Shopify (NYSE:SHOP) opened its commerce platform to the sale of CBD and other legal hemp products in the United States.
The Canadian e-commerce firm rolled out a suite of tools on Sept. 17, focused on enabling retailers to sell CBD online and through brick and mortar stores in the newly legal U.S. market.
“Shopify has unmatched expertise in emerging industries, along with the resources merchants need to be successful in the fast-growing market of hemp-derived CBD products in the U.S.,” Shopify COO Harley Finkelstein said in a statement.
Shopify has already been active in Canada’s legal recreational cannabis market. Most prominently, it provides the online platform of the Ontario Cannabis Store.
Features for U.S. retailers include location-based settings for orders to ensure that shipments don’t go to locations where they are illegal.
The 2018 Farm Bill legalized hemp under U.S. federal law, opening the door for a proliferation of CBD, a non-psychoactive substance.
But the absence of a regulatory framework for transportation and the ability of states to have their own regulations has led to issues including the seizure of shipments and arrests of truck drivers.
A Shopify spokesperson said the company’s U.S. fulfillment network would not be available for CBD products.
