This Thanksgiving, give your customers what they want and help them smoke more than just their turkeys. Holidays are huge days for sales in the cannabis industry, and Thanksgiving time is no different.

Like we said, the holidays are crucial times for cannabis dispensaries to boost revenues and make their sales numbers before years end. While most of the time people forget about thanksgiving all together and skip straight to Christmas, as a dispensary it is important that you leverage every opportunity to increase sales, including Thanksgiving.

Cannabis customers have shown us time and time again that they’re wanting to spend big on the holidays. The biggest holiday for the cannabis industry is obviously 4/20, and for obvious reasons: It’s dedicated to cannabis. According to springbig data collected from client sales leading up to and during 4/20 last year, sales jumped by approximately 197% from $2,471,420 on March 20 to $7,33,210 a month later. Visits also soared by approximately 127% from 47,329 visits on March 20 to 107,491 visits by April 20.

Non-cannabis holidays are no different: Other holidays such as Labor Day and the 4th of July are also big days in the cannabis industry. Labor Day is said to be the third-highest sales period of the year in the cannabis industry behind July 4th and 4/20, and recent studies by BDS analytics suggest that Labor Day weekend could be the busiest multi-sales period of the year in the cannabis industry. When it comes to the 4th of July, According to Green Entrepreneur, shoppers spend $400 million on cannabis products in the week leading up to July 4th, a 60% increase compared to the national weekly average.

While Thanksgiving doesn’t seem like a holiday for cannabis sales, a recent report from Bloomberg shows that cannabis customers are big fans of Turkey Day. According to the article, sales begin to increase the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and trickle over to the Friday. These two days, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and the Friday after, have become notorious in their ability to increase sales of cannabis and thus have been deemed “Green Wednesday,” and, “Green Friday.” According to Headset, Green Wednesday 2019 had 40% greater total sales than the average sales on the four previous Wednesdays.

So, how can you take advantage of the hype surrounding the Thanksgiving holiday?

Leverage and communicate with your loyalty rewards members

The oven isn’t the only thing on high this thanksgiving as customers, and especially your loyalty members will be looking to bake themselves as well as their turkeys.

In increasing sales this Thanksgiving, leveraging your loyalty members and communicating with them is a must. Here, exclusive discounts and special offers will be key to enticing them to come in and spend big, and the best way to get these to your customers is through text message marketing. Here are a couple Thanksgiving marketing campaigns that you can send to your loyalty members to get them excited for the big day.

“Hey (customer name)! This Thanksgiving, put more than one type of roll on the table. Come in between now and the Friday after Thanksgiving to receive 20% off edible products!

or

“Hey (customer name)! Chill out your over-opinionated uncle by bringing some infused brownies or other edibles this Thanksgiving. Here’s a special voucher for a free edible with a purchase of $50 or more to get you started!”

Leverage discounts to drive visits and sales

These kinds of discounts and sales mentioned above will be huge in driving sales this Thanksgiving, and while giving your loyalty members some exclusive discounts will help, you can’t forget about your other customers.

Especially on Green Wednesday, pushing discounts is a must. Last Wednesday, the average rate of discount increased by 14.2% which drove a large increase in sales according to Headset. That’s why getting active and advertising some more generic thanksgiving discounts will be key to getting those less-frequent or first-time customers through your doors. In this, pushing these sales through your social media channels will be key.

Pay attention to past trends

If you want to make the most out of your discounts, sales, and the Holiday in general, then it’s important that you pay attention to customer trends.

Last year on Green Wednesday, edibles and beverages were the winning categories, which means that shoppers were taking advantage of the time to purchase lower frequency or “gifty” products according to Headset.

Tailoring your discounts and general offerings to this insight will be key to boosting your overall sales this Thanksgiving.

Get festive

An obvious but important part of increasing sales decorating to the big day. If you’re doing all of this work to push your Thanksgiving-themed sales and if you’re frequently sending your loyalty members Thanksgiving-cannabis puns, then you’ll want to fully commit by decorating your dispensary or even having a small event for your dispensary customers

Get active on social media

Another obvious but extremely important step to making the most of Thanksgiving is to make sure that you’re active on social media.

Thanksgiving presents itself as a perfect opportunity to fill up a good amount of space on your social media post schedule. Getting active on social media is a great way to show your customer how you’re getting ready for Turkey Day and boost customer engagement.

Recap

Now that you’re well read on the topic of Thanksgiving in the cannabis industry, it’s time for you to make the most of it at your dispensary. In doing this, leveraging sales and adhering to customers trends is a must, as well as just showing your holiday spirit.

Here’s to a great Thanksgiving 2020! Don’t forget to load your plate with extra greens this year!