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How a cost-effective, flexible architecture helped the Government of Yukon safely and securely manage their customer data within a regulatory framework for online cannabis sales.
Project highlights
Background
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 was of the up-most 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, the Government of Yukon proceeded with an open-source ecommerce solution.
Objective
What the Government of Yukon wanted to achieve from an Acro-based solution.
The importance of this ecommerce solution was heightened as the majority 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 in order 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 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 which met the strict regulations and restrictions presented by the federal government.
Solution
Cooperatively design a state of the art open-source ecommerce solution through Acro’s Purpose Driven Development Method:
- Uncover and accommodate the requirements of all stakeholders
- Visually diagram the digital workflow and server architecture
- Identify the purpose of individual modules: which would be used, which needed to be custom-built
- Introduce a data security solution that is PCI and PII compliant;
- Detailed UX and technical blueprint
- Internal and External QA
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.
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 Canadians 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.
- Custom Commerce Equivalency Weight module created to follow the federally imposed restriction limits for the amount of cannabis that can be purchased by an individual. 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.
- Cost-effective solution for their constituents.
Project Statistics
As launch day approached this open-source architecture was put to the test:
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