The Power of Product Data for Dispensaries: Driving eCommerce Traffic and Revenue
A CMA Webinar Brief
By Emily Wells
Cannabis Marketing Association hosted “The Power of Product Data for Dispensaries: Driving eCommerce Traffic and Revenue”, Cannabis Marketing Summit panelists Jeremy Johnson, Business Development Manager at Dispense, Guillermo Bravo, Chief Evangelist at MediaJel, and Marcus Naramore, Chief Revenue Officer at Edgemont Group joined to dive deep into data and discuss the collection, curation, and activation of product data to drive eCommerce sales.
To begin, CMA Founder & CEO Lisa Buffo defined the value of data and posed the question to attendees: “Would you rather be rich or popular”? Briefly, she informed the audience that the discussion focuses on making you rich, growing revenue, and how data can support you in that goal.
Technology Available to Retailers
As a retailer, one of the first things you need to do is implement technology to collect data on your customers. To begin, Guillermo stated that the first piece to set up is your company’s website — it’s the face of your organization, your online store, your virtual business card, and many businesses in the space use WordPress to build their sites. The second piece of technology to deploy is your eCommerce platform (like Dispense!), which then integrates with your point of sale system and accepts your orders online and in-person. Hence, having all three components synced up allows you to maximize sales and fulfill orders.
Similarly, Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and Google My Business can connect to your website. Instead of mainstream SMS providers like Klaviyo or MailChimp, Alpine IQ and springbig are two industry-specific platforms you can use to reach consumers via SMS to ensure you don’t run into any issues.
Most-Valuable Sales Data Points
Next, Marcus shared that in regards to product sales, the three key metrics to follow are:
- Volume: how many units are you selling?
- Sell-through: how many units per SKU are you selling daily?
- Profit margin: A simple measure of the wholesale cost versus the out-the-door cost
Additionally, consider paying attention to market and category trends. Along with your own data, you can use third-party data or market-level data via Google Trends.
Marketplaces vs. Self-Hosted eCommerce Platforms
In cannabis specifically, marketplaces originated because Google did not allow cannabis retailers to be listed. Although marketplaces allow consumers to find products and businesses, it adds an additional step to the customer journey. Subsequently, Jeremy noted that instead of relying on marketplaces to send you customers and orders, hosting your own eCommerce platform grants you control over where you show up online and ultimately drives traffic to your website. Most importantly, you get your proprietary data and aren’t sharing it with a third party who may try to remarket to your customers and send them to a dispensary down the street.
Learn More, Watch the Full Webinar
In conclusion, the panel discusses data ownership in greater depth, the difference between iframes and self-hosted eCommerce platforms in light of being indexed by Google, and additional platforms and resources for capturing data.
Watch the “The Power of Product Data for Dispensaries: Driving eCommerce Traffic and Revenue” recording below to learn how product data will help take your dispensary to the next level.
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