Since the federal government of America made it legal to sell, buy and use CBD in their territory, it gained a lot of popularity among the people. CBD is now freely available in many parts of the country. Some places have dedicated CBD dispensaries like the one for medical marijuana, while it is available freely in general stores in other places. CBD is a trending commodity in the online markets also. Even though it is the same substance, there are some difference between buying CBD online and offline. Some of those differences are as follows.
Price
There is a big difference between the price of CBD purchased from online stores and traditional stores. The price of CBD will be comparatively lower in online stores. This is because of the offers and coupons provided by the online marketplace. Since the running cost of online store is lower than traditional store, some of its benefit will be passed to the consumers in the form of cash discount.
The intermediate cost of making CBD products available to customers of traditional markets is higher than that of online markets. This makes the price of the commodities higher in offline stores. Since they will have to pay for the rent of building and inventory, there will be not much price discount in traditional marketplaces.
Availability
The availability of CBD products is always higher in online markets. Since they don’t have to store all the goods offered by them in physical form, and do not operate on a specific place of business, online markets are offering a large number of products to the customers. It is also available for the whole day to the consumers. A person with a mobile or computer with an internet connection can access the online store and get their products any time they want.
On the other hand, the availability of CBD products is comparatively lower in offline stores. In traditional markets, all the goods that are offered to the consumers must be physically stored in their inventory. This makes the number of products lesser than that in online markets. In addition to that, the normal stores will be open for only a specific time and the customers might not be able to get their goods within that time.
Convenience
As mentioned above, any person with a mobile device with an internet connection can access the online markets and purchase CBD. There are a lot of options available in the online stores. Products of different brands will also be available at a single place. This makes it easy for people to choose items by comparing them from their home itself. Hence online markets are more convenient.
For getting a CBD product from normal retail store, the buyer will have to personally travel to the store and purchase the same. Most of the stores will be selling only single brand of CBD or only a few brands. Therefore, if someone needs any CBD product of a specific brand, they will have to search them physically from store to store.
Personal Interaction
CBD is a new product and if someone is going to use it for the first time, they will have so many doubts and confusions regarding its effect and usage. They may not be aware of the types of products available and the best product suited for their requirements. While shopping online, the buyer will have to clarify all these confusions by himself or they will have to try out different products by themselves to find the best suited for their needs.
However in a retail store, there will be a sales person who would be having adequate knowledge about CBD. Therefore the buyer can ask all the doubts and confusions regarding the same to them. They can also seek personal recommendations from the store keeper and find the best product suitable for them. The biggest advantage of getting CBD from retail store is that, they can physically inspect the item and they can also immediately return the good if it is not good as per the grade.
| Parameter | Online Store | Offline Store |
| Price | Low | High |
| Availability | High | Low |
| Convenience | More | Less |
| Personal Interaction | Possible | Not Possible |
There is no difference between the CBD available from the online market and the traditional market. Since the online store does not need to physically show their commodities, they will pool different suppliers from the market and will display all their goods in one place. It gives the user a lot of options to choose from. This convenience is not available in the physical stores. If you are planning to buy CBD for the first time, you need to do good research to find the product that suits you the best and then order it online.