Adam JacksonDecember 1, 2023
Green Wednesday sales outstripped Black Friday.
Jane Technologies Archives - Green Market Report
Adam JacksonDecember 1, 2023
Debra BorchardtSeptember 20, 2023
E-commerce technology company Squarespace Inc. (NYSE: SQSP) announced a partnership with dispensary tech company Jane Technologies to offer its products to cannabis businesses in Canada.
“At Square, we’re always looking to solve sellers’ pain points and we know cannabis dispensaries have limited options when it comes to reliable and integrated commerce tools,” said Roshan Jhunja, Head of Retail at Square. “Sellers are looking for an easy-to-use, fully integrated omnichannel solution to help them run their businesses in person and online. We’ve been fortunate to partner with Jane to develop a robust online offering and encourage cannabis dispensaries to test our software, hardware, and payment solution in person through our Early Access Program.”
This new partnership with Jane will allow cannabis dispensary processing with Square to supplement their brick-and-mortar business with an online store, where customers can select items from an up-to-date menu and order for pick-up or delivery.
According to the statement, Square has announced an Early Access Program for licensed cannabis dispensaries, which allows authorized cannabis sellers in Ontario to begin testing the Square for Retail point of sale (POS) solution in stores ahead of the service being launched more widely.
“Square’s reputation as a leading global commerce platform speaks for itself and, given our shared ethos of empowering brick-and-mortar retailers with best-in-class digital tools, the partnership with Jane developed naturally,” explained Jane CEO Socrates Rosenfeld. “We are thrilled to integrate the robust infrastructure of Square’s point-of-sale and APIs with the powerful Jane e-commerce platform to unlock a best-in-class omnichannel experience for Canadian cannabis retailers.”
Mainstream retail companies have been reluctant to enter the cannabis space, especially those with a banking-related service. While major banks in the U.S. have avoided cannabis since it is Federally illegal, that hasn’t been the case in Canada where the product is completely legal. Still, companies like Square have been slow to embrace the industry making this new partnership a sign that the stigma of cannabis may be waning.
Debra BorchardtApril 25, 2023
Sales on 4/20 were roughly twice the sales of a typical Thursday.
Debra BorchardtNovember 28, 2022
Traditional flower, concentrates saw the largest declines.
StaffSeptember 19, 2022
Jane's unique platform offers dispensaries and cannabis brands a turnkey e-commerce solution with many marketing and analytics options.
StaffSeptember 9, 2022The Green Market Report honors the most innovative technology providers in the cannabis industry at its inaugural Tech Awards ceremony.
Debra BorchardtApril 22, 2022
Several cannabis data providers have confirmed that this year’s April 20 holiday was the highest ever – in sales. Despite falling in the middle of the week, sales were determined to be significantly higher than an average Wednesday and the highest day of sales in the past four years. Perhaps because some of these states have more mature markets. shoppers were spending slightly less on average, but there were more people shopping.
Cannabis consumer product preferences are also shifting year over year as more customers are reaching for something different from traditional flower for 420. Edibles and concentrates are winning over consumers. The data providers say that this can be partially attributed to the growing maturity of both cannabis markets and the consumers within them. The East Coast is quickly becoming the hot spot of the cannabis industry as Massachusetts won the day. While online ordering continues to have fans even after the pandemic, cannabis consumers continue to love going to their brick & mortar store.
420 Sales
Headset reported that in the US, the average cannabis store experienced 148% higher sales on 4/20 than over the previous four Wednesdays. Average discounting increased by 72%.
In Canada, the average cannabis store saw sales grow by 65% and average discounts rise by a whopping 92%.
In both countries, Headset said that sales growth was driven primarily by increases in total transaction volume. In the US, the median cannabis store saw a 107% increase in transaction volume on 4/20 in comparison to the previous four weeks. In Canada transaction volume at the median store increased by 57%. However, in the US customers purchased more per transaction on 4/20, with the median store seeing a 19% increase in average basket size. In Canada, average basket size at the median store only increased by 3%.
As usual on holidays, Headset said that beverages were the top-performing products in both countries. On 4/20 sales of Beverages grew by 110% in Canada and by 176% in the US. Pre-Rolls also performed well in both markets with 74% growth in Canada and 150% growth in the US. In Canada, Edibles were the second-best performing product category on 4/20 with 83% sales growth. Concentrates took the silver medal in the US with 155% growth.
Flowhub’s data agreed with what Headset experienced. The company said that Edibles saw a major jump in popularity in just a year, climbing 5%. Flower was also less popular this 420, while concentrates had a slight jump year over year. “It’s clear that consumers are beginning to move away from traditional products like flower and are consuming more edibles and concentrates instead. There is also a slight decrease in accessories, clones, and seeds – potentially caused by a maturity in markets, people don’t need as many accessories if they’re regularly consuming.”
Flowhub also noted that online orders made up 3% of all transactions on 420 this year, the rest were in-store. Also, more than twice as many online orders were placed on 420 in 2022 vs. 420 in 2021.
Jane Technologies reported that stores using Jane in both 2021 & 2022 saw an 11% increase in online sales. Overall Jane had ~35% growth in GMV between 2021 & 2022. Stores using Jane in both ‘21 & ‘22 saw a 34% increase in edible sales. Stores using Jane in both ‘21 & ‘22 saw a 43% increase in vape sales. Stores using Jane in both ‘21 & ‘22 saw a 22% increase in flower sales. Stores using Jane in both ‘21 & ‘22 saw a 10% increase in extract sales.
Jane said that the average cart size on 4/20 increased 15% compared to the previous four Wednesdays and overall sales on 4/20 increased 160% compared to the previous four Wednesdays.
East Coast Wins
Flowhub reported that the East Coast was recording very high average revenues per location. Flowhub wrote that “This is likely due to how new the markets are and the lack of competition. There are also likely high numbers of people driving in from out of state to purchase products in these states whereas states like California and Colorado are more mature and accustomed to cannabis. Oklahoma’s very low average sales per location can be attributed to the massive number of licenses in the state. The competition is too high for locations to haul in the same revenues as lower licensed states.”
Top-selling states according to Flowhub were as follows:
● Massachusetts had the highest average revenue per location on 420 of all Flowhub markets. The state also had the highest average basket value ($130).
● Maryland had the second-highest average revenue per location on 420 of all Flowhub markets.
● Oklahoma had the lowest average revenue per location of all Flowhub markets.
● Some states with very high sales compared to an average Wednesday:
○ Michigan’s average sales were 175% higher than an average Wednesday.
○ Maryland’s average sales were 156% higher than an average Wednesday.
○ California’s sales were 134% higher than an average Wednesday.
Jane also reported that it experienced year-over-year growth for these states: Arizona, Michigan, California, Colorado, Illinois, and Florida.
i. Arizona
1. Stores using Jane in both ‘21 & ‘22 saw a 100% increase in sales YoY.
ii. Illinois
1. Stores using Jane in both ‘21 & ‘22 saw a 54% increase in sales YoY.
iii. Pennsylvania
1. Stores using Jane in both ‘21 & ‘22 saw an 18% increase in sales YoY.
iv. Florida
1. Stores using Jane in both ‘21 & ‘22 saw a 10% increase in sales YoY.
v. Michigan
1. Stores using Jane in both ‘21 & ‘22 remained flat in sales YoY.
vi. California
1. Stores using Jane in both ‘21 & ‘22 saw a 15% decrease in sales YoY.
vii. Colorado
1. Stores using Jane in both ‘21 & ‘22 saw a 20% decrease in sales YoY.
Ordering Trends
All of these dispensaries have to place orders for inventory and Leaflink has excellent data that shows how the companies were preparing for the big day. The company said that overall, sales trended upwards in the weeks prior to 4/20 in 2022. “Sales increased week-over-week, starting on 3/27 with 6.1% growth. The next week sales grew 6.9%, and an additional 2.7% in the final full week of sales prior to 4/20. Each week set a new high watermark for total sales in LeafLink, and the week of 4/10 is now the biggest week for sales in LeafLink history.”
When it came to specific state data, Leaflink noted that the vast majority of states saw sales grow in the 30 days before 4/20 with Colorado being the only exception. States included below (CO excluded) grew by varying percentages from 14.9% in Washington to 44.3% in Massachusetts over this time period. Colorado saw sales decrease by 2.3% in the 30 days prior to 4/20 compared to the previous period.
Debra BorchardtJanuary 6, 2022
Cannabis data providers have weighed in on the 2021 holiday sales for dispensaries with some surprising results. The data included the Thanksgiving holiday and then tracked sales through to the end of Christmas. Most agreed that sales increased in 2021 despite the resurgence of the new Covid fear with the variant Omicron. Consumers upped their cannabis shopping throughout the month of December causing Christmas week comparisons to be less strong than in the past. Still, sales remained elevated leading up to Christmas in both the Canadian and U.S. markets.
Increased Sales
Headset said that its data showed that Canada saw a rise in sales of more than 26% while the US saw an increase of 17% during the holiday month. Headset reported that in Canada, sales were up by 8.9% versus the previous four Fridays. In the US, sales increased by 6.0%. In Canada, Saskatchewan had the largest increase in sales, up 12% over the previous four Fridays. In the US, Michigan had the strongest showing with a 13.7% increase in total sales.
LeafLink is a wholesale cannabis platform and as such has visibility into orders that licensed retailers place from the brands they carry. In December, sales through LeafLink increased by 6.8% when compared to the average growth rate over the prior three months – signaling that the holiday season positively impacted sales this year.
Cannabis delivery company Lantern said it saw consumers start stocking up their holiday stashes earlier this season. Specifically the company noted that sales started to increase the second weekend of December with a +56% increase in daily order volume. “That trend continued through December, a +26% lift in order volume and +7% increase in AOV the week before Christmas, peaking the day before Christmas Eve with a +51% lift compared to our daily average. Lantern reported a +110% lift in order volume the three days before New Year’s Eve vs. three days prior, peaking three days before NYE with a +56% lift in daily order volume.
Springbig reported that starting from a week before Christmas and going into New Year’s Day, it saw (excluding Christmas day) $276 million in total sales with a daily average gross of $20.82mm. This was an 11% increase over the same period last year. “In terms of how big the increase was, as compared to normal days of the year, we see that last year had a roughly 50% increase over normal while this year we only saw 21%. This could be due to the major Covid outbreak that has occurred recently. Another hint that this may be the cause is the fact that last year Jan 1st saw $15 million in sales while this year only saw $13 million.”
Flower Power
While some of the ingestible categories got big lifts, flower continues to command the market. Leaflink said that flower was the most popular category, making up around 32% of sales through LeafLink in the month prior to the holidays. Cartridges were the second most popular, at around 24% market share. Leaflink said that both were relatively consistent with the previous month, showing that buyers did not significantly change their purchase habits into different categories for the holiday season. The most popular Flower subcategory in the month leading up to the holidays in 2021 was Packaged Flower at 15% of sales, and the second most popular was Bulk Flower at 14.7%.
Jushi (OTC: JUSHF) also reported that Flower remains the number one category leader in demand and interest from patients and consumers. “However, we saw an aggressive uptick trend in disposable and edible sales in 2021,” said the company.
Discreet products were also big winners. Perhaps consumers wanted to have their cannabis but not be obvious about it when visiting friends and relatives. Lantern said, “What’s interesting about our trending products in Boston for the holiday season, was that our most popular products were discreet and designed to share – predominantly edibles, drinkables, and pre-rolls (typically flower products are our best-sellers). Similarly in Detroit, pre-rolls were our most popular holiday product (party-ready for individual sharing and more discreet).”
Headset’s data seemed to agree. Their data from Canada showed that the categories that saw the largest sales increase on New Year’s Eve were: Tincture & Sublingual (+30%), Concentrates (+23%), and Beverages (+21%). In the US, the categories with the largest sales response were: Beverages (+18%), Flower (+8.5%), and Concentrates (+7.8%).
Jane Technologies noted that edibles online sales were up over 10% in December 2021 compared to the previous three months and topicals online sales were up over 9% in December 2021 compared to the previous three months. They noted that Airo Black Mamba Specialty Pod online sales were up over 290% in December 2021 compared to the previous three months and –Incredibles Cookies & Cream 100mg chocolate online sales were up over 200% in December 2021 compared to the previous three months
Christmas Coupons
With so many shoppers, it was a wonder why anyone would offer a discount, but then people love a bargain. Plus competition is heating up in some markets. Flowhub said that dispensaries were discounting for the holidays, but the discounts themselves weren’t huge.
Flowhub reported the following discount data:
- Typical Day = 18% of transactions include a discount
- Christmas Eve = 39% of transactions included a discount
- Christmas Day = 40% of transactions included a discount
- New Years Eve = 39% of transactions included a discount
- New Years Day = 38% of transactions included a discount
- Across the Christmas and New Years’ holidays, the average discount amount stayed consistent at $5.00 off their total amount.
Headset’s discount data found a modest increase in discounting on New Year’s Eve in both Canadian and US cannabis markets. Noting that tThe average discount in Canada on New Year’s Eve was 4.0%, up by about 10% over an average of the previous four Fridays(3.6%). The average discount in the US on New Year’s Eve was 21.1%, up by about 13% over the previous four Fridays (18.6%).
Cali Sober
After all that holiday drinking, many people look at January as a month to sober up and give their bodies a break from all that alcohol. Lantern said, “As we head into the new year, we’re seeing consumers really embrace “Dry January” with our record-best Monday, +29% lift in daily order volume.”
Julie AitchesonDecember 2, 2021
The numbers are in and it’s official—Green Wednesday 2021 was a big one for the cannabis industry, while Black Friday fizzled in comparison. Green Wednesday saw cannabis sales increase across the U.S. Black Friday did not have the sales growth seen in previous years, though some data (Flowhub) showed larger order values and bigger discounts than Green Wednesday. Data from market analytics and cannabis companies like Headset, LeafLink, Lantern, Glass House Brands, and others show common trends regarding most popular products and year-over-year sales numbers. Using this data, companies extrapolate some possible variables affecting this year’s numbers, including a decreased emphasis on Black Friday door-buster deals targeted towards packing stores with bargain-hungry shoppers, focusing instead on online sales spread out over the holiday season (Springbig).
Headset’s Green Wednesday 2021 data showed a 33% increase in total retail sales compared with the four previous Wednesdays, with a marked trend of customers taking advantage of promotions on offer to receive discounts on holiday shopping, with the average discount up 29 percent. This was in contrast to a slight decrease in sales (-4.6%) on Black Friday relative to the previous four Fridays, despite the fact that average Black Friday discounts increased by 56% from the previous four Fridays.
Flowhub’s data showed an average Green Wednesday discount of $9.57 (up from $8.94 in 2020) and an average Black Friday discount of $11.09. Notable in Flowhub’s findings was the conclusion that while Green Wednesday was a big sales day, Thanksgiving weekend as a whole had lower pre-tax sales than a typical Wednesday through Sunday. Jushi Holdings (OTC: JUSHF) didn’t seem to notice, however, experiencing its best online sales day in the company’s history on Green Wednesday 2021 with an 80% uptick in sales during Thanksgiving week and online ordering up 200% on Green Wednesday. Eaze saw a 135% increase in deliveries compared to a typical Wednesday in 2021, making it their second biggest day this year by both numbers of deliveries and sales after 04/20/21.
Edibles Most Popular For Green Wednesday
Headset’s data on category winners by sales numbers showed edibles leading the pack with 67% growth on Green Wednesday and 11% on Black Friday. Topicals and tinctures took second and third place while beverages saw a whopping 86% growth. Leaflink showed flower holding the top spot for most popular category in the month leading up to Green Wednesday making up 33% of sales with cartridges coming in second up 24.9% from the previous month. Jane Technologies saw its biggest category sales increases in edibles (94%), vapes (84%), and flower (73%) compared to the previous three Wednesdays, with chocolates and disposables leading subcategory sales by increases of 126% and 100% respectively. For Glass House Brands (OTC: GLASF), flower, carts, and edibles were the big winners.
LeafLink’s data measured the growth of sales (10.61%) during the month leading up to Green Wednesday compared to October, with the biggest sales increase (16%) coming during the week of November 14th over the previous week. The run-up to Green Wednesday broke records for cannabis company Lantern, with a 44% rise in average daily sales leading up to Green Wednesday, though there was no significant change to daily Average Order Value. As the cannabis economy continues to transform to meet a shifting retail environment and shopping behaviors adaptive to these uncertain times, market analysts and retailers will continue to keep an eye on Green Wednesdays and Black Fridays to come as annual bellwethers for the market.
StaffOctober 8, 2021
Green Market Report asked some of the top technology leaders in the cannabis industry for their thoughts on how tech is changing the cannabis world. Here’s what we learned:
Simplifya Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer Marion Mariathasan
“Technology in every industry has enabled advancement to happen faster, and the cannabis industry is no different. Due to the fragmented regulatory environment, we knew remaining compliant would be a real challenge for businesses, but one that could be addressed through the creation of advanced technologies. We set out to take what was previously an archaic way of approaching compliance and developed software that would help cannabis entrepreneurs save time and money, drive efficiencies and create new opportunities. Beyond owners and operators, we also see technologies playing a vital role in how governments, regulatory bodies, insurers, cannabis-related banking and financial institutions also remain compliant under FinCEN Cannabis Banking Guidance.
Whether it’s POS, data, commerce, social networks or compliance, technology continues to allow the industry to solve some of its most challenging problems while accelerating growth at a rapid rate. As Simplifya enters the multi-million dollar banking, financial and payment-related services sector, we plan to debut new software and advanced technologies that automates and simplifies mandated complex processes necessary to keep the industry moving ahead in a compliant way.”
Marion Mariathasan is the CEO of Simplifya, the cannabis industry’s leading regulatory and operational compliance software platform. The company’s suite of products takes the guesswork out of confusing and continually changing state and local regulations. Featuring SOPs, badge tracking, document storage, tailored reporting and employee accountability features, the company’s Custom Audit software reduces the time clients spend on compliance by up to 45 percent.
Marion is also a serial entrepreneur who has founded or advised numerous startups. He is an investor in 22 domestic and international companies, four of which he serves as a board member: Ceylon Solutions, a cannabis and non-cannabis software development company; Leafwire, the largest cannabis social network; ilios, a relationship app that matches users based on characteristics derived from astrology and numerology algorithms; and Simplifya. Marion is a regular guest speaker at events such as Denver Start-Up Week, Colorado University’s program on social entrepreneurship, and the United Nations Global Accelerator Initiative.
Jushi Holdings Inc. Chief Creative Director Andreas “Dre” Neumann
“In the cannabis sector, digital consumers are in the driver’s seat. We believe technologies will continue to play a critical role, and that by taking the time to implement research, data and digital technologies, we have a competitive advantage. By constantly studying trends data, we foresaw that the digital and physical retail convergence would accelerate with the rapid growth of home delivery and express channels. Early on we were focused on ways to remove friction, build trust, and fine tune the entire customer experience. We use research data and technology-based omnichannel strategies to seamlessly serve the needs of the widest range of customers, and that really goes to the core of our ethos of improving peoples’ lives.
At a higher level, we’ve also integrated our data sources and spent time building out a custom data warehouse. This has not only helped us break down information silos, but has also allowed us to understand the business and our customers much more holistically. We plan to keep evolving with new technologies and programs that drive efficiencies in our retail experiences and operations. I’ve always been a big advocate for technological solutions — none of this would be possible without it — so for us, tech will be a priority for the future of Jushi and instrumental in defining the entire cannabis sector.”
In his role at Jushi, Dre and his creative team are charged with leading Jushi’s creative, marketing and communications efforts as well as ensuring the company’s successful entrance into e-commerce, cutting-edge digital user experiences and his efforts have already brought a tremendous amount of added value to the company and its shareowners.
Dre is a serial entrepreneur who has founded numerous successful creative and technology companies and is a disruptive thinker, who before joining Jushi, served as the creative director and head of content for Idean, a leading global design agency that creates powerful digital experiences and uses design as a strategic tool to transform companies. He founded a partnership with British multinational communications and advertising agency network with 114 offices in 76 countries and over 6,500 staff, Saatchi & Saatchi UK, where he implemented creative strategies such as launching a branded content unit called Gum in an effort to reach more young people, who are increasingly tuning out traditional advertising.
In addition to being a known and respected leader in the creative and technology arenas, Dre is known for his photography and work with artists such as Queens of the Stone Age, Iggy Pop, Foo Fighters, ZZ Top, Lenny Kravitz, and many others. He has also been cited as one of the world’s top rock photographers and will be featured in an upcoming documentary on Amazon scheduled to premiere in early 2021.
Navin Anand, Chief Technology Officer at springbig
“The cannabis industry is adopting native and cloud technologies at an ever increasing rate. Computing power has increased exponentially (at an affordable cost), so we all have supercomputers on hand, which helps development teams tackle AI/ML problems, predictive analysis, user segmentation, early fraud detection and more. Technology also has added tremendous value in the form of agri-tech, cloud evolution, and data science for improving this industry as a whole.
At springbig, we are leveraging technology to push the limits and capture trends that help our merchants achieve goals above and beyond 100%. The spingbig platform provides the ability for our partners to be in constant contact with end users. We have other offerings that provide numerous opportunities for improvement of user experience, instore, e-commerce and omni.”
Navin is the CTO of springbig, a leading provider in customer loyalty and text message communications solutions for cannabis retailers and cannabis brands. Founded in 2017, springbig offers a single source of truth CRM that becomes the database of record for in-store and online customers that captures key purchasing and behavioral data and seamlessly integrates with existing dispensary POS and eCommerce systems. Navin has over 15 years experience in software engineering including leading a team of 100 engineers at Verifone, one of the world’s largest multinational payment processing and POS solution providers. In his time at Verifone, Navin crafted solutions for blue-chip brands including McDonalds, YUM Brands, and Visa.
Navin is recognized as a data-driven leader and problem solver who is able to streamline the software engineering delivery and QA process through advanced systems automation and project management, reducing time to delivery and aligning various IT sub-departments into a common system that speak the same language.
Cathy Corby Iannuzzelli, Co-Founder and Chief Payments Officer at KindTap
“As a fintech company in the cannabis space, we can wholeheartedly say that technology is shaping the future of the industry with the consumer at the forefront of the conversation. From convenience to compliance and now even our credit payment option with loyalty points, advances in technology are bringing the consumer the best experience possible while still keeping all the backend bells & whistles legally sound.”
Cathy Corby Iannuzzelli is a payments executive with extensive experience in prepaid, debit, credit, and emerging payments and broad and deep knowledge of issuing and acquiring sides of the market. In 2019, Cathy joined KindTap, a fintech company with a team that was focused on the same cannabis payments problem she spotted a few years back. Together in September 2021, they formally launched KindTap and are the first company to bring a credit payment option to the cannabis industry.
KindTap launched first to the Massachusetts market and will hit multiple US markets, including Florida, Maine, and New York by the end of 2021, bringing consumers immediate, revolving credit lines for upfront cannabis purchases and allowing merchants to seamlessly accept digital credit payments. About 3 years ago while working for a client in Denver, Cathy became aware of how broken payments were in cannabis. Broken isn’t even the right word – payments simply didn’t exist in the cannabis market. Cathy’s pioneering spirit kicked-in and she refocused her consulting to the cannabis segment.
Socrates Rosenfeld, Co-founder & CEO of Jane Technologies
“Our goal at Jane has always been to provide value for the entire ecosystem; we want customers to make informed purchasing decisions, and we want sellers to succeed. As the largest e-commerce platform in North American cannabis, the digitization of the industry has allowed us to keep the industry in line with the mainstream, allowing shopping for cannabis to be as accessible as shopping online for everything else in the world, all while ensuring an even playing field for brands and dispensaries.”
Socrates Rosenfeld is the Co-Founder and CEO of Jane Technologies. Socrates began using cannabis as a way to re-acclimate to civilian life upon return from active duty, but found himself questioning the origins of cannabis since it was illegal at the time. Fast forward to today and Socrates is now the founder and CEO of Jane Technologies- the e-commerce solution for legal cannabis retailers and brands. He holds a B.S. in Leadership & Management Studies from the United States Military Academy at West Point Academy and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is a U.S. Army Veteran and previously served as a commander of an Apache helicopter company.
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