Dispensary marketing has never been “easy” by any stretch of the imagination, but some markets see advancement and establishment as a step toward progress. Be that as it may, traditional retail models are not the right comparison for marketing dispensaries.
And yet, if you’ve spent any time running or marketing a dispensary, you already know the reality:
- Discounts drive traffic.
- Daily deals.
- BOGO texts.
- Flash sales.
- Weekend promos.
- Holiday-level discounts showing up on an ordinary Tuesday.
What started as a tactic to boost sales during slower periods has gradually become the default operating model for cannabis retail.
In many markets today, promotions aren’t just part of the strategy. They are the strategy.
At Cannabis Creative, we’ve seen time and time again that while these promotions can generate short-term spikes in traffic, they’re also creating a deeper structural problem:
The more cannabis retailers rely on discounts, the harder it becomes to run a profitable business.
We also know that breaking this cycle requires a dispensary marketing strategy that works alongside technology. That’s why we’re proud to partner with Digital Awesome, a premier cannabis mobile app developer and mobile retention partner that delivers cutting-edge mobile apps to connect people and brands on the go. With customizable cannabis mobile app solutions and the right marketing tactics for dispensary loyalty, like rewards programs, push notifications, SMS, and more, you can move beyond relying on discounts for your sales.
The Current Reality of Cannabis Retail
Let’s take it back to your college Econ 101 class: it’s as easy as the law of supply and demand. As the legalization of cannabis expands, more operators enter the market, increasing supply. Competition intensifies, and now the only way to compete is by price. It’s a race to the bottom.
This looks like dispensaries driving prices lower and lower in order to get the most customers. Recent data illustrate just how dramatic this shift has become: In 2025, Michigan retailers sold more cannabis products than in any year since adult-use sales launched, including nearly 260,000 additional pounds of flower compared to the previous year. However, total market revenue dropped by approximately $113 million.
By December 2025, the average ounce of cannabis flower cost $58.22, about 16% lower than the year before, while vape prices dropped nearly 20% over the same period.
In other words, dispensaries are selling more cannabis than ever before, but making less money doing it. And the pressure is reshaping the market. Michigan had 838 active cannabis retailers in 2025, down from 848 the year before, as some operators exited under shrinking margins.
So while sales volume rises, profitability shrinks, and we add frequent discounting to the mix, it can feel like there’s no way out.
The Consumer Impact
For now, as a consumer, it can seem like you’re winning. You get lower prices, more promotions, and easier access and variety. However, this is just the short-term effect. In the long-term, there are hidden trade-offs that actually leave you worse-off.
When dispensary and operator margins shrink, they can’t continue to race to the bottom without cutting costs. That means investing less in curing, genetics, and innovation. So, sure, you get cheaper product, but it’s less consistent, lower-quality, and it will flood the market.
When there’s less differentiation, you lose any real choice you had before, even if the products on the shelves seem endless.
Another way dispensaries could cut costs is by reducing staff hours or scaling back training, which means your shopping experience becomes less about what’s right for you and more about what gets the dispensary the most margin.
Long story short: the customer may be “winning” now, but it won’t last long.
The Discount Trap
The most dangerous thing about frequent discounts is simple: They work.
Promotions drive traffic and create immediate revenue spikes. For operators trying to hit daily sales targets, there’s no reason to stop. However, heavy discounting changes how customers behave over time. When you compete on price alone, customers respond to price alone.
Instead of being loyal to the brand, customers will respond only to promotions – and operators are only further encouraging this behavior.
Think about it: if every message your customers receive is another discount, the relationship slowly shifts from “I like this dispensary; they care about me” to “I’ll just wait until they run another deal.”
Which means you, as a retailer, become interchangeable with any other store offering a slightly better promotion. Now, customers aren’t loyal to the store; they’re loyal to the deal.
Breaking the Cycle: Building Customer Habits
Escaping the discount trap requires changing how customers engage with your dispensary. Instead of focusing purely on transactions, retailers need to build repeat behavior.
One helpful way to think about this is through the Habit Loop, a behavioral framework used by many successful consumer brands. The loop has three parts: Cue → Action → Reward.
First, a cue reminds the customer to engage with your brand. That cue leads to an action, such as opening your app, browsing products, or reserving an item. Finally, the customer receives a reward, which reinforces the behavior and makes them more likely to return.
For many dispensaries today, the cue is simply another discount alert. But when discounts are the only trigger, customers learn to wait for deals instead of engaging regularly.
To build stronger habits, retailers need cues and rewards that go beyond price. One of the most effective ways to activate this Habit Loop is through push notifications inside a dispensary mobile app, where timely cues can guide customers back into the experience and reinforce repeat behavior.
High-retention mobile apps powered by Digital Awesome are designed specifically around this model, helping dispensaries create engagement systems that build customer habits instead of relying solely on discounts.
Push Notification Best Practices and Management
As cannabis marketers, it’s easy to get lost in the dos and don’ts of all the restrictions we have to navigate through. From social algorithms to email clutter, we’re always up against a lot – which is why push notifications are a powerful way to capture the attention of your dispensary customers.
Since notifications appear directly on lock screens and interrupt screen-time routines, they provide high visibility and are ideal for time-sensitive updates. This means you can use push notifications for drops, restocks, events, flash inventory alerts, and more, all as a means to drive repeat visits.
But what makes a push notification effective? Here are some tips from the Cannabis Creative team:
Dispensary Push Notification Best Practices
Segment Your Audience Intentionally
No matter the marketing channel, we all know that your first-time customers are going to behave differently and look different from your loyal customers. Medical vs. recreational dispensary customers are going to browse products differently.
Product category preferences, frequency of shopping, and so on, all change based on who you’re talking to. In order to effectively craft push notifications from your dispensary mobile app, be sure to segment audiences intentionally and tailor the messaging in a way that feels unique to your brand and to your customer, not mass-blasted.
Go Beyond Discounts
As we’ve covered, discounts can cheapen the relationship between your customers and your brand. Go beyond discounts in your push notifications by capturing interest in more creative ways.
Try the following the next time you send out a push notification:
- Product education (e.g., “New terpene-rich drop just landed”)
- Staff picks and curated recommendations
- New arrivals and exclusive drops
- Event promotions (vendor days, in-store activations)
- Loyalty program updates or rewards reminders
- Seasonal or lifestyle-based messaging (weekends, holidays, “wind-down” moments)
- Cultural or hyperlocal references (e.g., “Stock up for game day” or “Use the code ‘BLIZZARD’ at checkout).
Optimize Frequency
The last thing you want to do is bombard your customers with notifications – that’s the fastest way to get them to turn notifications off and forget they even have your app in the first place.
Instead, set a consistent but balanced cadence, such as a 2-3 times per week max. Remember, every dispensary is different, and you may find that your customers actually respond to more frequent messages. Combined with segmentation, you may be sending several per week, just not to everyone.
Start by experimenting with a baseline across audience segments, collect and analyze data, and make small changes to gauge the effectiveness of your push notifications. Opt-out rates are a great KPI to monitor to understand whether or not you’re overdoing it. At the end of the day, prioritize quality over quantity.
Use Personalization Tactics
The beauty of a dispensary mobile app is that it gives you access to a lot of marketing data that you can make use of. Personalization tactics are one of the most effective ways to speak directly to your customers and build a relationship with them through your app.
Some ideas include:
- Use name personalization when possible
- Reference past purchases or browsing behavior
- Abandoned carts, time since last purchase, browsing activity
- Location-based messaging, such as geo-targeted store updates
Leverage Urgency Without Overdoing It
Timing is a major component of push notification success. Select moments when users are most likely to act, such as after work hours, weekends, paydays, and so on. Play around with limited drops or time-bound experiences (e.g., events or exclusive promotions), and similar to testing frequency, run A/B tests or experiments to get clear data on what works and what doesn’t for your specific audience.
With that being said, avoid constant “FOMO” messaging; this can feel spammy to your customers. The idea is that your app users should immediately understand “What’s in it for me?”
Focus on Strong CTAs
To ensure that you actually get results from your push notifications, ensure that you have a clear, action-driven CTA that tells the user exactly what to do next.
Because of limited character space, your CTA needs to be concise but compelling, creating a sense of immediacy without feeling forced. This might look like “Shop now,” “Order today,” or “See what’s new”.
Most importantly, align the CTA with where the user is in their journey. For instance, new users may respond better to “See what’s new,” while returning customers are more likely to engage with “Reorder your favorites”.
Align Push with Broader Marketing Strategy
At Cannabis Creative, we’re proponents of a dispensary marketing program that is tailored to your goals. That means, no matter what your goals are, your marketing channels are never operating in a silo.
Similarly, push notifications are most effective when integrated into your broader marketing ecosystem, including email, SMS, and social media. Use push to reinforce key campaigns like product launches, vendor pop-ups, or major sales moments such as 4/20.
When used strategically, push becomes a powerful support channel that amplifies your campaigns rather than overwhelming your audience with disconnected messages.
Respect Compliance + User Trust
In cannabis marketing, compliance and trust go hand in hand, especially with direct channels like push notifications. Avoid overly aggressive or misleading language, and ensure all messaging aligns with state-specific regulations to protect both your brand and your customers.
Just as important, give users control over their notification preferences. When customers feel respected rather than bombarded, they’re far more likely to stay engaged long-term.
Overall, when dispensaries move beyond blanket promotions and begin using creative customer-first strategies, like the ones noted above, the results can be significant. In the long run, this looks like measurable outcomes in inventory sell-through, repeat visits, and customer lifetime value.
Dispensary Success with Mobile Apps
Based on Digital Awesome’s work, we’ve seen a multi-location dispensary in Ohio saw rapid results within 90 days of launching their mobile app. Average order value increased by 48% compared to in-store purchases and by 27% compared to website orders. Even more impressive, customers began opening the dispensary app 10.6 times per week, driving a 60% increase in purchase frequency.
A medical and recreational dispensary with two locations in Massachusetts experienced similar gains. Their average cart value reached $73 in-app, compared to $53 online and $45 in-store, representing a 62% increase over in-store purchases.
In both cases, the dispensaries didn’t rely on discounts alone to drive results. Instead, they used their mobile app as a retention engine, making transactions easier while using targeted push notifications and engagement strategies to bring customers back more frequently.
See What This Could Look Like for Your Dispensary
In cannabis retail, discounts will always play a role. But they shouldn’t define the relationship between dispensaries and their customers. The dispensaries that thrive in the next phase of the industry will combine promotions with behavioral marketing, personalized communication, and app-driven engagement.
Whether you invest in a mobile app for your dispensary or continue to invest in segmented email and SMS marketing, relying on a marketing program that works beyond discounts is going to drive much higher revenue and customer lifetime value in the long run.
Book a strategy call with a cannabis marketing expert to see which approach is best for your dispensary.
Want to estimate how much revenue a high-retention dispensary app combined with strategic push notification management could generate for your business? Use Digital Awesome’s App ROI calculator to project potential increases in revenue and customer visit frequency for your dispensary.