As cannabis is gradually being legalized around the country, the market starts to saturate, making the competition more fierce over time. Dispensary owners need to ensure they are on top of their game by providing some of the best quality they can to their customers. Chances are, your dispensary wasn’t facing too much competition at first. However, as more and more dispensaries started to open up, you noticed a dip in sales. Those new dispensaries are most likely implementing promotional deals that are enticing your customers to their doors.
Even if you are one of the few dispensaries around, you are still competing with those few others that are likely to receive more traffic than you for providing quality service. Customers are likely to seek out the best stores that are offering the best prices and specials. Pricing and brand personality are usually the two essential factors for pushing customers into choosing one dispensary over another. To stand out from the rest of the competition and ensure your customers return to your dispensary, you need to introduce some good promotional deals.
As the owner of a dispensary, you need to get creative to win over your customers since you want your shop to be known as the one that provides the best deal around. Customers get excited when they see discounts, markdowns, price cuts, and limited-time sales. Here are some good promotional deals you can introduce to your dispensary to drive more traffic.
Purchase something, get a reward
At times, there will be stores that provide you with an extra reward if you buy a specific item. In this case, when a customer purchases a particular item, they receive another specific item for a discounted price. Let’s say you purchase a single item such as a concentrate at shelf price you receive another item for a discounted price. For example, let’s say the store is selling cartridges for shelf price, purchasing one may allow you to get another thing from either the same brand or a different product.
The idea here is to use these specials in an attempt to promote and upsell a specific product from your inventory. One of the most commonly practiced methods for this strategy is the buy one get one free, otherwise known as BOGO. These discounts allow the customer to purchase one item and get another one for free. Other strategies include vendor coupons from events and conditional purchase deals such as giveaways, sweepstakes, multi-purchase deals, and more.
This method is excellent for dispensaries that need to sell slow-moving products quickly. You can use BOGO and multi-purchase specials, allowing your customers to be incentivized to purchase more of a particular product or items to obtain rewards. If you need to offload products that are going to expire soon, you can increase the discount as the expiration date gets nearer.
First-time customers
A first-time customer is usually the only chance a dispensary has to entice a customer. Some customers have expectations of being flooded with free goodies when a customer comes in for the first time. Whether it’s a free pre-roll, dab, keef, or edible, first-timers won’t be satisfied unless they walk out of the store with a bag filled with good stuff.
An excellent way to convince a first-time customer is by providing them with options using a wide range of products. Your budtenders should ask the customer about their preferences and recommend an item that meets their needs best. Customer service like this does not go unnoticed and contributes immensely to the reasons for the customer return.
Furthermore, you need to ensure you are keeping detailed records of purchases from first-time customers. That information should be automatically included in the customer’s profile through your POS platform and help you better service your customer in the future. Setting your dispensary apart from the rest of the competition right from the get-go is crucial.
Referral
Another excellent way to ensure your dispensary gets the most traffic is by enlisting any current customers to refer their colleagues, friends, and family. Granting them free products like edibles or waxes is an excellent motivator for your existing customers to go out there and refer your dispensary to everyone they know.
Referrals are highly beneficial since they use one of the most effective marketing strategies around, word of the mount. Having someone you know recommend you a particular dispensary is the goal of referrals and offers special advantages. Using referrals will have both existing customers and new ones come in together, increasing your sales. The referral customer will benefit from being a first-timer, and the existing customer will reap the prize of the referral special.
Furthermore, permitting customers to make unlimited referrals during a limited period causes urgency and motivates them to spread the word quicker.
Cart discounts
Cart discounts are one of the more simplistic types of promotional deals. It allows you to apply a discount on the total purchase of every item in the customer’s cart. Cart discounts are excellent for developing a long-term loyalty strategy to entice and retain customers. For instance, you could offer a 10% senior or veterans discount. Additionally, cart discounts can be used to incentivize behavior, such as curbside pickups or online orders.
If you have managed to establish your dispensary in a tourist area, one exceptional way to prompt steady traffic during the off-season is to provide the locals with discounts. It incentives the residents in your neighborhood to call your dispensary their favorite place to get their cannabis needs.
Happy hour
There will be times when certain days are slower than others. Plus, you may notice that specific hours of the day are much slower than others, causing a downturn in sales. To fix this problem, you should introduce happy hour so you can increase traffic to your dispensary. Usually, dispensaries will conduct a happy hour twice a day. The first happy hour is ordinarily conducted during the late morning hours until early afternoon. Usually, these hours are significantly much slower, so providing a happy hour during this time is ideal to drive customers to your dispensary.
The second happy hour should attract those customers who are getting off work, usually between the hours of 4 pm to 6om. That time slot will guarantee an increase in traffic and sales as there are plenty of customers looking for something to help them relax after a grueling day of work.
Daily deals
Daily deals provide dispensary owners with an effective way to drive traffic into their shop. If you notice that sales are on the lower side during certain days of the week, advertise a special for those particular days to increase sales. Usually, days earlier in the week are the ones that need to get a boost the most, so begin the new week with a special that will drive them to your door, such as pre-roll Monday. You could also cater to specific customers during those days, such as customers who enjoy consuming edibles.
When you implement the daily deals, make sure you are granting a wide range of products throughout the week. Waxes Wednesday shall provide your dispensary with the chance to discount every wax on your stock. Each coming day can fit a theme that suits your needs. It just takes a little bit of creativity on your part. It also provides your dispensary with the perfect chance to get rid of any stock that will expire soon.
Fridays tend to usually be some of the busier times of the day for dispensaries since customers are stocking up to enjoy their weekends. Providing a daily deal on Friday will increase the chances of those customers coming to your dispensary to stock up and enjoy the coming weekend.
Dispensary owners have tons of opportunities to build daily deals that let them offload a range of products from their inventory. Best of all, these types of deals will qualify you in places like Weedmaps, where you can raise brand awareness.
Loyalty programs
Loyalty programs have become one of the must-have promotional deals for any dispensary out there. First-time customers will usually gain a card they can bring back to the dispensary to accumulate points for rewards. While this is somewhat effective, there are times when your customers may forget to bring their card to each visit or lose it entirely. A system like this is flawed and can sometimes cause customers to leave your store annoyed and frustrated.
Fortunately, there are ways around this, such as using a POS system that logs in your customer’s information and automatically updates each time they visit your store or make a purchase. The customer’s loyalty points are linked to their profile, so there is no need for them to worry about bringing in a loyalty card.
Dispensary owners can customize how their customers earn and redeem loyalty points, such as getting points from referrals. During the checkout process, the customer is offered a chance to cash in on their points for discounts or other rewards.
Conclusion
Promotional deals are some of the best ways to drive customers to your doorsteps. It also ensures that the word gets out about your dispensary, making it an effective way to market your store. Providing your customers with rewards and deals will ensure they keep coming back and help you generate more profit.
