Retail Quick Start Guide

This guide will help you get the nuts and bolts of your account squared away

Contents include:

I. Create your Alpine IQ account

II. Alpine IQ General Settings

III. Configuring Alpine IQ

You should have received the link to create your account in your Welcome to Alpine IQ email. If you haven't done so yet, refer to that email and click to



• Company Name - make sure this is the name of the actual dispensary and not your LLC or parent company name
• Admin email - make sure this email is different from the one you plan to use as an actual user of the platform. You cannot use emails cross-functionally in Alpine IQ
• Compliance - if you plan on allowing customers to accrue points as part of your loyalty program, make sure Loyalty points are allowed is selected

• Current POS: select the point of sale you'll be using while on Alpine IQ. While this doesn't affect the functionality of the platform, it does help us collect information to continue to improve as an organization and better support your business

• username - must be a working email address that the user has access to so they can set their password
• Roles - Create users and assign them a role based on their responsibilities. See the table below for a list of Roles and what parts of the platform those roles have access to



• Store name - if you have multiple locations, we suggest using [company name] - [location name] as your naming convention to keep things consistent
• Store nickname - if you have multiple locations, we suggest using the above [location name] as the store's nickname
• Online shop URL - this is the URL for your e-commerce website, not your company's main website

Click Complete Setup and continue setting up your account below

Now that your account is created, visit lab.alpineiq.com and log in using the username you created. You're in! Click on Settings in the top left-hand corner and start setting up your account

Update your contact information and/or password as needed

Enable SSO for your users to seamlessly log into their Alpine IQ accounts using their Google or Microsoft emails

1.A user with Owner permissions should head to Account Settings > Account toggles, add your Microsoft or Google domains and flip the toggles to green, & Save account settings.



2. Log out of Alpine IQ and when you log back in you'll see the option to sign in via Google or Microsoft. Any new user you add will now have the ability to enable Single sign-on when they log in to Alpine IQ.



Store name(s) -



Edit location - if your stores' contact information changes or if you change e-commerce platforms, update it here



Customize location

• Map store names - after you've connected your POS, ensure data is being linked to their respective stores by clicking on the field and selecting the corresponding location.
• Club signup - this location's unique Main Sign-up form URL
• Store Review links - Add any location-specific links (Google Place ID, Yelp, Leafly...) here. Any brand-wide links should be uploaded in the Reviews section under [Configure Alpine IQ]

Create users and assign them a role based on their responsibilities within your organization. See the table below for a list of Roles and what parts of the platform those roles have access to



To create a new user, click Add user in the top-right hand corner of the page and a popup will appear. Add the necessary information to each field and click the green Add User button.

See total spend and all individual invoices. You can also expand an invoice by using the + button to see a breakdown of charges

This is your unique API key. You'll need this when connecting certain e-commerce and point-of-sale systems. This also has more granular information about our REST API that you or your developers can use when creating custom systems integrations. For more information about our REST API, click here (REST API docu)

Place this Javascript pixel within your website, e-commerce, GTM, or landing page code to track page views, link clicks, and other web engagements. Create Audiences based on customers that have clicked on specific products and send them targeted messages about that product

• Change profile/cover pic - these will be the default images for your Wallet App. For more information on customizing the wallet, check out Configuring Alpine IQ. Image sizing requirements available on PDF below

• Company Name - the name of the actual store unless you're operating multiple brands from one Alpine IQ account in which case you'll input the name of the parent company
• Walled garden - leave this (ON) to be compliant with the most up-to-date SMS marketing regulations.
• Require phone number captcha - set to (OFF) for a seamless and secure way for customers to view your SMS campaigns. 
• Loyalty points - set this to (ON) to let your customers see their available points in their digital wallet. For more information, check out [Loyalty Settings]
• Automatic UTM tracking - set this to (ON) to track clicks and traffic via Google Analytics or similar platforms that store and follow UTMs
• Referred By - if applicable, choose the company that referred you to Alpine IQ
• Sales Rep - the Account Executive (sales person) you worked with



User activity: A section of the platform where you can see user activities and actions taken within the platform. Filter by Date Range to see a high-level view of all users' actions or add a User's email to see activity from that specific user.

The object is the part of the platform that was created, updated, or manipulated in any way by the user.



Points activity: Any changes to your customers' points are available on the graph and table below. A red block suggests an anomaly in points adjustment activity.





How to set up the look and feel of your account

Here is where you will be able to customize the customer-facing pages that we generate. The left side of the screen contains all the settings that able to be altered and will update the preview on the right with sample information.

• Consumer alert - shows on the top of the web wallet/ login page/ and signup page
• Header (Logos, cover area, brand) - change the top of the wallet and sign up page, hide/show logo and brand name
• Captcha, landing page and consumer alert - Change a store's texting logo or alter the captcha logo and text
• Basic style / colors - manipulate the colors of the wallet includes buttons and progress bars. *must be CSS-friendly!
• Wallet Web-app login settings - customize the text fields that display on the customer wallet login page
• Wallet Web-app main settings - Hide or show certain functions of the wallet based on your store needs
• Wallet Web-app icons - replace default icons with your own icons
• CSS (Advanced overrides, fonts, etc.) - Inject custom CSS to override styles, use the right section as a reference
• Discount settings - Disable whether your customers can redeem on their own phone, change redeem button text
• Sign up page settings - Alter the text for the Address field on the signup page

Using our signup form is the recommended way to capture new loyalty members and trigger optins. 1. Head to Configure Alpine IQ > Sign Up Forms



2. Pick the copy you want to show on the sign up:

• Page title - Displays at the top of form under the banner
• Body text - Describe what they are signing up for
• Consent text - Used to legally cover that you are asking for sign up consent and age-gating
• Thank you message - Pop up that shows after the form is completed



3. Choose the fields you want or need to capture:

• Required will display with a red asterisk (*) and won't pass till filled in, Optional will be allowed if blank and, Disabled will keep the field hidden

• We recommend 3-5 pieces of info for quick and meaningful captures
• Phone number + email should at least be optional in order to target via marketing



4. Share your page:

• Main signup URL - best used on your tablet in-store check out, auto refreshes after each signup
• Main signup QR Code - download the image and use for scanning in person, print out and put up
• Main signup embed - show the form on your own store site and encourage signing up there

5. Share the Wallet link

• Wallet login URL - best used on your marketing efforts to remind customers to check for points/discounts
• Wallet login QR Code - download the image and use for scanning in person, print out and put up
• Wallet login embed - show the form on your own store site and encourage signing in there



Create Custom Sign-up forms

Create additional sign-up forms without affecting your main, default sign-up form.



Set up your loyalty program under Configure Alpine IQ > Loyalty



Points accrual start date - set a day where Alpine IQ begins tracking points based on transactions we are connected to *this can be overwritten on the integration level if supported



Point Settings:

• Fill in whether you want to offer points per dollar or for visits/orders by filling in one of the top two boxes. Please use a round number that makes sense for your market and regulations.
• Choose if you want to restrain store visits/orders to a certain number
• Set an expiration for points after a certain number of days, leave a 0 to disable this feature
• Flip Yes or No to take into account tax dollars for points totals and set a date to apply going forward

Retail Settings:

• Hide points from MED customers - turn on to not show in the wallet for this customer group
• Allow budtenders to modify points - if you want to allow budtender accounts access
• Budtender can open customer wallets - recommended to leave on unless hiding discounts
• Budtender can see waiting room queue - feature is used for POS (ex: COVA)
• Deplete all points upon any redemption - will remove all points after any discount usage, use with caution
• Show temp pin code for online/native in-store redemptions - generate a unique code for customers to use during checkout
• Toggle Master Verification setting - generates a key to be used by your staff during checkout



If you would like to sound out text messages to opted-in customers, set your default message under SMS Defaults

Light hides your long form message behind a link that is placed within a basic SMS (text only) message body. This is the least reliable form of walled garden but hey... some protection is better than nothing. You will pay standard per segment SMS rates based on the length of your default SMS notice message.

Premium send your messages via the same methodology as the light version but it leverages MMS to showcase your brand logo front and center to consumers. This not only helps from a delivery standpoint but also appears far less "spammy" to your consumers. Since walled garden is rarely more than a 1 segment message, it's highly recommended and depending on your volume, required to use premium to avoid filtration. Premium also removes your brand name from the actual text body that is scanned by carrier filtration systems. You cannot swap to premium without first removing your brand name from all SMS defaults. This is the most important distinction and is extremely powerful given carriers have been making "naughty lists" of cannabis brand names. We've found 1 store operators all the way up to 100+ stores have their names on these flagged lists. If the carrier sees your brand name keyword pair, it is far more likely to be blocked in the future even if that brand name is sent from a completely new set of numbers or infront of linked domains.

• SMS Opt-message - sent after a customer signups and is used for opting in *DO NOT USE CANNABIS TERMS*
• Notice of new messages - sent out as the intial message of the Walled Garden so they can open the link to content
• Post opt-in confirmation message - Message send after someone opts in, keep it short and sweet For more information and recommendations check out - Campaigns



Before sending your first email campaign you will need to Authenticate your domain and setup Sender Settings

Before you can start sending emails through Alpine IQ, you must authenticate your domain. Domain authentication shows Alpine IQ that you do in fact own your domain name that you want to send from. To give Alpine IQ permission to send using this domain, you point DNS entries from your DNS provider (like GoDaddy, Rackspace, or Cloudflare) to Alpine.

Key Terminology:

• DNS - stands for Domain Name System. This is a naming system for domains on the internet. When we refer to your DNS, we are talking about your domain name that you want to send emails from, or that you want to link images from. When we talk about your DNS provider, we are talking about the service that hosts your domain name. For example, GoDaddy, Rackspace, or Cloudflare.
• CNAME - The CNAME record creates an alias for subdomain.yourdomain.com

Here is how to authenticate your domain:

1. In Alpine IQ, under Configure Alpine IQ, select Email Settings
2. Under Add Domain, fill in the domain that you want to send from and add advanced settings as needed. Make sure that you only enter the name of your root domain.



After clicking Save domain you will move onto the DNS section:



1. This section will reload with 3 CNAMES.
2. Next, you need to add all of the CNAME records on this screen to your DNS host. This process varies depending on your DNS host.
   • For Go Daddy instructions - click here
   • For NameCheap instructions - click here
   • For Rackspace instructions - click here
   • For Cloudflare instructions - click here
   • For Wix instructions - click here
3. Once you add the CNAME records to your DNS host, return to the Email settings page and click Validate.

(It can take up to 48 hours for the records to verify after you upload them into your DNS host, so you will likely have to come back later to verify.)

Tip: If you click verify, and only half of your CNAME records verify, this usually means that you need to wait a bit longer. It's also possible that you entered one of your records incorrectly.

Sender Settings:

1. Sender Name: Input your brand/company name
2. From email: Input the email address you want your email campaigns to be from. Usually this is some sort of shared email address, i.e: Friends@alpineiq.com, Marketing@alpineiq.com
3. Reply-to-name: When a customer replies to one of your emails, what name do want to be used as the Recipient. i.e. Support Team, Alpine IQ
4. Reply-to-email: When a customer replies to one of your emails, input what email address you would like the responses to go to.
5. Input your Address, city, state, zip and country. This information is required on the footer of all email campaigns.
6. Click save

Reviews are a great way to build your business and get more customers searching for you on the internet

Use this section to fill in your links to your social media or review sites.

• Page title changes the main headers
• Body text changes the copy you want to entice your customers to visit the pages
• Share this page contains the URL, QR code, and embed code exactly like your signup form and wallet
• Paste in username in fields to link to social media sites
• Google Places requires a Place ID

TIP: Use the {{reviewWidgetURL}} macro in SMS and Emails to send this page to customers

Alpine IQ deploys native apps with push notification functionality to facilitate loyalty, e-commerce, and messaging without interuption from cell carriers. Effective spring 2021, Apple no longer disallows facilitating cannabis sales through the app store. Our apps are compatible with iOS and Android devices.

In order to get an app for your brand live, you will need to provide Alpine IQ with access to both the Apple store/ Google play store developer accounts. Normally, we could create these store accounts for you, but both accounts require your organization be the administrator.

For more details check out the full guide here https://support.alpineiq.com/native-apps



If you're joining Alpine IQ from another loyalty, SMS, or email provider and want to import those customers and their data into Alpine or want to upload custom audiences, you have the ability to upload CSV right inside your dashboard



• Head to Connect data in the left-hand navigation bar
• Scroll down to the CSV-JSON Files integration card and click Manage
• Click Contact List
• Check out the available Column Headers. Hover over them to see acceptable formatting and what they're used for
• Once you've double-checked your CSV, click Next
• Drag and drop or select a file from your device and click Next
• Some fields will be automatically mapped to the name but anything that has not must be manually mapped using the dropdown menu. If you don't want a property mapped, select the box under Ignored
• Name the file, click the consent box and click Submit

• To avoid duplicate profiles, a phone or email must be included or the contact will not be get added
• Uploads can only include one sheet per upload - save the sheet you want from your XLS
• If a file is uploaded accidentally or incorrectly, no worries! Just delete the file and reupload with the correct values/column headers/contacts
• New contacts will be created within 24 hours of upload and will be listed as rawfiles on your Personas page

• You can trigger a double opt-in request to contacts with phone numbers when you upload a file by selecting a date next to Send text double-optin requests to contacts imported after. This function will apply to all file uploads.







Importing customers from an SMS provider:



Importing customers from a Loyalty Provider:



Importing customers from an Email Provider:



Importing a custom audience (veteran, teacher, local...)

To ensure that your messages are getting delivered to the customers who want to hear from you, Alpine has created several delivery assurance solutions and escalations

Aside from our Waterfall Delivery Assurance, we also have Walled Garden to support SMS/MMS deliverability

With Walled Garden, there are two different options you can choose from; Light or Premium. Both prevent carriers from reading keywords and blocking your domain

• Light - Hides your long-form message behind a link that is placed within a basic SMS (text only) message body. You will pay standard per segment SMS rates based on the length of your default SMS notice message.
• Premium - Send your messages via the same methodology as the light version but it leverages MMS to showcase your brand logo front and center to consumers. This not only helps from a delivery standpoint but also appears far less "spammy" to your consumers. Since Walled garden is rarely more than a 1 segment message, it's highly recommended and depending on your volume, to use Premium to avoid filtration. Premium also removes your brand name from the actual text body that is scanned by carrier filtration system



Pin Codes

If you are sending multiple text message campaigns to large audiences daily, or are continuing to have filtration issues with Premium Walled Garden, the next escalation would be moving to Pin Codes.

Pin codes are an extra layer of protection against carrier filtration and prevent human auditors from being able to access and flag your message landing page or domain.

While Pin Codes are effective for ensuring message deliverability, implementing this strategy could reduce ROI and conversions due to adding an additional step for users to access their messages.

How pin codes work:

• Your customer will receive a text notifying them that they have a notification from your brand.
• They will click the link in the message and will be sent to the Pin Code page
• Your customer will enter the last four digits of their phone number to unlock the message
• They are then sent to the landing page with your message



How to set up pin codes:

Please reach out to your Account Specialist and they will get pin codes turned on for you.

After turning on pin codes:

You will need to make sure you update or remove the captcha message that is currently set up for Walled Garden. Do this in your dashboard by heading to Settings > Branding / Design > Captcha, Landing page, & consumer alert and adding copy to the Captcha message field





You can test the pin code functionality via the Campaign builder by clicking the preview link in the SMS builder and using 1234 which is the test pin code for all SMS previews



1.If your point-of-sale requires separate API keys for each location, refer to our Point of Sale guide for steps needed to request those keys from your POS representative. When you get the keys, upload them on the appropriate integration card in the Connect Data in your Alpine IQ dashboard.

2. Add your new location in Alpine IQ by heading to Settings > Retail Stores > Add location and filling out the necessary information and click Add store.

• For the Online shop URL field, make sure you're using the URL for your actually online menu and not the URL for your main website.

3. Next you'll need to "map" the API key to your recently added store. This associates transactions from that location to the location in Alpine IQ giving you valuable analytics and segmentation opportunities. On the Retail stores page, click Customize, click on the empty field next to the POS option, click on the location/key that appears in the dropdown, and click Save settings.