Proven Cannabis Promotions To Drive Revenue On Green Wednesday, Thanksgiving, and Black Friday

Some of the biggest cannabis sales days are approaching, are you ready to maximize your revenue during these 3 upcoming events?

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What events are we talking about?

Green Wednesday, Thanksgiving, and Black Friday. The 1-2-3 holiday punch that, when combined, generates as many or more sales than typical cannabis “holidays” like 420 or 710. Green Wednesday and Black Friday have ranked as the third and fourth biggest sales days in the US, according to Headset.

At Happy Cabbage, our focus is always on maximizing sell-through for cannabis retailers and brands. We’ve put together some tips for you based on the most successful cannabis holiday promotions launched by retailers using Happy Marketers.

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What marketing promotions work best for Green Wednesday, Thanksgiving and Black Friday?

Firstly, get started early and aim for Green Wednesday. Of the three days, it grosses the highest sales, increasing by 48% over a typical Wednesday’s sales.

Thanksgiving is not a popular sales day, as most people are either with family or working. However, you still can capture sales on this day if you are really clever about it. Also, some stores aren’t even open on this day, so if you are, take advantage of it!

Black Friday is busy as most Fridays are, but ever so slightly busier post-Thanksgiving.

Last thing to really keep in mind, and this one is important: people are coming back to town for the holiday and wanting to stock up on product before “dealing” with their family. That means you need to keep two strategies in mind:

1. Recapturing customers - those people coming back into town aren’t your regulars, but they are looking to shop. Use SMS and email to most effectively recapture them and bring them in-store
2. Focus on non-inhalable products like edibles, beverages, and topicals to promote - these shoppers aren’t trying to chief a joint around their family, but popping in a few gummies before heading into the dining room is the move

Let’s get into the specific successful promotions:

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Green Wednesday

• Incentivize "early-bird" specials for customers to beat the rush of Thanksgiving. Consider making these offers time-bound between certain business hours to emphasize urgency.
• Doorbuster deals - pick 1-3 items you can reasonably discount as much as possible, using keywords like “doorbuster” to signal the pricing is never this low
• Promote popular edibles brands like Kiva, Wana, Wyld, etc. - make sure you discount these items, but not too much or you’ll erode profits. See here for more info on how to pick the right discount amount.
• “Spend more, save more” - communicate that large orders are the most cost effective way to shop. Set discount deals that trigger after a certain basket size is met, like “20% off if you spend $100 or more”
• Enter a raffle on Green Wednesday, winner drawn on Thanksgiving - this will help increase traffic on Thanksgiving and provide an additional incentive to shop on Green Wednesday as well

Thanksgiving Thursday

• Edibles deals - consider most shoppers are likely showing up right before heading to Thanksgiving events with family and friends, help them stay discreet!
• Notifying customers that you ARE open that day, and provide hours - many retailers aren’t open all these days, so it’s important to remind people if you are
• “Thankful for you” broad sales (% or $ off purchase) - hit them in the feels
• “Something to Roast before digging into your Roast” - a good pun can go a long way

Black Friday

• “Get relief from the shopping” - who out there actually LOVES shopping on Black Friday? Make sure you’re providing the stress relief your customers are looking for
• “Check out our Black Friday deals” - pretty basic but still works, keep it simple
• Extend sales through the weekend. Offer special discounts to customers who shop each day of the sales period with a slightly increased benefit for each day they pay your dispensary a visit and make a purchase.

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How much to offer when it comes to discounts

What level of discounts should you offer? Headset found that Green Wednesday sees an average discount of 19.8%, Thanksgiving Day was slightly higher at 22.2%, and Black Friday with 23.7%. However, we encourage you to really consider discounts per category and per basket to ensure you maximize your profits.

We recently wrote about the most effective discounts to drive demand, and illustrate the point in which that demand no longer increases despite deeper discounting. Read more here.