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Category Sales Trends in the US

When cannabis was legalized in the US and Canada, Flower dominated sales as it was also the fastest product to bring to market. However, its popularity has been steadily declining over the years as new categories have entered the legal market.

While Flower remains king in the cannabis sales mix, in the last year, it has lost nearly five percentage points when it comes to share of total sales to up-and-coming categories such as Vapor Pen, Pre-Rolls, and Edibles.

Note: Unless otherwise specified, Headset’s analysis compares January to October 2021 with the same period in 2022. Data is sourced from Headset partners in NV, MA, OR, MI, CO, MD, CA, AZ, WA, IL.

CATEGORY PCT_SHARE_2021 PCT_SHARE_2022 Percentage Points Change
Flower 45.2% 40.6% -4.6
Vapor Pens 20.8% 23.4% 2.6
Edible 10.8% 11.9% 1
Pre-Roll 10.7% 12.8% 2.1
Concentrates 8.8% 7.7% -1.1
Beverage 1.1% 1.2% 0.1
Tincture & Sublingual 1.1% 0.9% -0.2
Capsules 0.8% 0.9% 0.1
Topical 0.7% 0.7% -0.1

AIP and EQ Price by Category

Price compression is not new news across the cannabis industry, and we see this reflected across all categories at various magnitudes. Flower has been hit the hardest by falling prices. With such low prices it could be a contributing factor to Flower’s falling overall share of total sales.
Pre-Rolls on the other hand, have had the most stable pricing statistics in the last year. Their average item price (AIP) in 2022 even increased 2.2% compared to 2021. One contributing factor could be the connoisseur / infused segment, which makes up 37.3% of Pre-Roll sales year to date, and is growing in popularity. This product type typically has a higher price point which is buoying the AIP and equivalized volume price for Pre-Rolls.

CATEGORY AIP 2021 AIP 2022 EQ 2021 EQ 2022 AIP_PCT_CHANGE EQ_PCT_CHANGE
Pre-Roll $11.24 $11.49 $8.19 $7.93 2.2% -3.2%
Capsules $27.74 $24.03 $0.11 $0.10 -13.3% -9.3%
Beverage $11.99 $11.05 $0.14 $0.12 -7.8% -12.6%
Concentrates $21.75 $19.16 $21.73 $18.79 -11.9% -13.6%
Edible $15.23 $13.95 $0.17 $0.15 -8.5% -13.8%
Topical $26.23 $26.69 $0.18 $0.16 1.8% -14.8%
Vapor Pens $32.30 $28.65 $40.68 $33.88 -11.3% -16.7%
Tincture & Sublingual $36.23 $36.81 $0.15 $0.12 1.6% -19.2%
Flower $32.96 $29.87 $7.00 $5.32 -9.4% -24.1%

Sales Growth YoY by Category

All of this and more is reflected in the sales growth numbers year over year. Pre-Rolls, Vapor Pens, and Edibles stand out as they continue to erode the category leader status of Flower, which has seen sales shrink 2.6% when compared to 2021.

CATEGORY PCT_CHANGE
Pre-Roll 30.5%
Vapor Pens 22.2%
Edible 18.9%
Capsules 17.4%
Beverage 16.0%
Oil 5.7%
Topical 4.2%
Concentrates -0.1%
Flower -2.6%
Tincture & Sublingual -3.7%

 

Tags: cannabis category sales trends (1), Cannabis Industry (191), Cannabis Retail (413), cannabis sales growth (1), edibles (15), flower (1), Headset (41), pre-rolls (6), US sales trends (1)