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AKERNA: DATA SHOWS WOMEN CONTINUING TO GAIN MARKET SHARE OF CANNABIS SALES
As women purchase more and more cannabis, brands should shift product development and marketing strategies to meet their varying preferences.
Akerna, a leading enterprise software company and the developer of the most comprehensive technology infrastructure, ecosystem, and compliance engine powering the global cannabis industry, released a data report on women's cannabis shopping habits as the demographic group continues to gain market share, up 3.3% since 2019.
When considering the millions of US cannabis consumers, these year over year shifts are quite sizeable and could have a significant impact on future product development:
​Year | ​Market Share – Women |
​2019 | ​35% |
​2020 | 36.6% |
​2021 | ​38.3% |
"Cannabis has plenty of stigmas and stereotypes, but the data doesn't lie - it has a broad appeal to people of all ages, sexes, and socioeconomic statuses. I expect to see more and more brands targeting their products and marketing towards women in the coming years. Otherwise, they will risk losing participation in this growing market to the competition who does." - Jessica Billingsley, Akerna Chief Executive Officer.
Regarding women's current product preferences, flower and cartridges are top choices, with concentrates coming in third – a category that recently overtook edibles for the first time, which moved down to the fourth most popular category for women.
​Product Category | Sales Percentage - Women |
​Cannabis Flower | 45.2% |
Cartridges/Pens | 34.4% |
Concentrates | 9.5% |
Infused Edibles | 8.8% |
Other | 2.1% |
Data showed direct correlations between age and product sales. The youngest age groups of women are most likely to buy concentrates, with product share gradually declining as age goes up. On the contrary, the more mature groups spend the most significant amounts on infused edibles, a value which decreases gradually with each younger age group.
"Concentrates are perceived as an advanced cannabis consumption method, which could be why they appeal the most to younger populations which have grown up with the legalization of cannabis," said James Ahrendt, Business Intelligence Architect at Akerna. "On the other hand, edibles provide a discreet form of cannabis consumption with easy dosing, which is likely why they appeal to more mature populations."
Other values for women cannabis shoppers:
Average products per order
Medical: 2.98 products
Adult-use: 3.12 products
Average spent per order
Medical: $123.41
Adult-use: $76.80
Sales by age groups:
Under 30 – 27.3%
30-40 – 29.3%
40-50 – 19.2%
50-60 –13.6%
Over 60 – 10.6%
About the Akerna Flash Report:
Flash Report looks at buying trends in the cannabis market as captured by Akerna's flagship solution, MJ Platform. MJ Platform includes MJ Analytics, allowing operators, investors, and regulators to access the industry's largest and most statistically relevant database to drive data-driven business decisions.
MJ Analytics provides:
The most significant statistical relevance across countries
Normalized data (not farmed from various disparate POS platforms)
Complete cannabis supply chain data
Business insights founded in category management methodology
MJ Analytics can eliminate the guesswork and provide answers to questions like:
What is the gross margin return on inventory?
What SKUs should be carried?
How do basket adjacencies influence discounting and retention strategies?
What does a medical market look like a year or five years after decriminalizing cannabis?
Click here for more information about MJ Platform and MJ Analytics.
Some instances of the flash report may include business intelligence derived from Akerna's family of companies, including Ample Organics, Leaf Data Systems, solo sciences, Trellis, Viridian Sciences, and 365 Cannabis. Sales projections are based on market adjustment calculations and aggregate the entire US market.
Akerna has one of the largest seed-to-sale footprints in the cannabis industry, operating in 15 countries and 23 US states, including Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, Arizona, California, Utah, Michigan, Colorado, Montana, Nevada, Maine, Vermont, New Mexico, Missouri, Texas, Ohio, Maryland, Washington DC, Kansas, Arkansas, New York.
Increases are relative to the prior period. Additional business intelligence data sources may include proprietary tools used by Akerna's family of companies.
About Akerna:
Akerna (Nasdaq: KERN) is an enterprise software company focused on compliantly serving the cannabis, hemp, and CBD industry. First launched in 2010, Akerna was the first cannabis software company listed on Nasdaq. The company's cornerstone technology, MJ Platform, the world's leading infrastructure as a service platform, powers retailers, manufacturers, brands, distributors, and cultivators.
For more information, visit akerna.com
