Strategies to Increase Extract Sales on 7/10

When we think about holidays in the cannabis industry, days like 420 and Green Wednesday are always top of mind, as they bring a dramatic boost in sales that can be a boon for cannabis brands of all sizes. But that doesn’t mean we should ignore days like July 10^th (also known as 7/10 or Dab Day), which provide an opportunity to drive a sizable increase in sales across concentrate categories. 7/10 is the unofficial holiday of cannabis extracts, designated as such by concentrate aficionados who saw that the date resembled “OIL” spelled backwards. With a careful, data-driven approach to assortment and pricing, your brand can drive significant revenue on 7/10.

Strategies to Increase Extract Sales on 7/10

Craft Market Specific Strategies
Price Strategically to Maximize your Brand’s Performance
Take Assortment into Account

How big Is Dab Day Across Cannabis Markets?

Looking across all categories, 7/10 is far from being the biggest day for cannabis sales, as six other holidays saw a higher daily incremental sales total in 2023. Even looking at just the extract category, we see that Dab Day is the fifth biggest holiday for daily extract sales, with $5.8 million in total daily extract sales across BDSA-tracked markets (AZ, CA, CO, FL, IL, MA, MD, MO, MI, NV, NJ, NY, OH, OR, and PA).

Historical data show that the week of 7/10 is a great day to drive sales in the extract category, with BDSA data showing that incremental daily sales for the week of 7/10 were +17% higher than non-holiday weeks in July 2023. While Dab Day is more closely associated with the extract category, vapes also see a slight lift from the holiday, with BDSA data showing that incremental daily sales of vapes were +4% higher on the week of 7/10 compared to non-holiday weeks.

Strategies for Success on 7/10

7/10 may be well known among cannabis extract connoisseurs, but the holiday is not as ubiquitous as days like 420. Making the most of this day requires comprehensive, data-based strategies that take into account market dynamics, assortment and pricing.

1.     Craft Market Specific Strategies

7/10 brings a boost to extract sales across all markets, but a careful look at the category share of your specific state is important while crafting a sales playbook.

Looking at product share of sales, the size of the extract category varies significantly from market to market. Extracts make up more than 9% of dollar sales in Pennsylvania (a medical market), but less than one percent in the New York Medical channel. This should be taken into consideration when planning your promotional strategy around the holiday. If your market sees extracts pull in a smaller share of sales, offering cross-promotions with other categories could be more effective at boosting basket sizes than doubling down on discounts for the extract category alone.

2.     Price Strategically to Maximize your Brand’s Performance

Discounts can be a powerful tool to increase foot traffic and boost basket sizes, but a deft approach is required to avoid diminishing returns for your brand. While discounts can be a valuable tool to increase sales for key product categories, deep discounts across the board are not necessary to get a sales bump around 7/10.

Ideally, discounts should drive unit sales to increase at a rate that offsets the lower pricing.  However, in years past brands and retailers have offered discounts that were too low or not effectively executed at a loss to the total sales. Looking back to 2023, the extract category saw a -4% decrease in average retail price for the week of 7/10, but some subcategories saw a stronger boost with little to no discounting. Solventless extracts specifically saw a significantly stronger sales increase for the holiday week than the total extract category, as sales of solventless extracts were +27% higher than non-holiday weeks, even with a +1% increase in price that week.

Another promotional strategy to consider around the holiday is cross-promotion. By offering extract-buyers deals for other categories that don’t typically see a big sales increase around the holiday, you can boost basket sizes and maximize revenue for your brand without having to slash prices on your most in-demand extract offerings.

3.     Take Assortment into Account

Optimizing assortment is another crucial step to make the most of holidays like 7/10. One useful consideration for assortment is SKU optimization. While variety may be the spice of life, having too many options in the same category is more costly for your brand, and can lead to indecision among consumers. Be sure to have options that offer different price points, form factors, and potency, but don’t needlessly overload consumers with too many choices, as this can lead to indecision and actually decrease sales.

Brands looking to maximize sales should consider consumer data when adjusting their product assortment. For example, Colorado inhalable consumers report that wax and budder are the most consumed extract subcategory (36% reporting past 6-mo consumption), while consumers in the fast-growing Ohio market are more likely to report consuming kief or resin products (20%). Brands can boost sales even higher by knowing their specific consumer landscape, and making sure that their product portfolio offers form factors that are most popular with their specific consumer base.

Need more tips about how to win to price with confidence year-round? Check out our most recent blog on how to price tiers can be used to build a comprehensive strategy to grow your brand. If you want to learn more about BDSA, reach out to request a demo.