Cannabis retailer Eaze released its fifth annual insight report earlier this month detailing some of the major consumer trends in cannabis. The results are based entirely on sales from Eaze’s platform, so they are biased in that way, but they also offer a bit of insight into what the consumer cannabis market looks like right now, at least for online marketplaces.

This year’s report was created using the aggregate purchase data of more than 500,000 Eaze consumers across the state of California in 2019. So again, we’re taking about results that are looking at a small subset of the overall consumer cannabis market.

All that said, key findings from the report point out a number of interesting findings. Specifically:

• Increased demand and consumption: 2019 saw a 74% increase in first-time deliveries.

Year of the older consumer: Consumers on the platform aged 50 and above increased by 105%. Boomers specifically purchased 67% more topicals than in the previous year, demonstrating a willingness to try new cannabis form factors. 

• Demographic and preference diversity: There was greater diversity among customers: women on the platform grew 81% from 2018; product preferences diversified with drops and topical purchases increasing across all age groups.

• Vape sales took a major hit: Confusion and concern around tainted illicit-market vape products caused consumers to turn away from vapes (down 15% in October) and towards edibles (up 24% in October). 

“This report reinforces that cannabis is important for people from all walks of life,” said Ro Choy, CEO of Eaze. “As the state’s biggest marketplace for legal cannabis, we are committed to doing our part to support licensed retailers and brands and expand access to the best cannabis products in California.”

One of the most interesting aspects of the report for me was that the older customers have started to increase. Cannabis became recreationally legal in California in 2019, which definitely accounts for the dramatic increase in first-time deliveries through the service. In 2018 all of those deliveries would have needed to have been made to medical patients.

The legality seems to have driven a lot of older customers to the cannabis market. The report suggests that older customers are purchasing topicals, which presumably they are using medically even though many may have not been medical patients in the past.

Also interesting was the vape data. The mysterious vaping illnesses that were prevalent last year seem to have impacted the legal, regulated market as well, with a decrease in sales of 15% during the high point of those illnesses and hospitalizations.

You can check out the full report here.