
Cannabis products make great gifts during the holiday season. Headset examined shopping trends* before, during, and after the holidays in 2021. We saw some changes in preferences based around what products people are using and think would make a great gift.
The product that sees the largest proportional increase in popularity from November through Christmas are Topicals. Topicals saw their small category market share increase from 0.65% of total October sales to 0.77% during the holiday season before returning to lower levels (0.57%) in January 2022. Beverages and Edibles also posted a modest spike for the holidays. These product categories typically see sales spikes associated with holidays throughout the year.
Popular Products
Within the Topical category, ‘Lotion, Salves, Gels, and Creams’ make up over half the sales during the holiday season (55.5%) followed by ‘Bath Salts, Soaks and Scrubs’ (29.2%).
For Edibles, Canadian consumers vastly prefer Gummies (65.3%) followed by chocolates, which capture nearly 20% of holiday sales. Within the Beverages category, ‘Carbonated’ Beverages such as sparkling drinks or sodas make up every other beverage sale. Spiked ‘Water’ segments made up of seltzer waters are a quarter of sales as are ‘Iced Tea, Lemonade, and Fruit’, which include juices, teas, lemonades, etc.
Basket Size / Discount
There is a noticeable increase in basket size, units per basket, and average discount during December when compared with other months. In December of 2021 average basket size increased nearly $1.50, a 3.3% spike over the previous 3 months before dropping back down to pre-holiday levels at the beginning of 2022. Average units per basket climbed 7.1% and average discount increased 22.5% before decreasing again in January of 2022.
*Note: All the data in this article is sourced from the Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, and Saskatchewan markets.