A recent report by New Frontier Data along with MJ Freeway, the legal cannabis industry’s longest operating point-of-sale platform, has since 2010 accrued data from billions of dollars in transactions nationwide. To date, MJ Freeway is installed in every regulated retail sales market in the U.S. and curates the largest consolidated central repository of retail sales data for the cannabis industry.
The report is based on nearly $5 billion worth of transactions collected by MJ Freeway since 2015 across every major U.S. legal cannabis market. The size of the dataset makes this the most comprehensive analysis of national retail cannabis sales yet produced: MJ Freeway’s proprietary point-of-sale data provides visibility into retail sales trends including evolving products, pricing trends, top-selling products, and sales variability across state markets.
After years of dominating cannabis consumer purchases, the market share for flower has fallen to near parity with sales of concentrates; The share for flower fell 39% since 2015, from 66% to 40% in September 2018; Conversely, the share for concentrates grew 144%, from 16% to 39% over the same period; While flower prices have dropped significantly since 2015, prices in 2018 remained widely varied across markets. Of the state markets analyzed, Alaska, Arizona, and California are paying the highest prices for flower, while Colorado, Montana, and Oregon has experienced the lowest average prices; Older adults represent a growing proportion of sales, with 24% of all purchases being made by consumers aged 55 and older.
Propelled by increasing social acceptance, expanding markets, and large waves of investor capital, legal cannabis is poised for significant growth in the years ahead. As the industry grows in size and complexity, it is becoming ever more important that operators (and public policy decisionmakers) understand who the cannabis consumer is, and the influences motivating their behavior. This report provides a framework by which to better understand the diversity of cannabis consumers nationally, enabling you to more effectively identify and target not just any consumer, but the right consumers for your enterprise’s success.
