Discounting is one of the most powerful—and most misused—tools in cannabis retail.

Run the right promotion, and you increase traffic, move inventory, and boost revenue. Run the wrong one, and you destroy margin, train customers to wait for deals, and hurt long-term profitability.

So how do you actually decide:

• Which cannabis products to discount?
• How deep should the discount be?

Why Discounting Is So Tricky in Cannabis

Cannabis retail has unique challenges:

• Products lose value over time (freshness, trends, competition)
• Pricing varies widely across categories
• Customers are highly promotion-sensitive

That means every discount has a tradeoff: You’re exchanging margin for volume.

The goal isn’t just to sell more—it’s to sell smarter.

What Products Should You Discount?

Not every product should be discounted—focus on the ones where it actually drives value.

• Aging inventory: Move products before they lose more value and require deeper markdowns.
• Overstocked SKUs: Prioritize selling through excess inventory to free up cash.
• Low-velocity items: Give slow movers a push with targeted discounts or bundles.
• Competitive categories: Use strategic pricing on price-sensitive items like flower or vapes to drive traffic—but protect your margins.

The goal isn’t to discount everything—it’s to discount intentionally.

How Much Should You Discount?

Every discount has a breakeven point. If you lower your price, you need to sell more units to make up for lost margin. For example:

• A small discount might increase conversions without hurting profit
• A large discount might require significantly more volume to break even

Without understanding this relationship, you’re flying blind.

Discount Smarter with Paper Planes

Paper Planes removes the guesswork from discounting with its Discount Now tool, giving you clear, data-backed answers instead of gut decisions.

Before you run a promotion, it shows your breakeven point—how much additional volume you need at each discount level and whether it will actually increase revenue. It also uses your historical data to predict customer demand, so you can see how shoppers are likely to respond at different price points.

On top of that, it helps you focus on the right products at the right time, highlighting which items need to move and where a discount will actually improve sell-through—without unnecessarily cutting into margins.

In short, you’re not just discounting—you’re making informed, profitable decisions.