Canadian consumers prefer to shop in-person for their cannabis products and are more likely to shop at a discount or value retailer according to a recent survey. Cannabis Retailer commissioned Caddle Insights to survey 8,591 Canadians in November 2023 on their cannabis consumption and shopping habits.
Cannabis Purchases
19% of respondents purchased cannabis in the past three months, up 2% from last month. 14% of women purchased cannabis compared to 24% of men, up 4% from last month.
Millennials and Gen Z had the highest number of respondents that purchased cannabis in the past three months at 24% and 29%, respectively. Greatest Gen and baby boomers had the lowest purchases at 15% and 12%, respectively.
Shop In-Store vs. Online
59% of respondents prefer to physically go to their local cannabis shop while 27.6% prefer to have their cannabis products delivered to them at home.
Slightly more female respondents (61.3%) than male respondents (58.5%) prefer to shop in-store. Responses were consistent when broken down by age group with the majority of respondents preferring to shop in-person. Home delivery was most popular among Gen Z respondents.
Importance of Price
Two-thirds of respondents said price is the biggest determining factor when choosing a retailer to shop at for their cannabis products.
Similar responses were seen when broken down by gender with 64% of women and 67% of men responding that price is their most important factor.
Comparatively, when broken down by age, the oldest and youngest generations put the greatest importance on price. 72% of the Greatest Gen and 80% of Gen Z said price is the biggest determining factor when choosing a retailer. Baby boomers placed the least importance on it at 50% of respondents.
Discounted and Value Retailers
Similar to the importance of price, 63% of respondents said the words ‘discounted’ or ‘value’ in a retailer’s name made them more likely to shop at and make a cannabis product purchase from the retailer.
58% of women compared to 66% of men said those words made them more likely to shop at that store.
Similar to the importance of price, the oldest and youngest generations were most influenced by these words with 70% of Greatest Gen respondents and 82% of Gen Z respondents saying the words discounted or value made them more likely to shop at a retailer. Once again, baby boomers placed the least importance on it at 44% of respondents.
Budtender Information
The majority of respondents believe the information shared by their budtender about specific cannabis products is mostly or 100% accurate.
Similar patterns were seen when broken down by gender but responses varied widely when broken down by age.
Gen Z seemed to place the greatest trust in budtenders with 29.1% of respondents saying the information they receive is 100% accurate and 32% saying it is 90 to 99% accurate. On the opposite end, the Greatest Gen was clearly the most skeptical with 16.8% saying the information is 60 to 69% accurate and 16.8% saying the information is less than 60% accurate.
