Using Push Notifications to Boost Customer Retention in your Cannabis Retail Store

Learn and Spread the Knowledge

Using Push Notifications to Boost Customer Retention in your Cannabis Retail Store

Anya Belaval
June 23, 2023
5 Minutes

Adopting innovative strategies can drive customer loyalty and sales in the ever-changing cannabis retail landscape.

In today’s fast-paced world, we as consumers have come to expect those instant updates and personalized promotions that add a newfound convenience to our shopping experience.

It can be something as simple as a “Price Drop Alert” from your favorite fashion store on a piece you’ve been wanting to add to your wardrobe, or a birthday promo code from your go-to food delivery app.

This relationship between business and consumer works to create loyalty to a brand and ensures that shoppers continue to come back. This begs the question: As a dispensary owner, why aren’t you creating this experience for your shoppers?

As the cannabis industry continues to grow, so does the need for retailers to differentiate themselves from their competitors. This means finding new ways to engage with your customers beyond traditional social media and SMS outreach which, let’s face it, is tedious and subject to restrictions out of your control. That’s where STRAIN steps in.

By the end of this read, you’ll learn more about:

- How push notifications work and their effectiveness over SMS outreach
- Ways to market to specific demographics within your shopper base
- How personalized messaging can drive better results

STRAIN gives cannabis retail shops the ability to reach their audience in ways they probably never thought were possible. Within the catalog of services we provide for dispensaries to optimize their sales, marketing, and customer data analytics, is our ability to create a tailor-made mobile app specifically for your retail space. In addition to having the power to present your entire dispensary operation at the palm of your customers’ hand, you’ll have the ability to market directly to them via push notification marketing.

So how does it work? Well similar to the push notifications you already receive from the apps you rely on, your dispensary’s mobile app will give you that same power to send personalized messages, promotions, and updates to all of the shoppers who have downloaded your app and are opted-in to receive push notifications. How does this differ from the SMS marketing you’ve been relying on? Well for one, push notifications are FREE to send, no matter how many, and with the possibility to segment your audience, you can strategically send out several campaigns on the same day. In addition, push notification marketing is also much more reliable than SMS outreach. As more and more mobile carriers continue to shy away from cannabis-related marketing, the assurance that your text messages will reach your shoppers continues to dwindle. Push notification marketing on the other hand, offers nearly 100% delivery rates.

A great way to further differentiate your outreach with push marketing is through segmentation. STRAIN’s platform allows dispensaries the ability to formulate and track campaigns to specific demographics with the click of a button. Some examples of segmentations that are available to marketers include customer gender, product preferences, last visit to store, birthdate, amount of loyalty points, and much more! Utilizing this feature saves your shoppers from feeling bombarded by messages that aren’t necessarily relevant to them. Conversely, when you’re marketing VIP Specials to your frequent shoppers, or “We Miss You” campaigns to people who haven’t visited the store in a few months, they’ll feel as though you’ve taken the time to speak directly to them.

Why is this personalization so important for customers? For one, it improves their shopping experience, especially when you can guide them to the right products based on their interests and purchasing behavior. It also leads to increased revenue for your dispensary. In fact, it is estimated that people are 60% more likely to purchase from a company again when they feel they’ve had a personalized experience.

Knowing how high the likelihood is that someone will repurchase from your retail store just by personalizing your message to them should be proof enough why push notifications can elevate your marketing strategy. With STRAIN’s platform you can ensure that you have the tools necessary to create personalized marketing campaigns to your unique customer base without having to sacrifice efficiency or pay exorbitant fees to get your message out there.

Let’s connect if you want to:

- Lower marketing campaigns costs
- Centralize services for cost effectiveness
- Lower your technology costs
- Claim your single-location Freemium plan (available to single location retailers)

We have integrations with the tools you're already using

BioTrack is a seed-to-sale inventory management and dispensary point-of-sale software designed specifically for the green industry.

MJFreeway Business Solutions provides compliance software for the green industry.

Flowhub is a software that provides compliance, point of sale, payments, inventory management, analytics, and easy integrations.

Blaze provides data, insights, and other software tools you need to grow your green operation and optimize customer experience.

ABOUT US

STRAIN mobile APP and all in one platform helps retailers to centralize their sales, marketing, customer service, and retention tools to centralize their operation while lowering up to 70% of technology costs.

CONNECT WITH US!

Do you know how your current technology is impacting your retail margins?

Learn and Spread the Knowledge

Do you know how your current technology is impacting your retail margins?

Manny
April 18, 2023
5 Minutes

How lowering technology costs can increase profitability in your cannabis operation

Nowadays cannabis retailers are struggling to survive in a saturated market which makes it difficult to stay afloat. They face multiple hurdles, such as product price drops, competition, and steep operating costs.

Retailers often focus on operational costs, mostly associated with overhead, rent, utilities and professional service providers to keep a profitable business. But what about the costs associated with technology?

By the end of this blog, you will be able to:

- Identify whether the services you’re currently using are worth it
- Analyze the real cost associated with operating multiple platforms
- Evaluate if the services you’re using are driving ROI for the operation

You will also gain insight into what you can expect from STRAIN, such as:

- Tools to identify if the technology platforms you’re using are effective and fit your operation needs
- Alternatives you can implement to lower costs and centralize your operation

A retailer can easily spend up to $36,000 annually per location between marketplaces, POS, e-commerce, marketing and retention tools, among others. And as more retailers enter the market, it becomes increasingly difficult and pricier for you to stand out and attract customers. Imagine the impact you can make in your operation by having an extra $20,000 to spend on an additional employee, marketing or even more inventory.

If there’s one thing retailers can do to address this and lower tech costs, it’s to learn how to leverage other technologies to merge services and quantify a platform’s offering.

At STRAIN we’ve created a unique tool to help you realize how much money you can annually save in your operation. With the cannabis retailer Savings Calculator, retailers will be able to select the services they use in their organization and view an average of their annual savings by switching to STRAIN.

Imagine saving up to 70% on your tech bills by centralizing your whole operation in a single platform without sacrificing the productivity and work quality of your team, all while using a better product.

Try our Savings Calculator and see see how much you can SAVE. It’s accurate, easy to use, and FREE!

Let’s connect if you want to:

- Lower marketing campaigns costs
- Centralize services for cost effectiveness
- Lower your technology costs
- Claim your single-location Freemium plan (available to single location retailers)

Another great option to lower marketing and tech costs is by taking advantage of the most cost-effective customer retention strategies like the ones below:

- We miss you campaigns (FREE)
- In-store events (giveaways with a brand collabs)
- Personalized Push notifications campaigns (FREE)
- VIP Clubs enrollment
- Bring a bud exclusive deals

Learn about these strategies and more in our blog post “The sure-fire way to retain customers in a retail cannabis shop to keep them coming back”.

We have integrations with the tools you're already using

BioTrack is a seed-to-sale inventory management and dispensary point-of-sale software designed specifically for the green industry.

MJFreeway Business Solutions provides compliance software for the green industry.

Flowhub is a software that provides compliance, point of sale, payments, inventory management, analytics, and easy integrations.

Blaze provides data, insights, and other software tools you need to grow your green operation and optimize customer experience.

ABOUT US

CONNECT WITH US!

The sure-fire way to retain customers in a retail cannabis shop to keep them coming back

Learn and Spread the Knowledge

The sure-fire way to retain customers in a retail cannabis shop to keep them coming back

Manny
April 17, 2023
6 Minutes

Low hanging fruits strategies for retailers to increase customers retention

Great marketers are always thinking of ways to attract new people through the door. In the end, that’s the main reason why you hire them, right? But, what’s next? You acquire new customers, they go to your store a couple of times and then they disappear and never come back again. Why’s that? What happened?

In this blog you’ll learn simple tactics to power up your customer retention so you can:

Identify your dispensary/retail store customer retention rate
Compare your marketing efforts vs the customers who are staying loyal
Kickstart simple but powerful customer retention strategies

You’ll also learn how STRAIN can help your store:

Establish a foundation for you customer retention plan
Keep your customer retention efforts cost-effective

Many retailers we’ve come across have a very distant knowledge of the amount of recurring customers they have in their customer base. They count customers as the people who have bought from them in a lifetime – or the total of customers in the POS – but, in most cases, the real number ranges from 10% – 30% based on who has returned to the store in a 90-day period.

As business operators we can’t just depend on marketing and new customers to run a successful business! Sure, we need to invest in new ones but, most importantly, care and cater to our actual ones. It’s no secret that for every dollar you invest in acquiring customers, retaining your current ones only costs 10% of that. This is not only a fraction of the cost but also gives you a 60% higher chance of converting an existing customer than a new one.

Customer retention is all about building trustworthy relationships with your customers. By offering personalized experiences and interactions, you’re showing that you value and remember them as individuals. This personal touch can create a positive emotional connection between the customer and your brand, which can lead to increased loyalties over time.

We all love when we go to a restaurant and they welcome us by our name, right? Learning customers’ names may seem like a small detail but it can have a big impact on how they perceive your brand and your team. People love to be recognized and that’s an experience they’ll share with others. In the end, word of mouth continues to be one of the best brand recognition strategies.

So, now that we know all this, what are the low hanging fruits to increase customer retention?

At STRAIN we’ve compiled the following list. Start with just 3 of these strategies to make your operation thrive and have customers keep coming back:

Referrals: It’s simple; people talk about good service with their friends and families.

Get to know your customer: This requires efforts of all your staff members. Learning their names, products needs and preferences will go a long way.

We miss you campaigns: Most retailers we’ve worked with over the years don’t even know that only around 30% of their customer base are really their recurring customers. Why doesn’t that other 70% come back to the store? Is it because of product availability? Budtender interaction? You want to know the answer, right?

VIP clubs: Not every customer is a real VIP. Most retailers fall for platforms automation to send messages to this type of customer, which is not very efficient. A true VIP customer deserves more personal attention and offers exclusive to them. Have your top customers on “speed dial” in all communication channels to offer them your latest goods and best offers before anyone else, that’s what VIP is all about. Don’t wait for them to engage with your store, engage with them first and tailor your call to their customer persona.

In-store events: You already have the real estate, collaborating with brands you carry in your store to create events and giveaways will keep customers’ awareness at the top level and it can bring new traffic from their circle of friends.

Product reminders: You already know the products your customers like, so stop sending generic messages to everyone. Some people might love tacos but others don’t! Customers have different tastes and products preferences.

Personalized Email & Push Notifications: Not all your customers are the same. Call them by their names and send them relevant information and products based on their past interactions with your store. This can drive engagement up to 6x, not to mentioned that push notifications are always free.

Abandoned carts: Many people think this has more to do with E-commerce, but it’s far from that. No one wants to lose revenue or sales, right? Abandon carts are really about customer retention. Sending a notification to “Steve” letting him know that his favorite product is still in his cart or that he needs to checkout his topical so he’s not in pain during the night is all about knowing your customers and caring for them.

Not only are these strategies extremely effective to drive traffic back to your stores but they are very aligned to being proactive rather than reactive. As a plus, the cost of executing them is fairly low and, in some occasions, close to none.

So, what marketing channels should you leverage as a retailer? It depends on what you want to accomplish and the amount of money you can invest. Also, keep in mind that not everyone is engaging on the same channels, that’s why the omnichannel approach is the way to go. But it comes with a cost.

If we as retail owners ever wonder how to lower costs in these rough times in the industry, don’t look further. Start connecting better with your customers and it’ll pay back.

We have integrations with the tools you're already using

BioTrack is a seed-to-sale inventory management and dispensary point-of-sale software designed specifically for the green industry.

MJFreeway Business Solutions provides compliance software for the green industry.

Flowhub is a software that provides compliance, point of sale, payments, inventory management, analytics, and easy integrations.

Blaze provides data, insights, and other software tools you need to grow your green operation and optimize customer experience.