Can I Sell Hemp or Cannabis Seeds on E-Commerce Platforms?

There are several things to consider when starting a cannabis seed e-commerce company. You must think about branding, marketing, product offerings, and more. However, one of the most essential parts of your business plan is also the most basic: where will you sell your seeds?

Symple Seeds offers a full suite of services to help you sell cannabis seeds online, as well as a plethora of helpful tips and tricks here on our blog. Read on to find out which online platforms allow the sale of hemp and cannabis seeds and which one is right for your business. 

Simply put, weed seed e-commerce is selling cannabis seeds in an online store. Running a successful cannabis seed online store can be incredibly lucrative, and there are several ways you can get there. Dropshipping cannabis seeds is one of the most popular and convenient options. 

The legal landscape surrounding hemp, cannabis, and hemp-derived products can get confusing, but selling hemp products online is completely legal. 

Products that contain cannabidiol (CBD) or other cannabinoids are a little trickier to sell online. However, cannabis seeds are legally classified as hemp products since they have less than 0.3% THC, so retailers like yourself can easily ship cannabis seeds nationwide. 

Several of the biggest names in online shopping prohibit the sale of anything hemp-related, but online cannabis seed sellers still have some options. 

Sellers are not allowed to list CBD on Amazon; cannabinoids are included in Amazon’s list of prohibited items. 

However, cannabis seeds are legally classified as a hemp product. Hemp products are allowed on the platform, so technically, hemp seeds can be sold on Amazon.

A quick search reveals almost all of the hemp seeds listed for sale on Amazon are meant to be eaten, not grown; Amazon is quick to find, delete, and penalize the sellers who list cannabis seeds and advertise them as hemp. 

If you sell seeds that will grow into low-THC hemp plants, you could try listing them on Amazon. However, if you are selling cannabis seeds, Amazon isn’t the right platform for your business.

Esty’s policies regarding hemp and cannabis seeds are similar to Amazon’s. “Herbal substances,” including CBD and other cannabinoids, are among Etsy’s prohibited items. 

Like Amazon, hemp-derived products are allowed on Etsy. Though this could technically include hemp seeds, Etsy is adept at finding hemp seed listings that attempt to circumvent their “house rules” and will delete any listings suspected of selling cannabis seeds. 

Etsy is not a good choice for sellers offering cannabis seeds, either. 

Unlike the other e-commerce platforms we have discussed, merchants can sell hemp and CBD on Shopify — after filling out extra paperwork. Shopify places hemp, hemp-derived products, and CBD in the same category, so if you hope to sell any of these products on the platform, you will need to attest that they contain less than 0.3% THC. 

While this sounds promising for cannabis seed vendors, cannabis products are listed under Shopify’s prohibited product types. Even though cannabis seeds technically contain less than 0.3% THC, they are still cannabis products. 

Though the platform allows the sale of hemp and CBD products, Shopify prohibits the sale of cannabis seeds and is, therefore, not a good platform for vendors in the cannabis seed industry. 

WooCommerce is technically open-source software, so there are very few regulations on what you can use it for. Though this sounds like good news for online cannabis seed vendors, there are some limitations. 

To sell hemp products on WooCommerce, including cannabis seeds, you will need to utilize other software that is cannabis-friendly, too. In WooCommerce’s hemp-derived products guidelines, the platform points out that you will need to find a website host, payment processing platform, bank, and shipping merchant that all allow the sale of cannabis seeds. As you’ve seen in this article, that’s easier said than done. 

While WooCommerce is one of the more viable options for selling cannabis seeds online, be prepared to jump through a lot of hoops to get your store set up — and be ready to change your business plan if and when the regulations surrounding hemp and cannabis products change.

The best e-commerce platform for selling cannabis seeds isn’t any third-party software — it’s your own website with the help of Symple Seeds’ suite of services. 

Symple Seeds can add seeds directly to your site, allow customers to pay via our secure and convenient payment processing platform, and ship out your orders through our network of shipping and logistics services. We can supply you with all of the cannabis seeds your business needs, and we can even add our top-of-the-class customer service agents directly to your website to assist your customers. 

If you are opening a cannabis seed e-commerce store, Symple Seeds has everything you need. Contact Symple Seeds to find out which of our services are right for you, and get your online cannabis seed store off the ground today.