Cannabis financial technology companies reported strong sales at retail dispensaries over the April 20 cannabis holiday weekend, but one company experienced POS outages in multiple states on the industry's busiest day of the year. Businesses in several states have ceased trading.
April 20th is the biggest event of the year for the cannabis community, thanks to the band that used the number 420 as a slang term for smoking weed among California teens in the 1970s. Ta. After being made famous thanks to marijuana icons like the Grateful Dead and High Times magazine, April 20th began to be marked by celebrations and demonstrations in cities around the world. This day is also the biggest day of the year for the regulated marijuana industry, and brands and retailers regularly offer discounts and other promotions to commemorate the day. This year, President Joseph Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris commemorated April 20 with separate tweets calling for continued progress on cannabis policy reform.
Cannabis tech companies reported strong dispensary sales ahead of the 420 marijuana holiday on April 20, the biggest day of the year for the legal cannabis industry.
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Jane Technologies, a 2023 and 2024 Forbes Cannabis 42.0 honoree, is an e-commerce and POS platform serving more than 2,500 dispensaries and brands in 39 U.S. states and Canada, with records in select markets reported sales. Illinois topped the list with total sales of $4,494,973.86 for retailers using Jane's technology. The total number of transactions this year was 245,926, an increase of 1.67% compared to the total number of transactions in 2023 of 241,877, and an increase of 13.74% compared to the total number of transactions of 216,208 on April 19th. The company reported on Monday.
“This year, 420 has seen record sales across the U.S.,” Soc Rosenfeld, CEO and co-founder of Jane Technologies, said in a statement Monday. “It was a very successful day at Jane, with over 500,000 transactions completed on the platform this weekend. Thanks to our team’s preparation and experience with high-volume sales days, the Jane platform It ran smoothly and our partners were able to provide a seamless shopping experience for their customers on the biggest shopping day of the year.”
Jane reported that the top five cannabis brands as of April 20 were RYTHM, &Shine, STIIIZY, Savvy, and Float. Cannabis flower was the top product type with approximately $9.4 million in sales, followed by weed e-cigarettes with more than $6.2 million. Pot edibles rounded out the top three product types, with sales of more than $3.2 million on April 20th.
Cannabis POS platform Treez, which operates in 11 states and serves more than 600 dispensaries, also reported impressive results. In addition to strong sales on the April 20th holiday itself, the pharmacies it serves also saw a notable increase on April 19th. On April 20th, the Treez retailer experienced a significant spike, with a 120% increase in customers, products sold, and total sales. But in the previous day, pharmacies saw an even bigger jump, with customer numbers, products, and total sales increasing by 200% compared to last year.
The 420 holiday, celebrated on April 20th, was the biggest day of the year for the cannabis…(+) community.
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This year was also the first year that cannabis flower did not sit alone in the top spot in 4/20 sales processed by Treez. According to data shared by the company, cannabis flower and pre-rolled joints will tie for first place in 2024, with each product type accounting for 25% of total sales and an overwhelming 50% of the total market for both products. acquired a market share.
Most, if not all, dispensaries ran promotions over the weekend of April 20th to attract customers on the cannabis industry's busiest day of the year. Promotional prices are higher than last year, with retailer discounts averaging 37% in 2024, compared to an average of 32% in 2023, according to Treez data. John Yang, co-founder and CEO of Treez, said retailers that were strategically discounting had the most success with their 4/20 promotions.
“As cannabis becomes increasingly accessible and mainstream, 420 has consistently experienced strong sales driven by new customers and state entry,” Yang wrote in an emailed statement. “This year, the number of pharmacy customers using Treez on 420 doubled as people looked to take advantage of deep discounts.Retailers who worked with brands to offer targeted discounts , outperformed retailers that applied broad, undifferentiated discounts.”
Dutchy suffers another power outage on April 20th.
While both Treez and Jane Technologies reported smooth operations over the weekend of April 20th, cannabis technology company Dutchie reported POS failures in some markets on Saturday, halting sales for several hours. The suspension affects dispensaries in Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey and New Mexico, according to cannabis news outlet Green Market Report, and Dutchie announced on April 20th He pointed out that the company has been experiencing technical problems for consecutive years. But despite the outage, Dutchee reported strong sales on April 20, exceeding last year's totals.
“4/20 of this year was a record-setting day for the majority of Dutchee-powered pharmacies. Our systems facilitated over 2 million transactions and $165 million in retail commerce. This is a 50% increase from 4/20/2023,” Chris Ostrowski, Dutchie's chief technology officer, said in a statement to Talking Joints Memo.
“While Dutchie and our partners were making extensive preparations for this year’s 4/20, a group of customers belonging to a particular instance of our POS system encountered a serious issue that impacted their ability to transact. “Dutchie values stability and will continue to invest heavily to provide a reliable platform for all of our customers.”
Wendy Bronfein, co-founder, chief brand officer and director of public policy for Curio Wellness, a multi-state operating company, said Dutchie's system outages caused multiple outbreaks in Maryland and other parts of the country. reported lines forming at the door of their pharmacies and said the situation shows the need. Pass legislation to ease access to general banking services for licensed cannabis businesses.
“This outage is another indicator that the industry is in need of major reform, as dispensaries across the country experience massive failures in their payment systems on the busiest day of the year for cannabis. It's like Walmart's systems going down on Black Friday or Amazon experiencing payment issues on Prime Day,” Bronfein said in an emailed statement. . “This will require more accessible payment methods and safer banking to ensure we don’t lose important sales and ensure that consumers have access to safe, legal cannabis, which is a right in many U.S. states.” I reaffirmed the necessity.”
