What to Look for in a CBD Retailer
As CBD products continue to grow in popularity, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the number of online retailers available. And as you might expect, not all of them are selling products with the same quality, potency, or consistency.
Fortunately, if you do a little bit of homework, it becomes easy to zero in on the most promising retailers. Once you’ve done so, it isn’t too difficult or costly to sample a few products and draw a firm conclusion about which CBD retailer is the best match for you.
Be Aware of Product Details
While your final choice will come down to personal preference, the whole process of shopping for CBD products should start by culling the field to remove any sellers who might be misrepresenting their product or withholding information that consumers need in order to make an informed decision.
When you start comparing your options, be on the lookout for vague product descriptions, a lack of detail about the origin of the seller’s CBD, and a refusal to provide independent verification of their claims about the product. If you’re aware of these red flags, you’re already halfway through the process of separating deceptive CBD retailers from reliable ones.
You don’t necessarily need to demand that your CBD retailer puts all of their information up front on their website. But if anything ever seems to be missing, you should at least be able to reach out to that retailer directly in order to clarify product details or underlying evidence. If you can’t get in touch with a customer service representative or the response seems evasive, you should probably leave that retailer alone.
Expect Claims to Be Supported by Evidence
Of course, there are some basic details that absolutely should be on every product description page. Chief among them is the actual quantity of CBD in the product. But don’t be satisfied with just the amount that is supposedly present in the entire package. Look for descriptions that give a specific number of milligrams present in each dose. That is the only way you can correctly manage your expectations for the product, or compare it to similar products from other CBD retailers.
If the product then fails to live up to your expectations, it could be a sign of low-quality CBD, or it could mean that the product doesn’t actually have as much of the substance as its description claims. But you should never have to waste your money in order to find that out.
The most reliable CBD retailers submit samples of their products to laboratories and receive Certificates of Analysis in return, which identify the precise amount of each type of cannabinoid that can be found in one dose. Some websites include those results for all to see. (Lion X Wellness includes downloadable versions under a “lab results” tab at the bottom of product description pages.) Others hold them back until contacted by especially discerning consumers.
Compare and Contrast
Those sorts of consumers should be able to tell, based on readily available information, which CBD products are worth trying out. But in the end, the only way to determine which is best for you personally is by testing several of them and comparing the strength and longevity of their effects.
That said, if you’ve had good experience with one product from a certain retailer, you can be pretty sure that it reflects positively on the sourcing and the quality of their CBD in general. You can be even more confident in this if you’ve also found the retailer to be transparent and responsive to inquiries.
If ingredient lists seem complete, Certificates of Analysis are accessible, and existing customer reviews don’t raise any red flags, then the best thing for you to do might be to stick to retailer you’ve had good experience with, at least until you have a compelling reason to try something new.