Report examines projects nearly $130M in 420 cannabis sales

Cannabis, hemp and CBD industry enterprise software company Akerna has estimated that cannabis shoppers will spend nearly $130 million on legal cannabis on April 20, known as 420.

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The Akerna Flash Report projection would represent the largest sales day in legal cannabis history.

“We are approaching the biggest day for our industry, making it critical for dispensaries to plan promotions, staff, and space for these large upticks in traffic,” Akerna Business Intelligence Architect James Ahrendt said. “To help alleviate some of the traffic, cannabis retailers using Akerna’s MJ Retail POS solution can leverage the platform’s kiosk mode.”

Ahrendt said the budtender, in kiosk mode, provides the MJ Retail tablet to the customer, enabling the consumer to shop on the device, similar in scope to an online order, while allowing stores to serve more customers and complete more sales per hour.

Per the Akerna analysis, the 2022 420 would serve as a 16 percent growth over last year’s sales in the wake of more markets legalizing cannabis and Americans gaining an increased comfort level with the legal cannabis industry.

Additionally, 420 lands on a Wednesday this year, and the expectation is purchasing traffic will begin increasing on April 15, the Friday ahead of 420. According to estimates, the Friday to Wednesday period is expected to see cannabis sales figures above the $400 million range.