Debra Borchardt
Cyber Monday may have become the biggest shopping day for traditional retail, but bricks continue to rule the day for the cannabis industry. Cannabis software company Baker tallied up its sales results for the past holiday weekend and Black Friday was the big winner. Sales did rise for Cyber Monday, but it came in third place when compared to Wednesday and Friday.
Cart values rose 11% for Cyber Monday for the dispensaries that Baker works with as order volume increased 746% versus a typical Monday. “Almost every single dispensary client of ours across 15 states ran a promotion yesterday around Cyber Monday and customers responded extremely well to it,” said Baker CEO Joel Milton. “We even had clients launch online ordering in the last few weeks to prepare for this past weekend and they saw instant returns!”
Green Wednesday or Weed Wednesday (the day before Thanksgiving) is still a big trigger for sales and came in second place. Milton noted that last year Baker talked about how people geared up for the holidays with cannabis and the data proves this trend is still ongoing. “We saw online orders rise 774% from our dispensaries with the order sizes and average carts, up 13.6% compared with a typical Wednesday,” he said.
However, Black Friday will now get named Green Friday since it seemed to come out on top and broke records. The average online cart was a whopping $105 with double-digit growth. Baker saw a 568% increase in orders over a typical Friday, the busiest day of a standard week. Almost every dispensary from its 700+ clients ran a Green Friday promotion, on par with general retail “Black Friday” sales, and the promotions brought cart sizes way up.
The trend in traditional retail found that year over year in-store traffic actually fell on Black Friday as online sales posted almost a 20% growth. The cannabis industry so far has bucked that trend. Even with the majority of dispensaries closed on Thanksgiving, from Weed Wednesday through Cyber Monday, Baker recorded record-breaking stats from its loyalty program with the highest usage of new and repeat customers over the 6 day period ever, while online growth powered by Baker posted even larger gains!
The data supports the efforts by the cannabis industry to go mainstream and normalize in states where it is legal. Dispensaries continue to break records during the holidays as shoppers mostly make their trips to physical stores. Yet, technology is ubiquitous with shopping and so even cannabis consumers are finding ways to incorporate online shopping with cannabis consumption.
“We are also seeing the rise of e-commerce disrupting general retail and even dispensaries,” said Milton. “The engagement rates illuminate how consumers are using technology to beat lines and shop for goods online, and Baker is empowering the cannabis industry retailers with this tool.”
Dispensaries and their online menus are becoming a destination for many shoppers around Thanksgiving, right next to Walmart, Best Buy, and Amazon.
