Report Shows Buying Trends Differ Between Men and Women

Thanks to a report by cannabis analytics company Headset, we have deeper acumens into what those different areas are and greater understand of buying trends between men and women.

The data was collected through customer loyalty programs that were built into retail point-of-sale systems.

The Results

The report showed that men consume and purchase more cannabis than women, especially flower and concentrates, which comes as little surprise.

When it comes to women, the data was far more telling. Instead of bud and concentrates, women generally prefer noncombustible methods of consumption such as edibles, tinctures, and sublinguals, along with topicals and vaporisers.

From 2017 to 2018, women’s purchases of cannabis products increased substantially. The purchase of tinctures and sublingual increased by 42%, topicals sales to females increased by 47%, and vapes by 19%.

The insights one can gain from these numbers is that women may be more interested in the health and wellness aspects associated with cannabis use, rather than simply just getting high.

Why The Change in Purchase Behaviour?

For more insight into this, Susan Cleverdon of Humboldt Apothecary says that anxiety is one of the most prevalent conditions in our culture. “I think a lot of women suffer from anxiety from all of the multiple hats we have: the responsibilities, the careers, the kids.”

Tinctures and smoke-free products are also more convenient, which may be another reason for the increase in purchases of these products. As a woman, you can easily put a tincture in your handbag and take it with you to work, so the sheer convenience of these products in comparison to flower may make them very appealing for someone to medicate with.

Needless to say, women do not exclusively buy tinctures, topicals and vaporisers, nor are these products solely for women. Headset actually found that flower is still the most commonly purchased product category for women.

What the research on buying trends does show, though, is that consumer mindset is changing for both men and women, and as more products become available on the market, the cannabis industry is likely to see more shifts in trends.