Elective
Retail Strategy
The strategy course for operators who want to build a category-defining store. The curriculum imports the playbooks from the best consultative retailers (pharmacy's patient-counseling discipline, Apple's store experience design, Sephora's assortment and loyalty engineering) and translates each into the cannabis context with all of its constraints. Menu engineering goes deep on the Stars/Plowhorses/Puzzles/Dogs framework and the pricing psychology that drives attach rate. Loyalty economics covers Starbucks-grade frequency loops, tier design, CRM platform selection, and the unique constraints of operating loyalty under 280E. Customer-personas analysis, brand positioning, marketing within cannabis's hard guardrails, analytics across category and customer, and the full ecommerce and omnichannel playbook complete the course before the capstone: pitching your store's competitive strategy.
32 lessons15.2 hours0 section quizzes8 chapters
Begin courseFree during early access
What you'll master
Outcomes you can defend.
- Apply the consultative-retail playbook from pharmacy, Apple, and Sephora to cannabis without losing the translation
- Engineer a menu (pricing, format, attach paths) that materially lifts contribution per visit
- Design and operate a loyalty program with measurable ROI under 280E constraints
- Build the analytics scaffolding (category, customer, pricing tests) that turns merchandising from instinct into discipline
- Execute marketing within the hard regulatory guardrails and know exactly which channels work
- Architect the omnichannel customer experience from menu sync through delivery
Curriculum
The full syllabus.
Every lesson, in the order we recommend you take them. Click any lesson to begin. Your progress saves automatically.
Part 01
5 lessons • 136 minConsultative Retail Foundations
- 01The Consultative Retail Playbook: Pharmacy, Apple Genius, SephoraHow the three consultative retail models from outside cannabis (pharmacy MTM, Apple Genius Bar, Sephora Beauty Advisor) translate to dispensary floor work, why cannabis lives in two arcs at once, and the dollar math that justifies investing in consultation time, now accounting for the April 2026 Schedule III reclassification of state-licensed medical cannabis and 280E relief going forward.24 min
- 02Store Design: Apple, Warby Parker, REI, Aesop Patterns Applied to CannabisHow to lift store-design patterns from Apple's Genius Bar, Warby Parker's preview-then-buy flow, REI's destination flagship, and Aesop's sensory ritual, then adapt them cleanly around cannabis's age-gate, vault, and labor constraints, accounting for the April 2026 federal rescheduling of state-licensed medical cannabis to Schedule III and its tax implications.27 min
- 03Planogramming the Sephora Way, on a Cannabis ShelfHow to build a dispensary planogram with the same rigor Sephora uses on a beauty wall: allocate shelf space to sell-through, protect eye-level for margin contribution, stage complementary categories for basket lift, and run a weekly sell-through review that catches dead SKUs before they eat the category.27 min
- 04Loyalty Economics: Starbucks, Sephora, REI, Decoded for CannabisHow to decode the four canonical loyalty archetypes from adjacent retail (frequency loop, tier architecture, co-op community, subscription bundle), translate them through the cannabis constraint stack of 280E plus daily purchase limits plus age reverification, and run the Loyalty Program ROI, Customer Lifetime Value, and Customer Acquisition Cost math that decides whether a program pays for itself.32 min
- 05Omnichannel From DTC, QSR, and Grocery: What Carries OverWhich omnichannel mechanics from Warby Parker, Starbucks, Chipotle, Nike, and Lululemon actually port into a dispensary, which get rewritten at the pickup counter, and which die outright at the cannabis payment rails and tax code.26 min
Part 02
4 lessons • 111 minMenu Engineering
- 06Menu Engineering 101: Stars, Plowhorses, Puzzles, DogsHow to grade every SKU on the menu by the margin-dollars it produces and the volume it moves, then act on each quadrant: protect the Stars, fix the Plowhorses, promote the Puzzles, and cut the Dogs before they starve the floor.29 min
- 07Pricing Psychology: Anchoring, Decoys, Goldilocks Tiers, Charm PricingHow dispensary pricing actually lands in the customer's head: anchors that reframe every price behind them, decoys that make the middle tier win, Goldilocks tiers that convert 55-65% to mid-shelf, and why charm pricing breaks the moment tax stacks on. State-licensed medical cannabis now qualifies for 280E deduction relief going forward (as of April 2026), while adult-use cannabis remains Schedule I and subject to 280E.28 min
- 08Menu Design for Cannabis: The Format That ConvertsHow to build a dispensary menu that steers customers into the middle tier, protects margin, and survives the compliance and tax-stacking constraints that break QSR conventions. As of April 2026, state-licensed medical cannabis operators can now deduct ordinary business expenses, changing the 280E calculus for that segment.28 min
- 09Attach Rate, Bundles, and the Economics of the UpsellHow attach rate, bundle construction, and the add-on moment at checkout compound into four to twelve points of basket lift and a meaningfully higher blended margin, with the cannabis-specific math on accessory attach, cross-category bundles, and the budtender-level performance metrics that separate a staffed floor from a selling floor.26 min
Part 03
4 lessons • 119 minLoyalty Economics
- 10Frequency Loops: The Starbucks Playbook for CannabisHow to design a points-and-rewards program that works for a daily-user cannabis customer, with the rung math, the cannabis constraint stack (state-licensed medical cannabis tax treatment, purchase limits, SKU-based vs dollar-based), and the LTV and program ROI calculations that tell you whether the program is actually earning its keep.23 min
- 11Tier Design, Gamification, and the Behavioral Science of LoyaltyHow to design cannabis loyalty tiers that shift share of wallet rather than subsidize existing behavior, including threshold math, gamification mechanics that work through the 280E lens, and the customer lifetime value arithmetic that tells you whether the program is an asset or a tax.35 min
- 12CRM Platform Selection: Alpine IQ, Springbig, Sprout, HeyloA decision-grade comparison of the cannabis CRM and loyalty vendor stack, with the pricing math, POS-integration reality, and Loyalty Program ROI framing that separates a platform earning its keep from a $14,000-a-year SMS-sender. Updated April 2026 to reflect partial federal rescheduling of state-licensed medical cannabis and its impact on 280E deductibility.29 min
- 13Loyalty Under the 280E and Purchase-Limit ConstraintHow the two cannabis-specific distortions, 280E's disallowance of operating-expense deductions (now limited to recreational cannabis and unlicensed operations post-April 2026), the state-mandated daily purchase limit, and pending rescheduling uncertainty mathematically warp loyalty program ROI compared to adjacent retail, and the rung math, reward menu, and tier threshold choices that keep a program in the black once you read the numbers through both lenses.32 min
Part 04
3 lessons • 84 minCustomer Strategy
- 14Customer Personas: Behavioral Depth Beyond the Starter TenHow to move past the ten-persona taxonomy into behavioral depth: the CLV per persona in cannabis math, the triggers that move customers between personas, and the operator moves that unlock the only transitions worth chasing. As of April 22, 2026, state-licensed medical cannabis moved to Schedule III, eliminating IRC 280E for medical operators going forward, though recreational cannabis remains Schedule I.27 min
- 15Need-State Mapping and the Assortment ImplicationHow to translate the seven dispensary need-states (sleep, pain, anxiety, focus, energy, social, creativity) into concrete breadth and depth decisions across flower, vape, edible, tincture, and topical, so the assortment actually answers the questions customers walk in with.29 min
- 16Age-Restricted Operations: Alcohol and Tobacco PlaybooksHow alcohol, tobacco, and vape retail built decades of age-gate process discipline, which pieces transplant cleanly into cannabis, and the cannabis-specific guardrails (Metrc audit surface, adult-decoys-only mystery shopping, vault SOPs, hybrid-state routing) that turn the imported playbook into a compliance posture your license actually survives.28 min
Part 05
4 lessons • 116 minBrand and Marketing
- 17Brand Positioning: Premium, Value, Medical, LifestyleHow to pick a dispensary positioning archetype and hold it, with category mix ratios, pricing math, customer persona fit, and the operational proof points that make each of the four archetypes defensible in market.25 min
- 18Marketing Regulations: The Hard Guardrails on Every ChannelHow to clear the three-layer regulatory stack (state, platform, FTC) on every piece of cannabis creative, with the audience-threshold math, distance buffers, channel eligibility, and influencer disclosure rules an operator must internalize before approving any campaign.24 min
- 19Social Media for Cannabis: What Works, What Gets You BannedHow to run a cannabis social media program that survives platform enforcement and state regulator scrutiny, with honest channel-by-channel CAC math showing why owned audiences are the only marketing asset that compounds.32 min
- 20Partnerships, Sponsorships, and the Awards HaloHow to evaluate competition entries, event sponsorships, and brand partnerships against Customer Acquisition Cost, the 20 to 40 percent price premium an awards halo actually delivers, and the 280E layer that bends the math for state-licensed medical cannabis operators going forward while recreational remains constrained.35 min
Part 06
3 lessons • 88 minAnalytics
- 21Category Analytics: Velocity, Gross Margin, ContributionHow to grade every cannabis category on velocity, margin, and GMROI, use ABC tiering to separate profit drivers from passengers, and move shelf space toward the categories that actually pay the rent. Note: 280E tax relief applies only to state-licensed medical cannabis operations going forward as of April 2026; recreational cannabis remains subject to full 280E tax drag.32 min
- 22Customer Analytics: Cohorts, LTV, ChurnHow to run cohort analysis, compute honest LTV and CAC, and read churn curves the way a senior operator does, with cannabis-specific segmentation, a 280E-adjusted cash LTV pass, and a performance-evaluation ratio set that ties customer analytics to the week-over-week operating decisions that actually move the number.30 min
- 23Pricing Tests and the Discipline of Changing PriceHow to run a real pricing test on a dispensary menu: isolate one SKU, move price in small steps, measure quantity response against a control window, read the elasticity number honestly, and apply markdown rules to aging stock without training deal-seeker behavior. For state-licensed medical cannabis, 280E relief on ordinary business expenses is now available going forward as of April 22, 2026.26 min
Part 07
4 lessons • 116 minEcommerce and Omnichannel
- 24Ecommerce Strategy: Menu Sync, Checkout UX, Age VerificationHow to run a dispensary ecommerce menu as a P&L asset instead of a digital brochure: vendor selection against menu-sync latency, checkout UX tuned for the no-Apple-Pay reality, age-verification flow that protects the license, and CLV math that accounts for 280E relief on medical operations going forward.34 min
- 25Click-and-Collect: From the Online Cart to the StoreHow a dispensary actually runs click-and-collect end-to-end: the five operational stages from online cart to in-store handoff, the staffing and layout decisions that determine pickup times, and the sell-through signals that tell you whether the flow is converting or leaking.23 min
- 26Delivery Customer Experience: The Regulated-CX Design ProblemHow to design a cannabis delivery customer experience that reuses the mature playbooks from alcohol delivery, DTC unboxing, gig tipping, and reorder retention, while surviving four cannabis-specific constraints that kill any copy-paste of the DoorDash or Chewy flow.27 min
- 27Adjacent Delivery Models: DoorDash, Drizly, Instacart PatternsWhich DoorDash, Drizly, Instacart, and Domino's delivery mechanics port into cannabis, which invert at the state license line, and which break outright at the 280E tax wall and federal scheduling, with unit economics you can run against your own P&L.32 min
Part 08
5 lessons • 142 minTrends and Capstones
- 282026 Trends: The Categories, Formats, and Demographics to WatchA field read on where cannabis category dollars are moving in 2026, how to translate trend signals into forecasted unit plans, and how to rebuild your assortment around infused pre-rolls, All-In-One carts, minor cannabinoids, and the consumer shifts they reflect.28 min
- 29Cannabis Tourism: The Destination Market OpportunityHow to read a tourist-heavy trade area, rebuild the assortment and floor experience around visitor purchase behavior, and size the lounge-adjacency bet in the jurisdictions where consumption licensing is catching up.20 min
- 30Consumption Lounges and Social-Use EventsHow to evaluate the unit economics, licensing pathway, and operational reality of cannabis consumption lounges and social-use events, including why Nevada issued 22 lounge licenses and only one opened, and how to size the trade area for a new venue.25 min
- 31Building the 12-Month Retail Calendar: Events, Promos, BuysA month-by-month retail calendar that aligns buying, sales forecasting, and markdown timing to cannabis's real demand curve, so 420, 710, Croptober, Green Wednesday, and NYE become planned events instead of scrambles. As of April 22, 2026, state-licensed medical cannabis is Schedule III; adult-use remains Schedule I. IRC Section 280E relief now applies to the medical portion of dual-license operations going forward.27 min
- 32Capstone: Pitch Your Store's Competitive StrategyAn end-to-end competitive-strategy pitch for a real or planned dispensary, built from a grounded situation scan, a committed positioning choice, a category mix and pricing stance that match the trade area, and a twelve-month move list that a partner or lender can actually underwrite.42 min
Ready when you are
Retail Strategy starts with one lesson.
The Consultative Retail Playbook: Pharmacy, Apple Genius, Sephora, 24 minutes. Pick it up here whenever you have time.
Start lesson 1