‍Why demand planning matters in cannabis retail

In cannabis retail, a well-stocked shelf can be the difference between a one-time visit and a loyal customer. But with ever-changing trends, regulatory quirks, and rotating SKUs, ordering the right products at the right time isn’t easy. That’s where demand planning comes in.

Demand planning is the process of forecasting future customer needs so that your store can maintain the right mix of inventory. Done right, it helps you reduce waste, increase profits, and keep your top sellers in stock—without overloading your shelves with slow-moving products.

Happy Buyers is specifically built to help dispensary retailers take control of their inventory through smarter, more accurate demand planning tools.

Common dispensary goals solved through demand-planning

• Keep top-sellers in stock across all categories
• Reduce the total number of SKUs or brands
• Reduce aging inventory and free up cash

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Top-down and bottom-up planning

Great inventory strategy isn’t just a spreadsheet exercise—it’s a team sport. Demand planning at dispensaries often benefits from top-down and bottom-up thinking.

• Top-down planning starts with high-level business goals: reducing inventory investment, increasing margins, or growing market share for a certain category.
• Bottom-up planning incorporates on-the-ground insight: seasonality, upcoming brand promotions, what customers are actually buying, what budtenders recommend, what moves fast on weekends, and more.

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Built specifically for cannabis retail

Happy Buyers offers several features designed to improve how dispensaries analyze and respond to demand—whether you’re ordering for a single store or managing a multi-location operation.

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Smart run rates - the building blocks for accurate data

Knowing how fast a product sells is at the core of demand planning. Our smart run rates go beyond simple averages by factoring in:

1. True sales velocity
2. Hourly out-of-stock data
3. Blockout days
4. Sellable vs non-sellable inventory rooms

This gives you a more accurate picture of what’s actually moving when it’s in stock and available to be sold, so you can avoid over-ordering or missing out on high-demand items.

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Inventory health

This report is your strategic command center for top-down planning. Get a bird’s-eye view of your inventory across the store, category and brand levels including metrics like:

• Average margin and profitability
• Predicted days on hand
• Aging inventory
• Weekly trending health data by store

Want to know which brands to phase out? Which categories are low on stock? Or which products are hurting your margins? It’s all here.

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Pro Tip: Use the “Aging Inventory” column to surface stagnant products that might be tying up shelf space.

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SKU Groups

Ordering at the SKU level is often too granular. Ordering by category? Too broad. SKU Groups strike the perfect balance by grouping products with similar attributes (such as brand, category, weight and price) into a single group for demand forecasting. This is especially useful for ordering rotating SKUs (like different strains of the same vape line).

Happy Buyers SKU Groups calculate an aggregated smart run-rate across the group of products, only dropping out-of-stocks when ALL sellable product quantities are zero. An automated suggested order is also generated and can be easily be shared with your vendor—saving time while improving order accuracy.

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Blockout dates

Not every sales spike should be factored into your ordering logic. Blockout dates let you remove irregular sales days (like 4/20 or vendor pop-ups) from your historical data. This ensures you're basing your run rates on typical customer behavior—not one-off events.

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Getting started with demand planning on Happy Buyers

Dispensary inventory managers often deal with the same frustrations: packed stockrooms, stockouts on high-turnover products, or too many underperforming brands.

Here are some common inventory goals—and how demand planning with Happy Buyers helps achieve them:

• Reduce the total number of SKUs or brands → Identify slow-movers or redundant brands using Inventory Health.‍
• Keep top-sellers in stock across all categories → By sorting descending on units per day, you can keep track of your top sellers across all categories. Be sure to reorder according to the days on hand and lead time needed.‍
• Reduce aging inventory and free up cash → Monitor predicted days on hand and sort by product age or profitability.

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You don’t have to overhaul your entire inventory strategy on day one. Start with a few focused actions:

1. Align with leadership on inventory goals (e.g. reduce SKUs, increase sell-through)
2. Clean up your POS product names and make sure your categories are mapped correctly to ensure accurate data
3. Identify your top-performing brands and SKUs using Inventory Health reports
4. Leverage SKU Groups to simplify ordering and improve accuracy
5. Set a regular cadence for checking predicted days on hand and aging products

Even small, consistent steps can drive measurable results—less wasted inventory, more stocked shelves, and better margins for your business.

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Beyond buying: demand data that works across teams

While buyers are the main users of demand planning tools, the data you generate can also benefit other parts of your business:

• Marketing teams can use inventory insights to promote overstocked items or top-selling products‍
• Vertically integrated manufacturing teams can monitor fastest moving products and forecast demand level allocations
• Store level teams can access replenishment reports to avoid losing sales on products hiding in a backroom
• Finance teams can track margin performance and assess opportunities to reinvest‍
• Operations teams can streamline stockroom planning and reduce backstock‍
• Ownership gains visibility into how inventory decisions affect profitability and customer satisfaction

Happy Buyers makes it easy to surface and share insights across departments—without exporting a dozen reports or juggling spreadsheets.

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Cannabis retail is fast-moving and complex—but your inventory strategy doesn’t have to be.

With the right tools, a clear set of goals, and input from across your team, demand planning can become a major driver of profitability and customer satisfaction. Whether you're managing one store or ten, Happy Buyers is here to help you plan, stock, and sell smarter.

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