Welcome to our new site!

In 2004 when we launched 420Jars.com, a site that we built ourselves, I don't think either of us could have imagined where we are today. We've gone from a handful of 420 Jars to a site with thousands of products. Ever since then, web development and design have always been something that we did ourselves. It's what we'd be doing if we hadn't started this company, but fortunately, we get to do what we love for a company that's ours. That's pretty extraordinary.

Over the years we've built several versions of our site, but the biggest change was in 2010 when we switched to NetSuite. NetSuite replaced Quickbooks, Yahoo Shopping Cart, Basecamp, and few other services. It was an intimidating switch to a system that was robust, but complex. The learning curve was high and even now, six years later, we're still learning new things about it.

Something that's changed drastically for us over the past couple years is the shift to mobile. What was once less than a third of our traffic is now over half. The need for mobile optimization was urgent and in that urgency we made a misstep and used a mobile solution for NetSuite that wasn't properly tested and ultimately cost us sales last year.

After pulling the plug on that failed attempt, we decided to start looking for solutions that used responsive design. While staying in NetSuite would have been ideal, it was cost-prohibitive. We needed a better solution.

The e-commerce landscape has shifted dramatically over the past few years. It's easier than ever to build a website with dozens of companies offering plug and play solutions. So we began our search, comparing all of these services and ultimately decided to go with Shopify.

What sold us was Shopify's dedication to e-commerce. It wasn't just about their platform, but their entire ecosystem of apps, tutorials, and articles, all focused on making your store better. It's also optimized for mobile and focused on fast load times. We were able to build a responsive website somewhat painlessly.

Of course, that doesn't mean there weren't challenges along the way. We're still using NetSuite for all of our accounting and inventory management, so we had to link these two platforms together and make sure they played nicely. Importing thousands of items from one store to the other wasn't an easy task either. I spent weeks combing through spreadsheets and photos, organizing and categorizing. Even now there's a long list of improvements and optimization that need to happen. Websites aren't a static thing and we will continue to tweak and tinker because that's what we do.

We all take great pride in our business and the work we do every day. This new site is a reflection of our efforts to give you a better shopping experience and elevate our brand in this ever changing cannabis landscape. I hope you enjoy the new 420Science.com. Please send us any feedback that you'd like to share.