Dutchie, an industry’s leading technology platform helping cannabis businesses start, operate, and grow their operations, published insights for dispensary owners based on cannabis retail sales trends from last year. The preferred cannabis technology platform for over 6,000 dispensaries throughout North America, Dutchie offers a unique glimpse into consumer habits throughout the industry.
In analyzing consumer trends from 2022 to 2023, Dutchie noted the following insights:
- Total item sales are up, but revenue remains flat: Total items sold in the cannabis industry were up nearly nine percent YoY in 2023, however discount amounts soared over 16.4 percent overall, offsetting the increase for nearly flat revenue.
- Discounts continue to prevail: The average discount per order was about 28.5 percent, with 65 percent of the total orders processed including some type of discount.
- Visits increase, basket values decrease: Shopper trends have changed, with visits increasing roughly 11 percent year over year. However, due to mass discounting, the average basket value declined nearly the same.
- Digital payment systems linked to higher basket values: Counter to the overall trend of basket value shrinking holistically, consumers using digital payment systems saw larger basket order values. Consumers using DutchiePay instead saw their average basket value increase 27 percent.
- Category performance varied drastically: Three Dutchie product categories saw revenue growth year over year. In order from highest growth: pre-roll, flower, and edibles. Meanwhile, topicals, and tinctures dipped by nearly 13 percent and over 25 percent respectively.
“2023 was another massive year for the legal cannabis industry, with established markets maturing and new, exciting ones finally coming online. We hope that the insights provided by our data will support operators in achieving their goals, becoming more efficient, and increasing their bottom line in 2024,” said Tim Barash, CEO of Dutchie. “The increase in shopper visits and items sold are promising signs for the continued growth of the industry in 2023. These insights not only help our retailers understand where to invest their resources, but allow us to align our technology to ensure it addresses their core needs.”
“At our core we are a technology company, and we acknowledge the critical role we have to play in supporting retailers,” said Chris Ostrowski, CTO at Dutchie. “We continue to invest in our infrastructure to scale with the industry growth, as well as develop important payment and ecommerce options to help protect margins, encourage brand loyalty, and increase basket sales.”
