Never Heard of 3.20? It’s Costing You, and Here’s How
You’ve heard of 4/20, but you need to know about 3.20 if you’re in the cannabis industry. 3.20 kicks off one of the biggest sales periods of the year for wholesale cannabis operators, and we want to help you turn that additional volume into revenue for your bottom line. Keep reading to learn the true history behind 3.20 and how to make the most out of it this year.
You might be asking why this date is so important for cannabis brands. Well, 3.20 is the start of one of the busiest times of year on LeafLink as retailers stock up on inventory to prepare for the 4/20 rush.
Let’s put some numbers to that claim so you can see just how important 3.20 is for increasing revenue and growing your business.
Cannabis holidays drive more retail sales
4/20 is one of several cannabis “holidays” throughout the year. Others include Green Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving (or “Danksgiving” for some of us), the Friday before Labor Day, the Thursday before Christmas, and Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving). These are considered holidays because they are the busiest days of the year for dispensaries.
“Consumers spent $493 million on legal weed on those 5 days [in 2021], a record-busting number that represents a 25% increase over the strongest 5 sales days of 2020,” AdWeek recently shared, quoting James Ahrendt of Akerna. “The biggest sales day in 2020… wouldn’t have even made it on the Top 5 chart in 2021.”
On April 20 alone, consumers spent a total of $111.8 million – meaning that retailers will be stocking up early and often to ensure they have plenty of inventory for the spike in demand on 4/20. And that’s why we celebrate 3.20 as well, because it’s the start of the shopping season for retailers.
The biggest wholesale shopping times of the year
We can also analyze LeafLink’s first-party data to determine when wholesale sales volume increases before cannabis holidays. Let’s look at the wholesale transaction data from the 3.20 season last year to give you a better idea of what we’re talking about.
In 2021, we saw significant increases in wholesale cannabis sales through LeafLink (which represents 42% of all U.S. wholesale cannabis sales.) Sales increased by 13% starting the week of 3/21/2021 week-over-week, then 3% the following week and 4% the next.
The final week before 4/20 saw another spike, with sales increasing by an additional 6%. To make it even clearer how important this time period is for wholesale sales, total sales decreased by 28% the week after 4/20! If you need more convincing, the week before 4/20 in 2021 was the biggest sales week of the entire year on LeafLink.
We can see from the data that sales increase significantly the month before 4/20, and LeafLink is here to help you drive the most revenue and acquire more new customers during this high volume period.
How we help you make the most of 4/20
To help brands take advantage of these times of increased volume, LeafLink started our Deals Periods. We offer brands free marketing and additional product visibility on the marketplace if they offer a discount of at least 5% over the wholesale price of a given product during the deals periods.
Our next deals period for 3.20 is coming up fast, and it’s the perfect time for you to start preparing to snag all the extra revenue you can while retailers are busy stocking up for 4/20. To learn more about 3.20 Deals, including how to set up your deals, additional benefits for brands that list deals, and information on our other deals periods check out our Deals Guide.
In 2021, 2,000+ retailers spent over $3.4 million on discounted products during the 3.20 Deals period. We expect those numbers to get even bigger this year, with January 2022 sales up 28% over January 2021. You don’t want to miss out this time, so make sure to check out the deals guide and list your deals early before retailers start stocking up for 4/20.
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