlight on the regulated EU market
Everything You Need To Know About CBG Isolate

EU GMP-Certified Cannabinoid Isolates and Distillates ExplainedNewest Cannabinoid Powerhouse – CBC – What Can It Do for You?
DELTA 8 THC Newsletter (The DELTA 8 THC Weekly Newsletter)
The CBD Flowers Weekly newsletter (your top resource for all things smokable hemp flowers)
The Medical Cannabis Weekly newsletter (International medical cannabis business report)
The Legal Landscape Of CBD Hemp Flower In Europe

Effective Immediately – Most Delta 8 THC Is Now ILLEGAL in The United States (Understanding the latest announcement by the DEA)
Hemp-Derived DELTA 8 THC Products Now Available Online (Understanding the difference between hemp-derived Delta 8 products, to isolate-made products)
Synthetic Cannabinoids (Are they synthetic cannabinoids safe?)Regulators Go After Smokable Hemp Flower – What Does The Future Hold?The Complex Issue of Cannabis and Hemp Business On Tribal Land
Government Assistance Options for U.S. Hemp Farmers Affected By COVID-19

EU Novel Food and The Legal Status of CBD Oil

Have anything to add? Your voice matters! Join the conversation and contribute your insights and ideas below.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

About the author

Alexandra Hicks

Managing editor at Cannadelics and U.S based journalist, helping spread the word about the many benefits of using cannabis and psychedelics.