2019 Cannabis Industry Report: Are Retailers Ready for Legal Cannabis?...Because Consumers Are
SAN DIEGO, April 18, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- As cannabis users prepare to celebrate another 4-20, TrendSource is releasing its first ever Cannabis Industry Report. The study--which considers consumers' perceptions of, attitudes about, and experiences within the nascent legal cannabis industry--outlines cannabis's emerging intersections with retail and manufacturing, offering insight into what kinds of products consumers want to see.
Indeed, as TrendSource's Director of Client Services, Sarah Rowlett, observed, "People are thinking short-term, looking at the rise of dispensaries and other cannabis-specific businesses, but we will soon see cannabis intersect with established retail, manufacturing, and food service businesses. That's the future we need to prepare for."
The report also considers the future expansion of the cannabis market, noting that legalization is increasingly a non-issue with over 60% of respondents favoring recreational legalization and 90% favoring medical. Even 90% of non-cannabis users favor its legality, as does the vast majority of the silent generation. Yet while medical, and in some segmentations recreational, cannabis enjoys increased support, consumers want to keep the advances incremental.
But as long as they are willing to be a bit patient, the news is good for cannabis retailers and manufacturers (and retailers and manufacturers considering entering the market) across the board. According to the study, the top-two reasons current non-users abstain from cannabis are its legal situation and concerns about product purity, both of which far outweighed concerns about negative social perceptions, drug-testing, and even cost.
Obviously, these pain points will ultimately erode over time as cannabis gains increased legal sanction and the attendant regulation that accompanies legalized vice products. This means that, soon, consumers will be able both understand and trust a product's concentration and purity much in the same way that alcohol became pure and reliably dosed under post-prohibition federal regulation.
This means that, without doing too much legwork, retailers and manufacturers will find an expanded user base whose main concerns are stripped away by the product's changing legal status over time.
The full report explores several other avenues of inquiry, offering generational, income, gender, and sexual orientation segmentations for each.
Which types of existing retailers and manufacturers would consumers be comfortable with selling cannabis products? What specific cannabis-infused product types would consumers most like to see? Which forms of advertising would most appeal to consumers, which will just turn them off, and what's the single biggest cannabis advertising no-no (hint: it has to do with the children!).
Find out the answers to these and many, many other questions by downloading the full report.
SOURCE Trendsource, Inc.
