A guide on how to boost sales, increase dispensary loyalty, and celebrate the biggest day in the cannabis industry

This 4/20, the most popular joint in town will be your dispensary, with a little help from these tips on how to plan for the holiday. Boost customer visits and sales, and most importantly, improve your shop’s loyalty experience to create customers that stick year-round.

face the facts: 4/20 sells big-time

Let’s quickly take a look at some metrics from the 2016 holiday business boom. According to research conducted by MJ Freeway, dispensaries celebrated an average 20% sales jump during last year’s festivities and a 13% sales increase during the week leading up to the big day. One dispensary even saw a 300% bump in their average daily foot traffic on 4/20 alone. Those percentages will not only affect your holiday but more importantly the rest of your business year.

The data says it all. Market experts don’t regard 4/20 as the cannabis industry’s Black Friday for nothing. More deals for your customers means more sales for you!

Here is our guide to taking advantage of the celebratory sentiment and guaranteeing your dispensary a significant boost, not only on 4/20 but also during the year ahead.

what’s your plan this 4/20?

The cannabis industry is not just an industry; it is a family. As laws, market practices, and consumer tendencies continue to radically evolve, the industry has morphed in recent years into one that is both nationally and internationally prominent, one that is simultaneously transforming and transformative.

What better way is there to mark these transformations than with a holiday devoted to the real drivers of this industry — your customers! Making sure you are stocked for the holiday — especially with their favorite products — is imperative if you want to usher in daylong sales. By providing products, discounts, and BOGOs worthy of your customers’ dedication to your dispensary, you can ensure that newcomers and veterans alike feel valued and respected. Planning carefully for 4/20 and honoring what the cannabis industry is all about will guarantee a fantastic day for you and your customers.

run spirited promotions

Play off of the 4/20 spirit with some themed promotions. The ideas are endless — here are a few of our favorites:

• Spend at least $40, get 20% off your entire purchase
• Holiday grab-bags for $20: comes with a gram, a lighter, and a pack of gummies
• Buy 4 grams of our famous hybrids, get $20 off your purchase
• Your customers will love the deals, puns, and holiday cheer!

take stock

You know your customers better than anyone. We simply help you track what they love, so you can serve them best. Use springbig’s comprehensive, real-time analytics and our popular market feature to brush up and stock up on what your customers want. After checking your company dashboard and tracking your past sales, you know your cake pops sell out fast on a regular basis. Make sure you have enough available on 4/20, and thank your customers for their devotion with a nice deal on that sweet treat.

Conversely, be sure to check out what has not been selling as effectively. With all of the 4/20 foot traffic, a new customer is bound to walk in who will appreciate that oil other customers had not been too interested in. Analyze your dispensary metrics before the holiday, so you can create deals tailored by-product to best serve your visitors and clear out your stock.

text customers the details

Take care to remind your customers about your seasonal sales or new products. Anxious for the big day? You won’t even have to lift a finger on 4/20! Draft your text blasts a few days early, and then use autoconnect to set your messages ahead of time to go out at the perfect moment.

Thanks to springbig’s eye for progressive technology, you can even include images in your text campaigns. Show off those holiday grab bags, your delicious brownies, or your newest strain to keep your customers in the know and encourage them to come in for great deals on great products.

build your customer list

Because texting is quick and accessible, you can even use it to grow your customer database. When newcomers come into your shop before 4/20, kindly ask them to sign up for dispensary text messages with springbig’s new text-to-join feature, simply let them know that they can join by shooting a text message with a code (to a specific phone number chosen by you), such as “JOIN DISPENSARY420”, prompting them to sign up for your store’s loyalty and communications program. This way, while they can continue to earn points and deals, you can continue to increase sales and customer retention!

With your careful planning and keen eye for holiday spirit, customers will be pouring into your shop on 4/20, new and old. If newcomers don’t want to sign up for your texting list or loyalty program that moment, simply direct them to your dispensary website, where you now have the option to add Join buttons, allowing new customers to join your texting and emailing lists. They can even input their favorite products, so that they can receive deals especially catered to their interests.

perfect dispensary loyalty

Before 4/20, put yourself in your customers’ shoes. With springbig’s Wallet interface, you can customize your dispensary’s loyalty and rewards program, right from your dashboard and the look and feel of your wallet (colors, images, background and more), just let us know! The Wallet allows you to see what your customers are seeing when they check out dispensary promotions on their own phones. You can even play around with colors, backgrounds, and logos to create the perfect loyalty experience.

You can even use this feature to track campaigns and offers, to analyze how well your campaigns are performing and in what ways they can be improved to optimize the consumer experience.

think ahead

Your veteran customers will surely pop into your store on 4/20 to celebrate with you, but you’ll also see a bunch of new faces as well! Show these newcomers the best of what your dispensary has to offer, and encourage them to return for more. Once 4/20 has come and gone, reach out shortly after to all new customers, offering a deal to be used when they come back for another visit.

Word of mouth is also a key feature of any great business-boosting model, so use that to your advantage! You may wish to run a campaign for customers who invite 5 or more of their friends to visit and make a purchase at your dispensary.

final thoughts

4/20 is rapidly approaching, and your dispensary is surely already buzzing. Keep your customers in mind when planning for the big day, which, if implemented optimally, can truly be a launchpad for a year of customer loyalty, increased revenue, and overall success for your business. Familiarize yourself with our new features, created with you in mind to make even the busiest days like 4/20 run as smoothly and effectively as possible.

Did you know that the 4/20 hype has technically been around since the ‘70’s? That is what this industry is all about — infusing the old with the new, combining tried and true values such as utmost dedication to customers with innovative technology and new products to optimize the business experience. This 4/20, optimize your own customers’ experience and celebrate what this industry stands for. We’re simply here to help along the way!