3 Unique Ways To Boost Your Pot Shop's Loyalty Program

We’d love to put stats about how loyalty programs increase sales and customer engagement, but the fact that you might be using a Starbucks app (and collecting stars)  is enough proof that loyalty/rewards programs work. But for context, data shows that the average spend for loyalty program members is $134 vs non-members at $89. You see, people like to feel appreciated for their patronage and incentivized in the process. With an incentive program, you don’t only strengthen customer relationships that lead to repeat sales (with the right retention tactics in place), but your brand optics and exposure can drastically improve as well. 

Before we reveal the ways you can boost your loyalty program, let’s talk about what types of rewards programs are out there:

Check-in Bonus

A visit-based incentive program where a customer can enter their mobile number or email and the program tracks their visits. They can earn bonuses for every few visits or depending on set conditions.

Referral Programs

This helps you expand your reach to a customer’s network of friends. Referral programs may come through unique referral codes that can be used for purchase online. Or manually if a referral code or voucher is presented at the cash register upon purchase.

Cash Back Points

A popular strategy for dispensaries. Rewards points will be given to customers for every dollar spent on their merchandise. Points can be redeemed on the website on their next purchase or in-store during their visit. 

Tiered Rewards

A long-term loyalty program where customers can unlock different tiers over their membership’s lifetime. This motivation-based tactic is a powerful technique to foster customer loyalty and strengthen brand engagement for the long haul.

Loyalty Card

This is your typical retail punch card. For every visit or spend, it will be registered digitally or recorded on the store’s point-of-sale system. More visits equate to more points that they can spend at the shop further down the line.

The abovementioned reward types are the most commonly-used programs for dispensaries and the retail industry. With that said, hundreds of thousands of brands are doing the same thing. Your customers can sign-up for every loyalty program out there and reap benefits as they please, thus potentially leaving your dispensary out to dry. 

The question brands should be asking is “How can I make my cannabis loyalty program more robust?”

A robust rewards program just like Starbucks marries traditional tactics with innovation. By delivering their program through an awesome mobile application, they were able to dominate the coffee industry. Apart from offering their users a handy tool for all Starbucks transactions, they powered their app strategy with an omnichannel retention marketing strategy that’s a cut above the rest. 

You can follow in the footsteps of the coffee giant by partnering with us. We developed a custom cannabis dispensary app solution that not only gives your customers the most unique shopping experience but also elevates your brand. To cultivate deep and fruitful relationships with your shoppers.

Through our custom dispensary app product we can build upon the features of your existing cannabis rewards program to make them even more engaging and or build a new one that’s tailored to your brand and business strategy. 

3 Unique Ways Our Cannabis App Can Boost Your Loyalty Rewards Program:

Milestone Building

Remember the different types of loyalty programs earlier? Why go for one when you can go for all? With a custom app, you can set different milestones to hit different sets of goals within your business model. 

A sample flow would be:

In order to get a $20 credit, a user must accomplish the following milestones:

First milestone: Spend at least $75 

Second milestone: Leave a review

Third milestone: Share the app with a friend with a referral code

The app then registers every accomplished milestone and gives the user a $20 credit that he/she can use on the next visit.  With this unique tactic, you were able to combine the power of your typical punch card and a referral program (for sales and app usage). It also gives your brand that extra reputation boost when a user leaves a review on your product pages that can eventually bring in new customers to your shop. 

Related: White Label Cannabis Dispensary Apps – Still a Yay or Now a Nay?

Personalized Shopping Experience

Consumers nowadays expect personalized shopping experiences, especially when they shop through digital platforms. With an app, you can personalize a person’s profile, and push smart upsells and recommendations according to a customer’s preference and shopping pattern. By doing so, you’re able to engage with them more deeply by giving customers a happier and more fulfilling shopping experience. 

Apart from personalized upsells & recommendations, you can personalize your push marketing as well. Take your app’s first-hand data and use them for good. Market the right products or promos to the right set of people to reduce irrelevant content consumption that could lead to uninstalls or lower engagement rates. 

Read: The Power of Personalization in Cannabis Retail: Its Benefits in Recreational Marijuana Businesses

Go Geo

Mobile apps can take a user’s location into account. You can use this to your advantage by promoting members-only offers based on geographical locations. For example, your second brick and mortar need a sales boost and you want a little bit more members within that county. You can use the app’s push notification feature to promote this location-specific offer to users within the 30km range. This way, you are able to capture potential shoppers in a particular area and drive the revenue to a low-performing dispensary branch (or all participating branches). An epic example of this campaign would be Burger King’s Whopper Detour in 2018. 

There you have it! May these loyalty tactics encourage you to go mobile. And with competition on the rise, we bet your bottom dollar, your dispensary is going to need it. 

Schedule a Cannabis App Demo Today and start accelerating your success.