Canadian cannabis consumers favour flower and edibles in consumption lounges, prefer in-store purchases, and value word-of-mouth for brand discovery, a new survey shows.
Cannabis Retailer commissioned Caddle to survey 9,246 Canadian cannabis users in October 2024 on their purchasing habits.
Purchase Locations
The most popular place to purchase cannabis products is a private retail store, with 30.5% of respondents choosing this option. Government retail stores are a close second, with 29.9% of respondents.
Online purchases also account for a significant portion, with 35.2% of combined respondents purchasing from licensed retailer, licensed producer, government, or unlicensed retailer websites.
Last month, respondents were asked where they made most of their online purchases. The majority of online cannabis purchases were made from licensed retailers (46.5%) and licensed producers (30.0%).
While both men and women exhibit similar patterns in cannabis purchasing behaviour, there are some gender differences.
Women tend to favour government retail stores slightly more than private retail stores, with 32.5% choosing the former compared to 31.5% for the latter. Men are more likely to purchase from an unlicensed retailer website (7.5%).
Overall, older generations tend to favour physical stores, while younger generations increasingly use online and licensed sources.
Greatest Gen overwhelmingly prefers private retail stores (69.7%) and has no reported use of government or licensed retailer websites. Baby boomers spread their purchases more, with private retail stores being the most popular (37.5%).
Gen X has a fairly even distribution between private retail stores (30.2%) and government retail stores (32.4%). Millennials also distribute purchases between private (31.1%) and government stores (32.2%), though have a slightly higher percentage of online purchases, particularly through unlicensed websites 8.0%).
Gen Z showed the highest usage of licensed retailer websites (25.7%) and prefers government websites (9.4%) more than any other generation.
Consumption Lounge Products
Respondents have a strong preference for edibles and flower products in cannabis consumption lounges. Over half of respondents (54.1%) favoured edibles, followed closely by flower (48.2%). Other consumable forms, such as oil, concentrates, and other products, were all less popular, but still hold some consumer interest.
Overall, edibles and flower were the most popular choices across generations, with younger generations showing greater acceptance of a variety of cannabis products.
Greatest Gen showed a strong preference for edibles (84.9%) and other products (53.2%). Baby boomers showed more balance in preferences, with significant support for edibles (53.2%), flower (40.2%), oil (41.4%), and concentrates (39.4%).
Gen X also demonstrated balanced preferences, with flower (47.5) and edibles (53.9%) being the most favoured. Gen Z had the highest acceptance for flower (53.8%) followed by millennials (50.7%). Both also have high support for edibles.
Being Seen in a Cannabis Store
While a majority of respondents (64%) were not concerned about being seen shopping in a retail cannabis store, a significant portion (36%) still have some level of worry. This concern appears to be slightly more prevalent among men (39%) than women (31%).
Overall, older generations are generally unconcerned about being seen in a cannabis store, while millennials and Gen Z are more likely to worry about the perception of others.
For instance, Greatest Gen is overwhelmingly unconcerned, with 100% responding ‘No’ to worrying about being seen. Comparatively, Gen Z has a significant level of concern, with a slight majority (55%) responding ‘Yes’ to worrying about being seen.
Learning About New Brands
The data suggests that word-of-mouth remains a powerful tool for cannabis brands. Friends and family were the primary source of information for 36.1% of respondents. Additionally, in-store interactions with budtenders (24.4%) and retailer communications (23.5%) play a significant role in brand discovery.
While social media and influencer marketing have a notable presence (19.6% and 10.8%, respectively), traditional channels like email newsletters (10.7%) and direct communication from producers (11.4%) still hold relevance.
Similar patterns were seen among men and women, but women are more likely to rely on retailer communication (25.1%) than a budtender (23.4%).
Overall, older generations favour personal connections and traditional sources to learn about new cannabis brands, while younger generations, particularly Gen Z, show more reliance on digital sources like social media and influencers.
Greatest Gen overwhelmingly relies on friends or family (84.9%) as their main source to learn about new brands. Baby boomers have friends or family (43.2%) as the main source, followed by retailer communication (34.9%) and social media (15.9%).
Gen X, millennials, and Gen Z show diverse sources, with Gen Z as the most diverse and digitally engaged.
Cannabis Purchases
16% of respondents reported purchasing cannabis in the past 3 months, while 84% did not. This number continues to drop. In August, 22% of cannabis users had purchased cannabis, but only 17% purchased cannabis in September.
Men were more likely to purchase cannabis in the past three months (19%) than women (13%). Similar to past survey results, millennials (23%) were the most likely generation to have purchased cannabis in the past three months, compared to only 6% of Greatest Gen and 9% of baby boomers.