If you're a retailer who sells or markets cannabis products to consumers, here is a checklist of items for you to consider performing as you begin using the Lit Alerts data tool.
Set your state
Depending on your subscription, you may have access to multiple states within Lit Alerts. To select a state to work within, simply visit the state dropdown in the upper right, use the arrow and select the state. This will then adjust any data you're looking at in the tool to just focus on that state. It allows you to easily jump between markets.
Review Your Store
Find the Retailers tab in the left navigation. Simply click on the "+" icon and search for your store by keyword. Drop down the sub tabs and review the Products screen, Activities Screen and Analytics Screen. Anything seem off to you? Report it to support@litalerts.com. This is a very complex and messy dataset and feedback from the field is crucial in maintaining it's accuracy.
REMINDER: The analytics throughout the Lit Alerts tool rely on publicly available data on cannabis retailer online menus. Our technology analyzes and produces a directional dataset that predict activities happening in market. This dataset does not leverage or integrate with POS providers or other inventory management solutions, and should not be used as actuals for financial reporting purpose.
Review and familiarize yourself with the common screens through the app.
Products is a simple table that shows menu listings. When accessing this screen in the Retailers tab, it showcases the menu listings for a specific retailer.
Activities is a simple table that gives you a feed of events our system is predicting in market including out of stock alerts, new product alerts and estimated sales. When accessing this screen in the Retailers tab, this will filter for only those events for the selected retailer.
Analytics rolls up the events from our predictive engine and provides you a filterable screen of tables that include top performing brands, pricing, category mix and trend line.
Add Stores in Your Local Area
Still on the Retailers tab in the left navigation. On the Retailers screen in the explorer, you can easily add your local competition you'd like to keep an eye on. You simply click on the "+" icon and then search for the retailer you'd like to track. Adding Retailers here does not affect your morning low quantity and out of stock emails.
This tab is good for seeing what other retailers are carrying for menu items (without having to search their online menu), what brands or categories are selling best, average pricing and more. The benefit here is that it's all in one spot for you and makes answering daily questions about your competition a 3-5 minute task.
Is there a store you are looking for that isn't in the tool yet? Report it to support@litalerts.com. We'll get back to you quickly either with a notice that we've added the retailer or with an explanation for why we currently can't access the location.
Research Brands in Your Market
In the brands tab to the left, you'll use the "+" icon to search and add any brands you'd like to track and review specific data. This is helping for confirming information in brand pitch materials as well as researching new brands to carry and how your most successful brands stack up at retailers across the state. Please note that any brand you add here will show up in your morning low inventory and out of stock emails. If you remove a brand, it will be removed from the morning email.
Notice any missing brands? Report it to support@litalerts.com. This is a very complex and messy dataset and feedback from the field is crucial in maintaining it's accuracy.
Load up the Comparison Feature
You can find the Comparison feature in the left navigation as well. This is a super easy way to keep tabs on your surrounding or competitive retailers and get side by side comparisons on key data, like total products carried, average pricing, estimated velocity, stock outs, top brands and more. Just click the "Add Retailer" button to the right and add up to 10 total retailers to compare. Finally, you can easily filter this information a layer deeper if desired. The filter dropdowns to the left will let you select a preset date and/or filter down by category.
Finally, while there are a plethora of things you can look up and deep dive into with Lit Alerts, the above are Day 1 must-dos to get the most out of the tool at the get go. Keep exploring and reach out to us with any and all questions at support@litalerts.com.