Debra Borchardt
Cannabis consumers love a good holiday and July brings two in quick succession. First, of course, is the Fourth of July. Cannabis software company Akerna Corp. (NASDAQ: KERN) said that it expects Americans will spend more on cannabis this Fourth of July than chicken for their BBQs.
According to Akerna, Fourth of July-week (June 28 – July 4) cannabis sales are expected to increase by 80% compared with an average week, ringing in approximately $450 million in total sales nationally. If this keeps up, Akerna said that by 2020 Americans could end up spending more money on cannabis than they would spend on wine for the Fourth of July.
While sales are expected to begin on the weekend before the holiday, increased sales are expected to continue throughout the week. Since the Fourth falls on a Thursday this year, Wednesday’s sales are forecast to be the busiest of the year.
Akerna released these retail sales figures that they compiled through a statistically relevant analysis of the cannabis retail market analyzing data tracked in MJ Platform across 20 states, Puerto Rico and Washington D.C.
July 4th by the numbers:
- The order total on average will be $3.43 more than the average daily order total of $97.57.
- Average basket count for 2019 is 2.64. 4thof July week will ring in an average basket count of 3.12.
- Cartridge/Pens are expected to take a category share increase of 5%, as the second most popular category purchased June 28-July 4.
- In states where flower is legal, flower will be the largest sales category with 40% of all sales for retailers.
“Utilizing the largest data set in the cannabis industry, we are able to provide a unique insight into market peaks and trends to anticipate and prepare for their busiest days,” said Jessica Billingsley, Akerna’s CEO. “Cannabis sales rival the sales of traditional holiday staples. It’s time to stop looking at this industry as niche or marginal. The growth of consumer adoption is explosive as the legalization of cannabis expands and Americans across all demographic segments are incorporating cannabis into their everyday lives.”
7/10
However, the fun doesn’t end with the Fourth of July. Just as 4/20 holds significance for cannabis consumers, there is the extracts holiday on July 7. 7/10 looks like OIL spelled backward. Some take it a step further and call it Happy Dab Day to celebrate the concentrate side of the market. There is a Dab Day celebration in Miami on July 13 this year sponsored by Trulieve.
Flowhub, the seed-to-sale software company tracked a sample set of cannabis consumers on this holiday over the course of one year, and the company found that in 2017, concentrate sales rose 88% versus 2016. In 2017, Dab Day sales increased 34% for that specific day of the week. The most popular type of concentrate is shatter (by a large margin), followed by wax, vape cartridges and live resin.
