Join Now

Navigating the Cannabis Industry: Leveraging Data and News for Success

In the ever-evolving landscape of the cannabis industry, staying ahead of the curve is essential for businesses looking to thrive. With the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA) providing exclusive access to valuable resources and partner discounts, entrepreneurs have a powerful toolkit at their disposal. In this blog, we’ll delve into the insights shared by industry experts during a recent NCIA #IndustryEssenitals webinar, focusing on the importance of leveraging data analytics and news aggregation to drive growth and navigate industry challenges.

Understanding Market Trends with New Frontier Data:

Amanda Reiman, an expert in data-driven decision-making, emphasized the critical role of market insights provided by New Frontier Data. She highlighted the significance of identifying trends, opportunities, and challenges within the cannabis industry. By leveraging data analytics, businesses can make strategic decisions to optimize marketing efforts, enhance product offerings, and improve overall performance. Exclusive member benefits offered by New Frontier Data provide NCIA members with access to invaluable resources, empowering them to stay ahead of the competition.

Driving Growth with Data-Backed Strategies and BDSA:

Lexie Barton expanded on Amanda’s insights by focusing on the practical applications of data analytics, particularly through BDSA. She discussed the importance of optimizing sales strategies and harnessing the power of data to inform product innovation, pricing strategies, and market expansion. By maximizing sales with BDSA’s insights, NCIA members can gain a competitive edge and drive business growth in a rapidly evolving market.

Meeting Information Needs with Cannabis NewsHub:

Samantha Hobbs shed light on the role of Cannabis NewsHub in meeting the information needs of cannabis businesses. By centralizing industry news and delivering tailored updates directly to businesses, Cannabis NewsHub streamlines the process of staying informed and ahead of industry developments. With access to the latest news and updates, businesses can anticipate challenges, identify opportunities, and adjust their strategies accordingly.

Optimizing Business Decision-Making with NCIA:

Aaron Smith, Co-Founder & CEO of NCIA, underscored the importance of leveraging professional resources and strategic partnerships to optimize business decision-making processes. He emphasized the value of NCIA membership in driving sustainable growth and success within the cannabis industry. By accessing exclusive partner discounts and resources, NCIA members can make informed decisions, mitigate risks, and capitalize on emerging opportunities.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, the insights shared by industry experts during the most recent NCIA #IndustryEssentials webinar highlight the critical role of data analytics and news aggregation in navigating the complexities of the cannabis industry. By leveraging tools provided by partners like New Frontier Data, BDSA, and Cannabis NewsHub, businesses can make informed decisions, identify growth opportunities, and stay ahead of the competition. Additionally, NCIA membership offers exclusive benefits and resources that further empower businesses to succeed in the dynamic cannabis market. Stay informed, stay ahead, and maximize your business potential with NCIA and its esteemed partners.

Ready to dive deeper into the world of cannabis industry insights? Be sure to watch the full recording of our webinar for a comprehensive look at leveraging data and news for success in this ever-evolving market. Click the link below to access the complete program and gain access to exclusive tips, strategies, and resources tailored specifically for cannabis businesses.

Call to Action:

Ready to leverage data and news for success in the cannabis industry? Join NCIA and gain access to exclusive partner discounts and resources. Strengthen your position in the industry and unlock the tools you need to thrive in the ever-evolving cannabis market. Don’t miss out on this exclusive opportunity to maximize your business potential with NCIA and its esteemed partners.

 

Service Solutions | 7.13.22 | Scarcity Shouldn’t be Scary – How to Fund Your Growth

NCIA’s Service Solutions series is our sponsored content webinar program which allows business owners the opportunity to learn more about premier products, services and industry solutions directly from our network of established suppliers, providers and thought leaders.

In this edition originally aired on Wednesday, July 13, 2022 we were joined by e2b Teknologies whose team of leading integration & technology experts discussed some easy steps to prepare your business for funding and accelerated growth. As you all know, competition was stiff for funding prior to 2022 but with the current economy and rising interest rates, capital is much harder to acquire today. You should be taking steps get noticed and get the MONEY you need to grow your business now.

Presentation Slide Deck: [View Here]

After viewing you’ll walk away with a better understanding of:

• How to leverage a team properly
• What’s most important – It may not be what you think.
• What’s necessary in terms of reporting, compliance, and record-keeping
• Evaluating potential technology partners

Sit back and settle in for an informative and timely program outlining the challenges facing operators and how you can position yourself for success with the right tools to help succeed at scale.

Panelists:

Joshua Gilstrap
Marketing Manager
e2b Teknologies

Mary Jo Mahood
Practice Manager
e2b Teknologies

Lynne Henslee
President
e2b Teknologies

Tyler Evinsky
Sales Manager
e2b Teknologies

Sponsored By:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Want to know more about the products and services offered by e2b Teknologies? Head to https://thecannasuite.com/ to learn more today!

Member Blog: Key Metrics to Track & Mistakes to Avoid for Cannabis Retail Success in 2022

by Gary Cohen, Cova Software

Despite the pandemic, the cannabis industry has proven to be recession-proof and has grown exponentially over the past few years. Cannabis retail sales in the US are projected to top $30 billion in 2022, and as more states jump onto the legal bandwagon, competition will intensify. As such, dispensary owners must ensure that they are using data and analytics strategically to measure the health of their business. Many cannabis retailers fail because they don’t track crucial dispensary metrics or make avoidable mistakes.

Cannabis dispensary metrics are the data points that you must track regularly to help in better decision-making. Business intelligence reports generated via these metrics help you monitor your daily dispensary operations and create projections for future sales and required inventory. A robust cannabis POS system with advanced analytics and reporting capabilities collects information from various sources and unifies them into a single repository so that you can extract maximum insights for the growth of your retail business. By tracking some of the following important metrics, you can implement strategies to increase dispensary profits, enhance employee productivity, forecast inventory, and elevate the customer experience.

Cannabis Sales & Profits Metrics

  • Number of Products Sold per Transaction
  • Average Sales Value
  • Total Sales for a Period

By tracking the average basket size and transaction value, you can evaluate your customer buying habits and ideal price points and create your marketing and promotional campaigns or upsell opportunities accordingly. Implementing strategies will help you increase these metrics, manage inventory and employees efficiently during your busiest sales periods, and thus, grow your dispensary profits.

Staff Productivity & Dispensary Traffic

  • Individual Budtender Sales
  • Busiest Sales Days/Hours
  • Discounts and Refunds

Tracking individual budtender sales on your POS system will help you determine your top performers and aid in staff scheduling. Those employees who have higher sales per transaction must be scheduled during your busier hours of the day, and those who may not be performing can be offered training on strategies like deals, upsells, cross-sells, and bundles. Also, potential fraud can be identified by tracking discounts or refunds offered by employees.

Target Market & Customer Retention

  • Customer Demographics
  • New vs Returning Customers
  • Customer Lifetime Value

Segmenting your target market helps design a more customized experience based on age, location, values, buying behavior, etc. By tracking each customer’s average number of transactions over a period of time, you can determine their lifetime value and better tailor your dispensary’s promotions and upselling strategies through targeted marketing campaigns. These metrics help curate an enhanced shopping experience and increase customer retention.

Inventory & Product Performance

  • Inventory Turnover
  • Shrinkage
  • Top-selling Product Categories

Inventory turnover measures the number of times you sold through your entire inventory in a given period and allows you to determine how much of your cash flow is tied up in inventory. Shrinkage is the difference between the inventory you have on paper and the actual inventory in stock and helps you identify theft. Also, tracking your top-selling and lowest-performing products or categories can help in crafting strategic promotions and better inventory planning decisions.

Keep up With Changing Times

Successful cannabis retailers track top-selling products, profit per product, and all other metrics highlighted above, and use this data to make business decisions. If you have a robust and flexible cannabis retail platform that offers you these detailed data insights and can scale and adapt when needed, your dispensary will always stay ahead of the curve. 

Learn in detail about all the mistakes to avoid and secrets to succeed in the cannabis retail industry by downloading Cova Software’s e-book, “Why Some Cannabis Retailers Fail”, which presents cautionary tales of what not to do if you want to thrive in the dispensary business.


Gary Cohen is the CEO of Cova Software, the fastest growing technology brand in the cannabis industry. Cohen’s focus has been driving the company’s overall strategy, including its vision, go-to-market plan, and strategic development. Since joining the cannabis industry in 2016 and launching Cova commercially in 4q17, Cohen has led Cova to dominate the enterprise sector for dispensary Point of Sale, while forging client relationships with hundreds of single-store retailers across North America.

With Cova’s cannabis POS and its excellent integrations with eCommerce and delivery services, the online order automatically pops up for the budtender to tender the sales, and the POS system updates inventory once payment is approved. Cova offers multiple eCommerce solutions to choose from, as per your needs and budget, and you can legally sell cannabis online stress-free while staying compliant with strict government regulations.

Committee Insights | 8.31.21 | Taking Human Resources Higher as a Strategic Partner

In this edition of our NCIA Committee Insights series originally aired on Tuesday, August 31, 2021 we were joined by members of our Human Resources Committee for a discussion on how to create a healthy workplace, a positive employee experience and an effective relationship with your leadership team to make the right decisions for your company’s success.

Presentation Slide Deck: https://bit.ly/2WKipbJ

Human resources is the hub of the workplace, the employee experience and leadership decisions with the cannabis industry being no different. Join our panel of human resource experts as they equip you with the skills needed to create positive employee experiences and influence change with other strategic leaders within their organization by effectively utilizing data.

Panelists:

Shawnee Williams (Moderator)
Recruiter & Account Manager
Illinois Equity Staffing

Nichole McIntyre
Director of Human Resources
urban-gro

Dan Walter
Managing Consultant
FutureSense LLC

Member Spotlight: BDS Analytics

bds-logo-small-2dAs the cannabis industry expands and continues its upward growth, data has become a valuable tool to help business owners make important decisions about running their businesses. For the month of June, we speak with Roy Bingham, co-founder of BDS Analytics, which specializes in collecting, processing, and presenting point-of-sale market share data for the cannabis industry. NCIA is launching a partnership with BDS Analytics at this year’s Cannabis Business Summit and Expo, offering free interactive access to a selection of BDS Analytics data as a new benefit to our members. Read on to learn more about Roy and the BDS team.

Tell me a bit about you and why you founded BDS Analytics?

Roy Bingham, co-founder of BDS Analytics
Roy Bingham, co-founder of BDS Analytics

I grew up in the U.K. and after nine years in banking and corporate treasury in London, I moved to the U.S.A. in 1993 to go to Harvard Business School. I loved it here and decided to stay, working initially as a consultant at McKinsey in Boston and then building a business called Health Business Partners (HBP) in Rhode Island. HBP focused on the natural product industry – essentially anything that you could buy in Whole Foods Market. One of the things that we did early on was invest in or create information businesses including Nutrition Business Journal, The NBJ Summit, and a data analytics company called SPINS. SPINS worked with data from retailers such as Whole Foods and hundreds of independent health food stores and small chains to aggregate data about products and categories in the health food channel. It was very successful and is the dominant point-of-sale (POS) data analytics company in that channel. Later in my career, I co-founded a nutraceuticals company and then ran a division of RenewLife, which is the largest natural digestive care company in the U.S. We used SPINS data extensively to help us with three main things:

1. Product development – identifying market opportunities by assessing category size, growth characteristics, competition, and product attributes
2. Marketing – assessing the effectiveness of campaigns using “off the shelf” sales data and then modifying and launching more effective campaigns
3. Sales – we expanded from independent health food stores to Whole Foods and then to mainstream such as CVS, Walgreens, Costco, Wal-Mart, etc. Our most convincing sales tools were SPINS’ charts showing our market leadership or strong growth characteristics in existing channels and convincing new retailers that they should introduce our products into their stores

My long-time friends and colleagues founded CanopyBoulder in 2014. They called me very persuasively in early 2015 to encourage me to create SPINS for the cannabis industry. Naturally I thought they were inviting me to take a crazy risk – at least until I understood how exciting the opportunity was. What they explained was that this industry was desperate for data to guide decision-making, and the data that is in every other industry just did not exist in cannabis.

Liz Stahura, co-founder of BDS Analytics
Liz Stahura, co-founder of BDS Analytics

With help from CanopyBoulder, I was introduced to Liz Stahura, who became my co-founder. Liz had ten years of experience building a POS data analytics company for the biking and outdoor industry called Leisure Trends. It was a similar business to SPINS and had recently been acquired by NPD, the number-3 player in the industry after IRI and Nielsen. Together we set to work to recruit the team, build the technology platform, build partnerships with dispensaries, and more recently make the data available to our brand/grower/producer clients. We also raised $1.5 million from investors in the summer of 2015.

How does the data analytics you provide benefit cannabis business owners?

Our software and service helps two kinds of clients in several ways.

A. Dispensaries are our partners and clients. They provide anonymized data that we aggregate and organize in our database of more than 20 million transactions. We clean up all that data and match every transaction to a product and every product to categories and attributes. Then the dispensaries can access our portal 24/7/365. They are able to see how their store sales are progressing by category, sub-category, brand, and individual item. This alone provides great insight and is provided for chains at the individual store and aggregate chain levels. But then… they can compare their own sales to the averages for their states – all at the category, sub-category, brand, and item levels. This quickly and easily reveals actionable insights such as “Which categories and products am I not carrying that would sell well?” or “Which do I feature too heavily?” The result is increased sales and profitability, as well as customer loyalty and fewer customer/patients leaving without the item that they came to find.

B. Brands, manufacturers, and growers use our software in the same ways that I described using data analytics when I was at ReNewLife:

a. Sales – Third-party data to validate the importance of their brands and items and convince customers to carry them in their dispensaries
b. Marketing – assessing the effectiveness of campaigns using “off the shelf” sales data and then modifying and launching more effective campaigns or pricing strategies
c. Product development – identifying market opportunities by assessing category size, growth characteristics, competition, and product attributes

As a business owner, you’re very involved in your community and in causes that you care about. Can you tell us more about what matters most to you, and how your business participates in pushing for progress? 

The BDS Analytics team
The BDS Analytics team

First, I believe in education, information, and freedom of choice. I think everyone should have the opportunity to study and learn by experience and I think most people make wise decisions for themselves and their families if they are empowered in this way. I think the “war on drugs” has been the worst policy disaster of the last 100 years. It has destroyed countless lives and enriched those that prey on others. It should be over now.

As a business, our mission is to drive the cannabis sector to thrive with well-informed decisions based on factual data. Our success is the success of our clients. So we believe in helping to create the right conditions for our clients and the industry overall to succeed. This includes wise regulations, positive and well-informed media attention, free markets, smart decision-making, and availability of human and financial capital.

Why did you join NCIA?

The first check that we wrote after capitalizing our company was for membership in NCIA. It was a “no-brainer.” It is vital to the success of our industry that it has a clear, united, and loud voice that ensures regulatory obstacles are removed. NCIA has also provided a very supportive community that has enabled us to get up the learning curve and make deep relationships. NCIA also provides other great benefits and we are thrilled that one of those starting very soon is access for all members to our GreenEdge data!


Get your first look and a demo of this new NCIA member benefit from BDS Analytics at the 3rd Annual Cannabis Business Summit and Expo, June 20-22! Register today

1024x532CBSnciahomepageimage

This site uses cookies. By using this site or closing this notice, you agree to the use of cookies and our privacy policy.