A Dispensary Guide to Promotions and Discounts

It’s time for your dispensary to let the deals roll. With the correct strategy and dispensary management software, running special offers and promotions can help retailers clear unwanted inventory, build loyalty with customers, and boost sales.

Maximizing Revenue: The Power of Promo Codes for Cannabis Dispensary Retailers

Types of Offers

Dispense cannabis eCommerce software handles offers and discounts at the organization level, so retailers can create deals for one, multiple, or all locations of your organization. 

Cart Discount

  • This type of discount is applied to the total purchase amount of a customer’s shopping cart. Entire cart discounts incentivize customers to not just browse your dispensary selection, but to follow through on completing their purchase for a percentage off.
Cart discount example. Buy $50 worth of products, get $20 off your order total.
Cart discount example. Buy $50 worth of products, get $20 off your order total.

Flat Amount

  • Apply a fixed dollar amount promotion to specific items with the flat amount offer type. For example, retailers may offer two pre-rolls for $10, so when customers add two pre-rolls to their cart, they get both items for $10 regardless of their original price. This tactic helps increase the average order value. With Dispense, retailers can add conditions to a flat amount offer, like only applying the discount to select products, categories, brands, or a specific amount spent. This offer type is especially useful for states like Massachusetts to do bundle pricing.     
Flat amount deal example. Buy 2 eighths for $50, saving the customer $10.
Flat amount deal example. Buy 2 eighths for $50, saving the customer $10.

BOGO

  • Also known as a “buy X, get Y” deal, BOGOs allow customers to purchase a certain number of items (X) and receive a different number of items (Y) for free or at a reduced price. This promotional strategy incentivizes customers to purchase multiple items, which can help retailers clear unwanted or expiring inventory, and get slow-moving products out the door.
BOGO discount example. Buy 2 eighths, get a free pre-roll.
BOGO discount example. Buy 2 eighths, get a free pre-roll.

Promo Codes

  • Enable promotional codes for any offer type with Dispense. Retailers can easily create alphanumeric promo codes through their admin portal and track customer redemptions. View the performance, usage, and revenue of any specific deal within the Offers tab on Dispense.

Special Features

Minimum spend

  • Thresholds for minimum spend can be enabled within Dispense eCommerce software. This allows retailers to control an order value customers have to hit before qualifying for certain discounts and promotions.

Discount stacking

Dispense supports 3 different options for discount stacking so stores have full control of promotions.

  • “No Stacking” will apply only the best deal, so just a single discount is available. 
  • “No Double Stacking” is the default option, which allows product-level discounts to stack. Customer carts can contain a mix of product-level discounts and s ingle offer, but a single product cannot contain both a product-level discount and an offer.
  • “Allow Stacking” permits product-level discounts to stack. The same item can also be stacked with a single offer.\

Happy Hour: 10% off from 4-6pm. It's weed o'clock!
Happy Hour: 10% off from 4-6pm. It's weed o'clock!

Benefits of promotions

1. Attract new customers

Get new eyes on your dispensary with promotions. The discount could be specifically offered for new customers, encouraging shoppers to give your store a try when they may not have otherwise. Offering a promotion or free product can be a powerful incentive to get people to try your products.

2. Build customer loyalty and encourage repeat business

Promotions can offer an incentive for existing customers to return to your dispensary. This could look like a large discount that is applied over several orders (ie. $200 off your first 4 orders), a loyalty program implemented through Springbig or AlpineIQ, or a referral program that encourages customers to bring their friends and family to receive a discount of their own. 

3. Boost sales

Sales often create a sense of urgency that pushes customers over the finish line of making a purchase. Retailers can implement this with limited-time deals and bundle discounts that won’t last long. 

BOGO 50% off flower.
BOGO 50% off flower.

4. Clear out inventory

Make space on your shelves for new inventory by offering discounts on older or slow-moving items. Customers will relish the deal, and retailers will appreciate the extra space.

5. Build brand awareness

Special offers are a great marketing tool for generating buzz around your dispensary and brand. Leveraging social media or email marketing can help your business build its CRM and attract new customers.

Hannah Michels

Hannah is a content marketer, digital storyteller, wearer of many hats. With a background in video production and writing, Hannah loves producing all things content. Connect with Hannah on LinkedIn.

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