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Benzinga
Benzinga
Business
Vuk Zdinjak

Two Entrepreneurs Launch CBD Supplements Marketplace, Emulating Planet Fitness' Strategy For Success

Two businessmen are launching what they aim to be the internet's one-stop marketplace for CBD supplements, striving to end the stigma of gummies, oils, and more with a welcoming site that touts many products.

Alexander Zebnitski and Toby Yankee are the brains behind CBD Supplements, a new website that provides a different way of buying and selling items infused with CBD. While THC derived from cannabis plants, also known as marijuana, gets people high, CBD doesn’t have that intoxicating effect.

Instead, products containing CBD have been shown in test after test to help with a wide range of health issues, ranging from insomnia to chronic pain. Customers can use CBD Supplements’ filters to find a product that exactly fits their needs.

CBD Supplements offers e-commerce marketplace dedicated solely to CBD and hemp, and it enables sellers of all sizes by giving them the ability to grow through the platform. The company not only makes it easier for CBD vendors to reach customers but also handles shipping label generation, taxes, marketing, order status updates, and more.

“The process is very simple. Sellers create an account, configure their store, add products, and then ship the products out. The rest is on us” stated Zebnitski.

Despite CBD’s known benefits, Zebnitski notes that the industry has faced numerous setbacks, including an ongoing stigma from the general public who immediately draw links to THC. It doesn’t help that some lawmakers in Congress continue to blur the lines between the two substances, which has the effect of exacerbating CBD’s unwarranted bad reputation.

Zebnitski compares the quest behind CBD Supplements in transforming the industry as similar to the effect that Planet Fitness (NYSE:PLNT) had on disrupting the fitness industry. “Before Planet Fitness became so popular, there were some negative associations about the gym, it was seen as an intimidating and unwelcoming place for many people,” he continued. “Planet Fitness took a market that applied to the 10 percent who liked that image and opened it up to the other 90 percent.”

The strategy paid off many times over for Planet Fitness, which continues to expand across the world as people respond favorably to its trademark of being a “judgment-free zone,” and it’s an approach that CBD Supplements is emulating to end the stigma on CBD products “More people than ever are working out now because the stigma has dissipated,” Zebnitski added.

The FDA on its website notes that it has approved only one CBD product, “a prescription drug product to treat seizures associated with Lennox Gastaut syndrome, Dravet syndrome, or tuberous sclerosis complex in people one year of age and older.”

And the agency says, “It is currently illegal to market CBD by adding it to a food or labeling it as a dietary supplement. The FDA has seen only limited data about CBD safety and these data point to real risks that need to be considered before taking CBD for any reason. Some CBD products are being marketed with unproven medical claims and are of unknown quality.”

Photo by Tim Foster on Unsplash

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