Dispensaries often plan retail events and promotions around national cannabis holidays like 4/20 and ‘Danksgiving’ to boost sales around known periods of high foot traffic and profitability. But how can dispensaries maintain a steady stream of repeat customers during ordinary days of the week? This post takes a closer look at the most popular sales days and times of the week and how cannabis retailers can maximize their marketing campaign engagement and sales during those periods.
According to industry data provided by Headset, Friday between 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM is the most popular time of the week to shop for cannabis in the U.S. Fridays are the most popular shopping day of the week, making up 18.3% of sales, and is followed by Saturday, which makes up 16.5% of weekly sales. The Canadian market follows a similar pattern but has a marginally narrower popular shopping window of 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM on Fridays.
With these key insights, dispensaries in the U.S. and Canada can develop smarter dispensary marketing strategies that cater to these consumer trends. Dispensaries can time customer communications, in-store promotions, and weekly events around these popular shopping windows.
Timing Your SMS Marketing Strategy
springbig has previously detailed the best times of the day to text customers, but how can retailers take their SMS promotions to the next level? Text messages about dispensary promotions and events are typically most effective when they are sent within 24 hours of the event, which means that retailers should notify customers on either Thursday afternoon or Friday morning to take advantage of the additional foot traffic through the weekend. Sending out text messages during this window not only keeps these promotions at the forefront of customers’ minds but may also encourage customers to stop by the dispensary during their free time if they hadn’t originally planned on paying a visit.
Align Promotions With Weekend Shopping
A smart way to boost dispensary brand loyalty and retention is by timing product sales and promotions during peak shopping periods on Friday and Saturday. Retailers can take advantage of this weekend’s spike in consumer interest by offering promotions on new products or products that are underperforming. For example, if a dispensary notices that topical and capsules are underperforming compared to the rest of its inventory, but prerolls are flying off the shelves, they can offer a discount on prerolls with every tincture purchase over the weekend. Individual retailers will need to consult their own POS systems to determine which products they want to sell more of. Dispensaries should also appropriately staff their locations during these busy periods and make sure that there are enough budtenders and cashiers to make the purchasing experience as seamless as possible for customers.
Schedule Events to Coincide with Peak Hours
Peak shopping hours on Fridays and Saturdays are also lucrative opportunities for dispensaries to throw events to promote new products or educate customers about the cannabis industry. These are prime times to organize events like tastings, tutorials on rolling joints, or using concentrates and panels featuring local entrepreneurs to maximize customer engagement. These dispensary sales ideas not only take advantage of weekend foot traffic but also show customers that the dispensary cares about improving their cannabis experiences. Hosting curated events that focus on different interests can help retain customers for longer periods of time.
