How To Increase Your Dispensary’s AOV: 7 Actionable Ways To Boost Your Profits
Steadily boosting your profits is easier said than done.
You’ve probably tried your fair share of tips and tricks to grow your business. It can feel like a guessing game trying to figure out what will take your dispensary to the next level.
You know how important growing your revenue is. But what you might not know is that the key to growing your revenue is increasing your average order value (AOV).
This guide will give you 7 concrete things you can do to increase your dispensary’s AOV.
What Is AOV?
Maybe you’re just looking into opening a dispensary and don’t exactly have all the business terms down yet.
We’ll cover our bases here just to make sure we’re on the same page.
AOV, or average order value, is just what you link: it’s the average dollar amount of a single order or transaction in your online store.
The revenue that your dispensary generates can be calculated just by using a simple formula: Revenue = number of visitors x conversion rate x average order value.
Ideally, you’re thinking about ways to incorporate all of these factors into your business strategy.
Focusing on your number of visitors and the conversion rate is important, but your AOV will give you insight that can help you both increase and retain customers.
Why Does AOV Matter For Your Dispensary?
AOV is an important metric to be aware of because it gives you an understanding of how much a single transaction is worth to you.
When you know your AOV, you know how much to expect to make from a new, first-time customer to your dispensary.
AOV is directly related to your revenue. When your AOV is higher, your revenue is higher.
Higher revenue allows you to pay for any number of additional assets for your dispensary. In fact, the higher your AOV, the less time you need to dedicate to finding, and keeping, new customers.
When each customer is likely to spend more money, you need fewer of them.
With a smaller customer base, you can focus on giving them the experience that they (and you) are after.
How To Increase Average Order Value For Your Dispensary
Now that you understand the importance of AOV and how it can help increase your dispensary’s revenue, it’s time to get to the good stuff: the how.
It’s important to know that not all seven may be effective or right your for dispensary.
But if you’re wondering, “How to increase your average order value online?”, the following tips are just what you’re looking for.
1. Offer Bundles To Increase Your Dispensary’s AOV
Think about your online shopping habits.
Do you go right for what’s on sale? Or are you coming in looking for one specific product?
What if the product you were looking for was bundled with another similar product?
And you could get them both, for a discount.
How Bundles Can Increase Your Dispensary’s AOV
The key here is to offer products that are available to purchase on their own alongside one or two others. This provides additional value.
The big incentive is the discounted price: the bundle price compared to the same set of products bought separately is very attractive to a customer.
You can have bundles listed:
- On specific product pages
- Next to single products as recommended pairings
- In their checkout cart as optional add-ons
If it makes sense for your dispensary, you could also let customers mix and match their own set of 2-3 products, making sure to discount the price.
One great approach to product bundling is by offering a package of products that create the all-in-one solution for the desired experience.
Offering bundles is one of the best ideas to increase revenue in a cannabis dispensary.
2. Market Gift Cards
A gift card program can be hugely beneficial to your AOV.
The biggest benefit of gift cards is their upfront revenue. You get paid for your merchandise immediately.
If the recipient never uses the gift card, you benefited from the purchase without losing any merchandise.
And even if the gift card is used, it’s still a benefit to bring in revenue upfront without any merchandise going out.
How Gift Cards Can Increase Your Dispensary’s AOV
Gift cards offer multiple other benefits for your dispensary, including:
- The ability to be paid in full, every time
- Gift cards double as free marketing
- They are more convenient than cash
- They bring in potential new customers
Customers who were just thinking about purchasing from your dispensary might make that jump when they receive a gift card.
That gives you a chance at future conversions.
Plus, if they end up purchasing additional products and spending more than is on their gift card, that transaction directly increases your dispensary’s AOV.
3. Offer Delivery Services (If You Can)
Depending on the laws in your state, you may want to consider offering delivery to your customers.
In addition to delivery, offering incentives like a free delivery threshold can increase your dispensary’s AOV.
They can either add a few lower-priced items or choose one or two higher-priced items to meet the order minimum.
This can incentivize customers as they shop and thus bring up their order amount.
How Delivery Can Increase Your Dispensary’s AOV
There are a number of places on your website where you can advertise your delivery options.
Consider placing them throughout the shopping and checkout cycle:
- On each product page
- In the customer’s cart page
You can also use banners to let the customer know if they’re just under the order limit. Maybe there’s an item in their cart they can double and reach that free shipping minimum.
4. Provide Product Recommendations
Sometimes, customers are so focused on buying one of your products that they neglect to browse around to find more.
This can lead to smaller carts, and as a result, smaller average order values.
Recognize that sometimes, customers are indecisive. Or, they may be inexperienced and maybe even a little out of their element.
This is where product recommendations come in.
How Recommendations Can Increase Your Dispensary’s AOV
You can:
- Profile popular products
- Feature products that other customers purchased in addition to what’s currently in the customer’s cart
By providing these product recommendations, you can not only smooth the checkout process but also increase average order value.
And the great thing about product recommendations is that they don’t always need to be your most popular products.
You are perfectly free to feature slow-moving products or add-ons.
Recommendations are a great way to give those products some attention.
5. Offer Up-Sells
When you up-sell it means you are either promoting:
- A more expensive item with extra features
OR
- Add-ons that constitute an upgrade.
It can be done on both product pages and at various points during the checkout process.
How Up-Sells Can Increase Your Dispensary’s AOV
By placing similar items with similar qualities together, you are showing the customer what other product options they might also be interested in.
Upselling additional items or add-ons is a great way to increase your dispensary’s AOV.
The key when showcasing these other options is to ensure that all of them are the same price, or more, than the product the customer is currently looking at.
6. Offer Discounts On Purchasing Additional Items
More for less? What consumer wouldn’t give it an offer like that a second glance?
Give customers the chance to stock up on one of their favorite products or one they buy frequently.
To incentivize them, you could offer:
- 10% off more than one product per order
- 20% off for two or more products per order
- 30% off for three or more products per order
How Discounts On Additional Items Can Increase Your Dispensary’s AOV
By offering discounts on additional items in an order, you are directly increasing the number of products per order.
When you increase the number of products per order, you are successfully increasing your dispensary’s AOV.
7. Offer Cross-Sells
Cross-selling is different than up-selling. But what’s the difference?
When you up-sell, you are advertising similar products with more to offer that are the same price or more than the product the customer is looking at. (Think of it as you talking the customer into buying the better version of the same product).
When you cross-sell, you are advertising related or complementary products that are usually at a lower price point than the product the customer is looking at.
How Cross-Sells Can Increase Your Dispensary’s AOV
Think of how products in your dispensary are set up and displayed.
Related, complimentary products are usually close together. Try to mimic this layout online.
The goal with cross-sells is to add more products per order, which can have a direct impact on your dispensary’s AOV.
At Terrayn, we specialize in understanding this business and can help you implement some amazing ideas in your business to make it really stand out. Contact us for a free strategy session today.
