Maximizing Cannabis Retail Revenue: Essential Tips and Strategies
We are going to share with you some of the most helpful tips for increasing your cannabis retail revenue. Through helping cannabis operators through their journey, we have compiled a few different techniques that can be universally used to improve your bottom line.
Upselling is one of the oldest sales strategies used across all sales environments. Upselling isn’t about just tossing out product ideas for what the customer may or may not need. Rather, it’s about maximizing the impact of a purchase by thoughtfully increasing the amount someone is spending in one visit, in a way that is beneficial to them as a customer and won’t lead to buyer’s remorse.
Here at Vende, we understand that customers may be coming in with a specific goal in mind for their purchase, however, part of the customer experience is ensuring that you help them carefully select products that meet their needs while encouraging them to purchase more from your store.
11 Quick Tips
11 quick tips to increase customer experience while also increasing the bottom line for your cannabis retail store.
1. Play the Long Game
Through years of experience, we have noticed one thing that is universal across most retailers. They are all trying to get rich off of one sale. There is no business, unless you are a government contractor, this is just not the case. Do not act like it or price your products as such. Always keep in mind that you need the customer for a long lifetime, not one big purchase.
2. Create a Sense of Urgency for Certain Deals
People like to be in on something that is a limited-time offer that they may not be able to get at a later date. While you never want to put unnecessary pressure on your customers, it is hard to pass up a good deal that they may not ever see again.
Create limited-time offers that customers won’t be able to ever see again in your store, showing them that if they don’t buy now, they’ll be missing out on some big cost savings and a chance to have some of the hottest products on the market.
3. Build Loyalty Through Exclusivity
Everyone likes to feel recognized and valued, and one way to ensure that is through building a Loyalty Program that helps increase the long-term value of your customer. Be creative about what your Loyalty Program entails, whether it’s a percentage off their purchases or access to members-only discounts that make them add more products to their regular purchase habit.
With Loyalty Programs being a dime a dozen, be creative with what you offer, and how you engage your customers so that their participation in the Loyalty Program actually translates into customer retention.
4. Use Displays Thoughtfully
It’s amazing what people will purchase when it’s put right in front of their eyes, and using displays in your store in an intentional way could lead to greater purchases by your customers. What is your POS telling you about what products are selling? What mid- to high-range products are proving to satisfy your customer?
Carefully display these items close to check out or in a central display area of your store to ensure it makes its ways into the eyes of the customer, and hopefully into their bag.
5. Focus on Customer Experience
The modern sales environment goes beyond customer service to encompass customer experience. Customer experience, or CX, refers to the customer's broader journey through an organization, including every interaction between the customer and the business.
As we have mentioned in a previous piece, customer experience includes customer service and utilizing tools such as data and analytics, customer feedback surveys, and loyalty programs to understand ALL aspects of the customer’s full experience with the retail store. What is your store’s approach to cultivating customer experience over simply customer service? Be the brand that people enjoy purchasing from!
6. Use Your Display Media to Full Advantage
Your display media and digital menus are an excellent way to showcase exciting new products while also spreading awareness and cannabis education. Use your display media to add a personal touch to your store, while featuring products that entice customers to try out new things.
Using photos, videos, and other engaging media ensures that people of all literacy levels are included in the cannabis experience, and are able to receive the important education about products that will ensure a pleasant and safe experience.
7. Introduce Them to New Methods of Consumption
For some people, they’re set in their ways in how they like to consume cannabis. However, there is such a wave of innovation happening in cannabis that all consumers would be remiss not to try out new things.
Even if you know a customer likes one thing and is pretty stuck in their ways, introduce them to new methods of consumption that provide an alternative to, or replicate the cannabis experience they’re used to. For instance, if someone regularly smokes flower, introduce them to oil or herb vaporizers. If someone is only into edibles, ask them if they’ve considered smoking flower to get a different effect, or vice versa.
8. Set Sales Targets with Benefits
Enticing people to spend “just a little more” to receive a certain benefit is one of the oldest retail strategies that have been used across industries. Create sales campaigns that invite people to reach a certain sales point that gets them something extra.
For instance, if they spend $75 in your store, they’ll earn points towards store credit on a future purchase, or get a free accessory.
9. Encourage Purchases Up to the Legal Limit
While purchase limits sound like they’re a mechanism for controlling consumption, one is actually able to purchase quite a bit of product legally in one day.
While some customers may come in for only an eighth at a time, encourage them to consider purchasing a higher quantity that will end up in long-term savings for the customer yet a larger purchase for the store.
10. Use Holidays for Creative Sales
It’s no secret to the cannabis industry that sales tend to go up around holidays, especially around April 20, or 420.
Use data from your business management and compliance software to analyze what people are buying and what times around the holidays. This will help you maximize the times in which there is a natural influx of store traffic to display some of your highest-selling and higher-valued products.
11. Know Your Customer Through Data
Use your data and insights, as well as the information available in your POS to point out things your customer may like, based on what you know about them, their demographic, and their purchase history. POS data is a gold mine for getting inside your customer’s head, especially if you are able to see a customer’s purchase history through a Loyalty Program.
Customers love it when their budtenders can see what they like and recommend purchases that compliment their tastes and buying profiles. Use these opportunities to introduce your customer to more premium products that will bring their consumption experience to the next level and will result in a higher-value purchase.
As you have read in this article it is not as straightforward as other industries. Operating a cannabis business is extremely difficult, and not having the know-how can really affect your bottom line. Vende POS is made to help its clients run the business they have always wanted. Providing you with all the necessary tools for your business to succeed is our goal. Schedule a demo with us today and see how running your business on the Vende platform can help you increase sales.