The most massive day for cannabis has proven once again why it is the most massive day for cannabis. Thursday, April 20th, 2023, was expected to be the biggest sales day for regulated cannabis of the year, and this year we saw $178.2 million in sales. Compared to 2022’s $154.4 million, we saw a 14.3% increase year over year from what was the largest sales day of legal history.
420 2023 is now officially the highest-grossing regulated cannabis sales day in history.
When we look at the past few years of regulated cannabis, 420 has consistently set and broken its own record for single-day sales. 420 alone is a major cannabis holiday with a rich history of cannabis association. Due to increasingly regulated markets opening and expanding, it has become the cornerstone of any operator’s year.
The holiday continually beats traditional shopping days like Black Friday and Memorial Day by a long shot, and this year we’re seeing that flower remains king. Across cannabis categories sold on 420, we’re seeing some interesting data:
- Flower – 49.1%
- Vape – 31.1%
- Concentrates – 11.2%
- Infused Edibles – 7.0%
- Infused Non-Edible – 0.6%
- Non-Medicated – 1.0%
Naturally, flower accounted for nearly half of all products sold on 420 proper. That category is closely followed by the vape category, a trend we anticipated following last year’s final numbers. In 2022 overall, flower made up 48.9% of all sales year-round. We also saw the vape category making up 32.2% of all 2022 cannabis sales which also falls in line with our 420 sales data. We do anticipate an anomaly during the next major cannabis holiday, 710, in seeing a big jump for both the vape and concentrate categories.
In terms of who was shopping, we saw a demographic of 57.8% males to 42.2% females and the following age breakdown:
- 30-40 –29.76%
- Under 30 – 26.8%
- 40-50 – 21.23%
- 50-60 –11.97%
- Over 60 – 10.24%
While Millennials seem to be doing a bulk of cannabis shopping, we are seeing quite a bit of Gen Z celebrating 420 as well. New Frontier Data provided a report showing that among those aged 18-24, 69% preferred cannabis to alcohol. This larger participation may be in part due to some disposable income- further evidenced by the large average orders we saw on 420 this year.
Medical customers had an average order of $126.70 with 4.3 items per transaction, while recreational customers had an average order of $72.89 with 3.7 items per transaction. Perhaps these sales averages were driven by deals- on 420, 32.2% of all orders included a discount. On average, for 2023 to date, we are seeing discounts in 22.9% of all transactions. Discounting is a major draw for 420 shoppers looking to stock up for celebratory consumption, and we anticipate this major increase to reflect later in the year during the end-of-year holiday sale season as well.
This data and so much more were produced using MJ Platform’s powerful analytics. Our Seed-to-Sale technology powers the cannabis industry and has successfully supported 420 sales since 2010. For a live, personalized demo of our vertically integrated software, connect with our team here.
