Although the stigma around cannabis continues to fade, not everyone who consumes the plant feels comfortable being open about it. Some parents and older adults, for example, prefer to be discreet about their cannabis shopping. The challenge is that, even though licensed dispensaries are typically banned from displaying products in their street-facing windows, their exteriors often shout “dispensary.”
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There are two ways to serve these customers. Rather than choosing a location in a busy area, open your doors near the heart of the action yet far enough away to accommodate discreet shoppers. House your dispensary in an inconspicuous building so that most folks won’t know it’s a dispensary at all. This way, your customers won’t have to broadcast their consumption when shopping with you. Accommodating these customers can do wonders for your revenue.
How Private Retail Drives Customer Acquisition (and Retention)
A discreet cannabis shopping experience helps people feel more comfortable entering your dispensary. You expand your potential customer base to include anyone concerned about protecting their privacy.
Your ultimate goal should be for your customers to feel all but unnoticed from the moment they pull up to your parking lot (or walk up to your door) to when they leave. By honoring this desire, you welcome people who are interested in trying cannabis for the first time but feel restricted by stigma. Parents who worry a member of the local parent-teacher association will see them, folks who work in less cannabis-friendly industries, and people who come from less accepting families are more likely to embrace your dispensary.
And they won’t just embrace it one time — chances are, they’ll keep coming back. After all, few other dispensaries are accommodating their need for discretion.
Why, And How, Discreet Retail Helps Anxious Shoppers Relax
At a typical recreational dispensary, customers speak with a budtender right in plain view of everyone else. This arrangement may not be enough to quell anxiety for a shopper trying to keep their consumption on the down-low, even though they are in a cannabis-friendly space. These customers may be full of nerves, and you can help them loosen up. Doing so starts with how you arrange your physical space and extends to the types of customer interactions you prioritize.
On the latter front, supplement the classic budtender (or cannabis sales specialist) experience with private one-on-one consultations that happen out of view from your main floor. Offer phone consultations so that especially anxious new customers have the option to not enter your dispensary at all. Offer bookings at times of day that may best serve discreet customers, such as midday when parents are on lunch break, and their kids are at school.
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As for the inside of your dispensary, establish a calming environment through your design and décor. A long passageway from your front door to the dispensary floor may reassure nervous customers that you’re protecting their privacy. That’s especially the case if you embellish this pathway with soothing features such as greenery and low lighting. As for the show floor itself, a small space with just a few team members on the floor may feel more private.
Hiring employees from the medical cannabis sector is especially helpful since, in most states, legal medical cannabis preceded greater public acceptance, so folks with medical cannabis experience are especially likely to value discretion. Your goal is to melt anxious shoppers’ tension away through compassionate, empathetic one-on-one conversations with folks who get it.
Does Anonymity Mean Leaving Data at the Door?
It’s important to respect someone’s choice not to sign up for loyalty or leave a review. Discreet shoppers want to remain as anonymous as possible, and some are more likely to decline loyalty sign-up initiatives or requests to review their experience on Google, which does not allow for anonymity. Supporting people who don’t want to sign up for rewards or associate their purchases with their name is paramount for building a private retail environment.
The small loss of data or marketing that comes from these accommodations is worth it to cater to discreet shoppers. When you respect these shoppers’ boundaries, you encourage their loyalty to your dispensary without them actually joining your loyalty program. You give them every reason to come back day in and day out, and those loyal customers are worth their weight in gold.
Delivering Discretion
If you’ve already set up shop right on your area’s busiest street or opened your doors in a big, conspicuous building, you still have an easy option for serving discreet customers. Offering cannabis delivery eliminates nearly any possibility that low-key customers will broadcast their consumption to the world.
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There’s no getting around delivery customers needing to share their address to get cannabis delivered to their doorstep. However, typically, anonymity concerns have to do with people seeing them near or inside a dispensary over having an unmarked vehicle pull up to their home. Plus, they can time their delivery to occur when no one else is home if the moment calls for it. And if they don’t quite know what they want, those phone consultations you’ve implemented mean they can figure it out without coming in.
Discreet Shopping Environments Serve Every Customer
Discreet cannabis shopping experiences relieve customers’ anxiety and honor their privacy. It lowers the stakes so much that a whole category of more tentative shoppers will feel more comfortable having in-depth conversations with dispensary staff about cannabis’s role in their life. It’s the difference between scaring a key group of customers away and welcoming them with open arms. When you keep things low-key, your revenue may reach new highs.
*This article was submitted by an unpaid guest contributor. The opinions or statements within do not necessarily reflect those of GreenState or HNP. The author is solely responsible for the content.