Industry talk of direct-to-consumer (D2C) models and initiatives are heating up across cannabis markets, and some already exist in places. If you missed the news, last month, Democratic Rep. Jared Huffman of California introduced the SHIP Act, a bill that aims to allow small, licensed cannabis operators to sell and ship their products directly to consumers, including across state lines.
With all the recent news, you’re probably curious about how a recurring subscription model could benefit your dispensary. With each state operating as individual micro-markets (different products, brands, dispensaries), purchasing cannabis for the consumer can be intimidating for newbies and frustrating for enthusiasts.
Offering a cannabis subscription service at your dispensary allows consumers to try a variety of new products in a less intimidating way and for markets that support compliant delivery more discretely. Beyond the convenience and unique curated experience that cannabis subscriptions offer your consumers. They have many positive benefits for your business as well. Let’s dig into a few of those.
1. Create recurring revenue for your cannabis dispensary
Implementing a D2C cannabis subscription is a powerful way to create recurring revenue for your dispensary. It’s a solid revenue stream you can begin to grow and use to predict future revenue. Find yourself enjoying more stable cash flow and easier product sales to better-informed consumers.
Unlike your transactional business, as long as you’re accounting for your monthly churn rate and adding a few new subscription customers monthly, you’re maintaining a stable scale.
All this means your dispensary can grow faster with a smaller staff than needed to achieve the same growth rate using traditional transaction sales. Whoa, talk about awesome!
2. Build and grow brand-loyal dispensary customers with subscriptions
Thoughtfully curated cannabis subscriptions provide a unique opportunity to build brand-loyal customers with one-of-a-kind cannabis experiences that customers are sure to love and share with their friends.
They offer a long-term relationship with your most valuable customers and increase customer success and Lifetime Value (LV) for your company and brand.
Plus, nothing says customer loyalty like signing someone up for a subscription service. They’ll be seeing you again and again–and again!
3. Launch and test new products in your market
Launching and testing new products with less risk is made easier through a subscription service that has the potential to provide real-time feedback from your consumers. Curious if the hottest new product will perform well in your dispensary or sit and collect dust?
Test it in next month’s subscription lineup and let your customers be the judge. Did they come back asking for it? What did the feedback reviews say?
This is the consumer feedback loop made possible with a cannabis subscription service.
4. Manage stock and overages
Speaking of collecting dust, you can manage stock overages and excess products on hand by sharing the love with your regular subscribers. A slow mover you had “high hopes” for, all puns intended. A subscription offers a great way to get the product in front of your customers and open shelf space.
While we would never recommend a subscription made entirely of slow movers, (wait, never say never. “The Left Over Lovers” subscription at the right price might change my mind.) Wink! Either way, it presents a unique value add opportunity for your already most loyal customers. Who would not love that?!
5. Set standards for future cannabis subscription services
Subscription services are a proven retail model loved by consumers across all industries. The piqued interest of consumers to find unique service alternatives they can participate in from the comfort of their homes is undeniable.
While cannabis subscription services might not be eating into a portion of dispensary sales today, the future of federal cannabis legalization is unknown and looming in positive and negative ways. The reality is this would make a digital cross-market subscription solution with the potential to dominate the market and cut into dispensary sales a very real possibility.
This Forbes article published in early February discusses the future of cannabis in 2022, with data supporting a few clear indications consumers are craving alternative interactions. According to Dutchie data and the study of more than 5,000 consumers in the US and Canada, today’s consumers are not only predominantly females but educated, intelligent, highly successful health-conscious women. A demographic who has proven to love the ease and convenience of the eCommerce subscription model across many industries.
It is the wave of the future, all my plant-loving friends! Cannabis subscription services provide a new “normal” shopping experience for your customers, a reliable, modern, and compliant way for everyone to participate from the comfort of their home with little product knowledge, further advancing the potential to break stigmas that hold everyone back.
Want to implement a cannabis subscription service at your dispensary? Learn more about our pilot program–and get Dank!
Learn more about DankLocal’s cannabis subscription model and technology platform focused on creating a market-wide standard that keeps subscription service dollars with dispensaries, brands, communities, and professionals. By providing easy-to-use subscription software that integrates with the technology they already use to make managing compliant cannabis subscription services for their customers a breeze–all while simplifying a disparate market for consumers.
