Running a dispensary is more than stocking shelves and making sales, it’s about staying compliant, managing costs, and ensuring customers find what they’re looking for. Unfortunately, many retailers fall victim to cannabis inventory mistakes that can hurt profits and even risk their license.
In this blog, we’ll cover the most common cannabis inventory pitfalls and practical fixes you can put in place today.
1. Over-Ordering High-Risk Products
The Mistake: Ordering too much of certain categories, like edibles or concentrates, which have shorter shelf lives. This leads to expired stock and wasted capital.
The Fix: Use sales trend data to forecast demand and order in smaller, consistent batches. Align your loyalty data with inventory to push slower-moving products before they expire.
2. Poor Recordkeeping
The Mistake: Failing to keep precise records of every transfer, sale, and adjustment. Even small errors can create compliance red flags in seed-to-sale systems like METRC or BioTrack.
The Fix: Implement a daily reconciliation process. Train staff to log every transaction accurately and audit your records weekly.
3. Ignoring Compliance Reporting
The Mistake: Treating compliance reporting as an afterthought instead of part of daily operations. Missing reports or discrepancies can result in fines or license suspension.
The Fix: Automate reporting where possible. Use inventory tools that sync directly with compliance systems to minimize human error.
4. Stockouts on Popular Products
The Mistake: Running out of bestsellers, frustrating customers and sending them to competitors.
The Fix: Track sales velocity and customer loyalty data to forecast reorder points. Set automated low-stock alerts to prevent running dry on high-demand SKUs.
5. Not Training Staff Properly
The Mistake: Employees don’t follow consistent SOPs for weighing, recording, and tracking cannabis inventory, which increases shrinkage and reporting errors.
The Fix: Standardize training for every team member. Create clear inventory handling procedures and review them regularly.
6. Failing to Connect Inventory with Loyalty Data
The Mistake: Treating inventory and loyalty systems as separate silos, missing insights into what products loyal customers actually buy.
The Fix: Integrate loyalty analytics with your inventory system. This way, you can promote slow movers to frequent buyers or ensure your best customers’ favorite products are always in stock.
7. Lack of Regular Audits
The Mistake: Skipping internal audits and waiting until regulators find discrepancies.
The Fix: Conduct monthly audits comparing your POS, inventory software, and compliance system. Catching errors early prevents bigger problems down the line.
Final Thoughts
Avoiding cannabis inventory mistakes is about more than compliance - it’s about building efficiency, saving money, and keeping customers happy. By aligning inventory tracking with loyalty data, dispensaries can make smarter ordering decisions, reduce waste, and deliver a seamless customer experience.
At Sticky Cards, we help cannabis retailers bridge the gap between inventory management and customer loyalty, so every gram is tracked and every customer feels valued.
