SANTA CRUZ, Calif., June 29, 2021 – PRESS RELEASE – Jane Technologies Inc. ("Jane"), a retail software company that created a leading online cannabis marketplace, announced the release of its new headless e-commerce solution, Jane Roots. The proprietary software launched with Forage, an online cannabis discovery tool developed by Columbia Care to revolutionize the customer shopping experience.

The pandemic accelerated the adoption of e-commerce with online orders accounting for 21.3% of total U.S. retail sales in 2020. That equates to roughly $861 billion in e-commerce sales, a 44% increase from the $598 billion spent online in 2019. Despite the massive growth, many e-commerce platforms hamper online retailers' ability to keep pace with digital trends and consumer expectations.

Backend infrastructure for e-commerce is complicated to maintain, especially in the cannabis industry's retail landscape marked by rapidly changing inventory, dynamic pricing and diverse promotions. Jane Roots removes this burden on retailers by taking care of the backend integrations, data cleansing, personalization, reviews and automation so they can focus on designing modernized e-commerce experiences specific to their brand. Isolating the frontend allows brands to easily change the customer interface in line with emerging digital trends and quickly update sales content without losing the complicated backend code. For example, if a new product comes into stock, websites using Jane Roots don't need to spend time updating content—Jane Roots automatically generates the correct product taxonomy, serving size, verified reviews, potency, photos and description into a custom user interface (UI) design on behalf of the retailer.

"As consumers continue to embrace online shopping, a retailer's digital brand is now more closely tied to its customer shopping experience than ever before," Jane co-founder and CEO Socrates Rosenfeld said. "Jane Roots offers brands free expression to design their interface as well as the agility to quickly update content for an enriched user experience that encourages purchases. Our integration with Forage is a best-in-class example of how Jane Roots adds exponential value to e-commerce platforms, streamlining the backend process of content updates, data cleansing and automation. We know the future of retail is digital and we worked tirelessly to create this solution that propels our partners into the next generation of retail."

Forage is a cannabis discovery tool designed to streamline and customize the individual shopping experience for expert and novice patients and customers alike. The web-based platform curates personalized cannabis product recommendations based on an interactive questionnaire covering the user's desired effects, intended activity and preferred product format, then syncs to local dispensary inventories and pricing for online ordering via delivery, curbside or in-store pickup.

Forage.io also adds another layer of data to existing points of sale (POS) by leveraging Columbia Care's data infrastructure to optimize the customer experience. Jane Roots' integration leverages machine learning algorithms to automate all content and structured information, allowing the Forage team to focus its resources on creating a better user experience rather than managing backend code and data. Jane Roots can be easily integrated with any frontend system currently available.

"Jane Roots has been pivotal in developing, launching and managing the Forage backend infrastructure in less time and with fewer resources," said Guy Hussussian, chief information officer of Columbia Care. "Given our new platform's emphasis on creating exceptional customer experiences, we need to prioritize the design of our recommendation engine rather than the implementation of a full-menu system. That's where Jane Roots comes in, providing Columbia Care with UI design automation that gives our team greater flexibility to focus on continuously enhancing the frontend features of Forage without having to worry about the complexities of backend order processing and data updates."

Over the past year, Jane powered more than 20 million orders and $2 billion in cannabis sales. Jane is the trusted e-commerce partner for more than 2,000 dispensaries and brands across 34 U.S. markets.

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