21+ checkout that can clear

A THC cart has to survive age verification, processor risk, delivery rules, and adult signature. Visibility without a checkout that can clear is a brochure.

I am in Michigan. I build for licensed operators. Operator to operator. No stoner-bro. No wellness wash. The floor door on this site is /cannabis. The longer visibility argument is Cannabis visibility when the ad accounts are banned. This note is the cart.

The short answer

• If the order dies at the age check, the processor, the zone, or the porch, the site did not do its job.
• 21+ is not a sticker in the footer. Age-gates and identity checks live on your stack, on your accounts. This studio’s contact form does not collect IDs.
• Delivery rules and adult signature are product facts. If a zip cannot be fulfilled, it does not go in the cart.
• The remaining acquisition channel is still the models. That only matters if someone can finish an order.
• I do not invent a ship-to list, a COA, or a medical claim so the catalogue looks fuller.

The lead case already shipped is Divine Toke — Metrc, 21+, adult-signature, cannabis payment rails, no paid acquisition, AEO-first. That is the constraint list. It is not a made-up conversion rate.

What does a THC cart have to survive?

Four failures. Any one of them turns the page into a lookbook.

Age. The buyer has to be 21+. The gate has to fire before the catalogue is a shopping trip. How you verify — date of birth, ID upload, a vendor you already pay — is your stack. I will wire the gate into the store. I will not keep a copy of a shopper’s license on spurlockstudios.com.

Processor. Most rails treat THC as a surprise. The account gets priced as high-risk or it gets dropped. The cart has to sit on rails that already accept the category, not on a plugin you hoped would “just work.”

Rules. Pickup windows, delivery zones, and what can leave the licensed premise are not marketing copy. They are the order. A site that sells a SKU into a county you cannot serve is a compliance problem with a buy button.

Signature. Adult signature on delivery is part of the product, not a carrier afterthought. If the porch cannot take the package under your rules, the SKU should not have offered that zip.

I will not write you a wellness paragraph to paper over a cart that fails any of those four.

Why do processors bounce the order?

Because the category is the risk. The processor is not confused about your brand story. They are looking at MCC codes, chargeback posture, and whether the goods are plant-touching.

A generic “high-risk” add-on that you bolt on after a theme install is how orders sit in pending until someone in accounting notices the account is gone. Cannabis-priced rails are a constraint of the build, the same way Metrc is a constraint of the build. You name the processor you can actually keep. I do not invent one.

That is why Divine Toke is in the book the way it is: the payment path was absorbed into the site instead of left as a ticket for the operator. I will not attach a clearance rate to it. The work proves the shape.

If you only have a wholesale path and no D2C cart, say so in week one. Then we are talking inquiry and terms, not a consumer checkout. Do not put a fake “Shop” in the nav because a designer thought every site needs one.

Where do the age checks live?

On the client site. On the client’s accounts.

Age-gates and identity checks — date of birth, ID scan, a third-party verifier — live in the store stack you operate. I will build the gate, the blocked state, and the path back to the catalogue after a pass. I will not collect those IDs on this studio’s contact form, and I will not keep a copy of a shopper’s license.

That is not a slogan. It is the same rule on /cannabis and in the privacy copy: plant-touching work is in scope; storing your buyers’ identity on my form is not.

If your counsel wants a specific vendor or a specific fail-closed behavior, we write it down. I do not invent an age, a license, or a “we card at the door” sentence that the site does not enforce.

What if pickup, delivery, or signature fails?

Then the money never should have been taken.

Pickup is hours, hold time, and who is allowed to collect. If the menu says today and the counter cannot fulfill today, the site is lying. Delivery is licensed zones, carrier rules, and adult signature. If the buyer is not home, or is not 21+, the package does not complete. That has to be explained before the card is charged, not in a tracking email after.

Live carrier rates only help if the zone list is true. I will not invent a ship-to map you cannot run. Limited states are fine when you are licensed there and the rails and the delivery rules are real. I will not paint a national cart over a one-state license.

The visibility work in the parent note still matters. Models will name a shop that states hours, menu, and license facts. They will also name a shop whose cart is a dead end. Getting cited for a brochure is not a win.

Where to start

• Default build is the Business Site at $8,000 — this is regulated commerce, not a Creator House. Menu or catalogue, 21+ gate, quote or checkout, schema a model can read.
• If you only want the read on whether the machines can name you: the $500 Visibility audit.
• Floor call and brief live on /cannabis. Bring the state you are licensed in and what the cart must clear.

Do you store customer IDs?

Not on this studio’s contact form. Age-gates and 21+ checks on a client store live on your stack, on your accounts. I do not keep a copy of a shopper’s license.

Can you take the site live in a limited state?

If you are licensed there and the payments and delivery rules are real, yes. I do not invent a ship-to list you cannot fulfill.

Do I need a consumer cart if I only do wholesale?

No. Then the first ship is wholesale inquiry, lots, and terms — not a DTC theme with the prices stripped. Say that in week one so we do not build the wrong door.

Will this get me banned from ads?

You are not buying ads. That is the point. I will not sell you a Meta workaround and call it a channel. The site has to take the order the ads will not send.