Blog

How to Optimize Your Discounting Strategy for 4/20 and Beyond

By
Treez Team
A sale tag hovers over cannabis leaves

With 4/20 right around the corner, and most dispensaries running deals all year long, the Treez team wants to help you maximize your revenue opportunity. In this webinar - our Product Marketing Manager, Emily Miller, and AskTreez Business Intelligence Lead, Matt Lynch, show you how to build effective discount strategies informed by data. Attract new customers, create loyalty, and increase your basket sizes and ticket volume for the biggest cannabis sales day of the year with these helpful tips. 

To gain a fuller understanding of all of our tips for building an effective discount strategy, we highly advise registering for the on-demand webinar using the form above/below. That said, this article will give you a high-level overview with some essential tips to get you started.

4/20 Cannabis Industry Growth Data

With increasing legalization each year, the numbers we see for retailers on 4/20 just get better. Here is a quick summary of what we found in our data platform, AskTreez.

  • The average transaction count on 4/20 for cannabis retailers increased by nearly 30% between 2020 and 2021 according to AskTreez data.
A graph shows a bar chart of transaction counts, comparing 2021 and 2020 - the 2021 bar has 3984 transactions and the 2020 bar has 3072
  • The average number of items per order has risen from 3.73 in 2020 to 3.89 in 2021. However, the average order value has decreased from $89.51 in 2020 to $86.40 in 2021.
  • New customers during 4/20 also increased from 13.98% in 2020 to 16.16% in 2021.
A bar chart shows the comparison of existing customers and new customers by year - 2017 is 71% existing, 28.9% new, 2018 is 64% existing, 38% new, 2019 is 72% existing, 28% new, 2020 is 86% existing, 14% new, 2021 is 83% existing, 16% new

Tips for building a discount strategy to maximize revenue on 4/20 and beyond

  1. Determine your goals. What goals do you have for your growth and how do you prioritize them? Are you a new dispensary looking to grow your customer base? Are top-line sales or bottom-line margins more important to you in the near term? Or are you looking to build loyalty among the customer base you've already attracted? Answering these questions and coming up with your own will help you define your priorities and focus your strategy on what matters most.
  2. Make sure your discounting strategy is profitable. AskTreez data revealed that any discount over 40% gives you the lowest margins. We recommend setting different discount tiers and analyzing your margin for each of those tiers. This practice and information will inform your larger strategy.
  3. Align your discount types to your overall strategy. For example, AskTreez data reveals that BOGOs are the best discounts to improve sales, while mix and match bundles perform best in customer retention and loyalty.
  4. Promote your discounts online, or try to incentivize more word of mouth. AskTreez reveals that most dispensary referrals come from Weedmaps and word of mouth. The next largest referral source was Google. If your local rules and regulations allow for it, leverage online advertising to promote your discounts to get new customers. To increase word of mouth, create a discount that will incentivize folks to tell others in their network about your dispensary.

Inform your discounting strategy for 4/20 and beyond with Treez

The Treez team is your strategic partner in helping grow your dispensary. AskTreez gives you dynamic market data to help you make strategic decisions around your discounts for 4/20 and beyond. 

If you're a current Treez customer and need help building your discounts, please reach out to support@treez.io. 

If you're not yet using Treez in your dispensary, contact us for a free, no-obligation demo. 

Happy 4/20 to all! 

More articles