Cannabis Retail Strategies
The goal of any Cannabis Retail Store is to ensure you’re giving the customer an incredible retail experience while increasing the bottom line in sales.
As in any sales environment, budtenders, owners, and managers should always be working to increase sales by integrating innovative and effective sales strategies into their approach with customers.
Here are 5 strategies that you can implement or improve on within your cannabis retail store so to influence and increase the bottom line:
1. The Art and Science of Upselling
Upselling is the number one strategy to increase sales in a cannabis retail store. Upselling is a sales tactic that’s both an art and a science, requiring the salesperson to build rapport with the customer, stay astute to their needs, and find opportunities to increase the monetary value of what they’re putting in their basket.
Using cannabis education to help suggest new products, asking the right questions, thinking quickly on your feet, and finding ways for consumers to expand their cannabis experience is all part of upselling. As budtenders, managers, and store owners, work together to find strategies for upselling that work for what you offer and the customer base that you’re bringing into your location.
2. Creative Displays & Store Layout
It’s amazing what thoughtful displays can do to entice purchases within a cannabis retail store. Find the mid- to high- range items that people are buying by looking at the data in your POS system and use that retail intel to your advantage. Thoughtfully place these items close to check out or in a central area of your cannabis retail store so that these items intentionally meet the eye of the customer.
Also, according to retail Intel, people are more inclined to enter stores to the right, and progress through the store from that angle, so be sure to layout your store, and your displays, so that it logically matches the way your customer moves through the space.
3. Social Media Engagement
It’s important to understand that a cannabis retail store has limitations in the way they communicate about cannabis in public forums due to The Cannabis Act. However, there are ways that your cannabis retail store can use social media to engage the customer.
Tools like Instagram and Facebook stories are an excellent way to show your customer what’s going on in the store while staying compliant in your communications. It may be a good idea to get advice on compliant social media and web communications, or hire a dedicated staff member, to ensure your social media engagement is not only compliant and in line with the platforms’ terms of use, but also on point in getting customers enticed and in your store.
4. Create a Sense of Urgency/Exclusivity
People love to know they’re getting a deal or are part of a special opportunity to get in on something exclusive within a store.
Create limited-time offers for specialized products or brands that customers won’t be able to ever see again in your store, showing them that if they don’t by now, they’ll be missing out on some big cost savings in the future.
5. Display Media
Display media is becoming an increasingly important part of the modern cannabis retail store experience. Using high-quality digital screens with intentionally programmed content is a highly effective way to let your customer in on what’s in store, in order to increase your sales based on what they see in front of them.
Budvue offers cannabis retail stores the opportunity to create customized programming to build brand awareness, promote products, show features, display menus of what’s available, and advertise brands that suit your store and your customer.
Connect with Budvue today, or book a demo to discuss how you can use the power of display media in your cannabis retail store to increase sales.
Become a Cannabis Retail Store Sales Expert
Luckily for retailers in Canada, in addition to these strategies above, cannabis sales training programs have begun to emerge. We’ve looked into out a few for cannabis retail workers, management and owners to check out:
· CannaReps invites people to put their budding plans to paper by enrolling in the Dispensary Entrepreneur Course, a 3-day intensive training that equips participants with all they need to know to run a successful cannabis retail store, and make a profit;
· Okanagan College’s Continuing Studies is rolling out a Cannabis Retail Sales course in Winter 2020, designed to equip students with the skills and knowledge necessary to pursue sales in the cannabis retail sector;
· Registration is currently open for Mount Royal’s online Cannabis Education Program, ideal for people who desire to make an entire career involving knowledge of every aspect of the cannabis supply chain, with extensive emphasis on Cannabis Act compliance
Integrate these strategies and take advantage of the diverse education and training opportunities out there for cannabis retail sales professionals. Connect with Budvue today to discuss how we can use display media to help increase sales in your cannabis retail store.
