Reshaping the Cannabis Pod Market Landscape With Xlite Innovation
According to market research data from Headset in February 2024, the pod market shows a continuous growth trend. Across the selected markets, Vapor Pens consistently demonstrated positive YoY growth in sales and units sold in February 2024. This trend underscores the ongoing popularity of these convenient and discreet consumption methods. Cannabis brands should prioritize these categories in their product portfolios to meet the growing demand for smart cannabis pods.
New York, Florida, Michigan, Massachusetts, and New Jersey on the East Coast have become hot sales regions for cannabis pod system products. Notably, among the younger population in these states, the market share of pod systems is still increasing. Therefore, cannabis businesses in these states should pay more attention to pod products.
1. Leading Brands Dominate the Growing Pod Market
However, the cannabis vape pod market has long been dominated by two leading brands, Pax and STIIIZY. They are making it difficult for other brands to enter. With powerful brand influence, market share, and technical strength, these two companies dominate the pod product market. Their products have certain advantages in design, performance, and user experience, and are loved by consumers. To enter the cannabis pod vape market at this stage, cannabis brands will need innovative products with reasonable pricing and unique product appeals. This will help the cannabis businesses expand into the pod market, helping them catch cannabis vaping market trends and lead to business growth.
2. How should cannabis brands make their choice?
In the face of the rapid development of the cannabis vape market, various brands and products are emerging. In this fiercely competitive market, how should brands choose their product lines?
2.1 Non-Smart Pod Products May Face Dilemma
Due to budget constraints and other issues, some cannabis brands may follow the market trend and choose regular non-smart pods as their vaping product. Taking a low-cost product strategy by reducing product features and quality. While this may avoid direct competition with leading brands, it also means that these cannabis brands have to join the intense competition with many other brands. In addition, for those who want to promote cannabis extracts, pod devices without features such as pressure adjustment and temperature control cannot provide consumers with a full experience of the cannabis extracts quality. This may affect the market performance of the cannabis brand. Therefore, it is not easy for brands with limited budgets to stand out in the cannabis vaping market.
Some brands may focus on best-selling pod products. They may launch similar pod devices, or imitate the pod products of popular brands. This can reduce competition risks and promote products by leveraging the marketing trends of leading brands. However, cannabis brands need to consider how to stand out among many similar products and form their unique brand characteristics. Blindly chasing best-selling product trends, these brands may always stay behind the top pod brands, as they lack product recognition and consumer attention. If there is no way to establish brand characteristics, in the future, cannabis brands will also be difficult to develop and grow. And always stay in the shadow of the top pod brands. If a cannabis brand cannot stand out, it will eventually become just an imitator of big brands.
2.2 Catch the Trend and Upgrade Cannabis Pod System
Before launching pod products, cannabis brands should make decisions based on their actual situation and market demand. If the brand budget is limited, it can consider launching non-smart pod products, but pay attention to the quality and vaping features of the product to attract consumer attention. If the brand budget is sufficient, it can consider launching smart pod products to improve product competitiveness and stand out in the marketing competition.
Pax, as a brand with high-end smart pod products, has been growing steadily since 2022. It has continuously launched multiple high-end smart pods such as Pax Era and Pax Era Pro. This indicates that the demand for smart pod vape is constantly increasing. If cannabis businesses can add smart user interaction features to pod products based on high-cost performance, it will attract more young user groups between the ages of 20-38. This part of the cannabis users group currently mainly uses non-smart regular pods. This is due to the significant price difference between high-end smart pods and regular pods. The discussion on Pax Era Pro on Reddit mainly revolves around intelligent functions, but the price is high.
3. Smart Pod Becomes a New Trend to Expand the Cannabis Vaping Market
With cannabis legalization in more states, more and more companies have entered the cannabis vape product market. Making the competition became increasingly intense. These newcomers try to attract consumers through innovative product design, unique taste, and lower prices. However, as the leading positions in the market are still with Pax and STIIIZY, other brands are facing huge challenges. Although intelligent upgrades are the future trend of the pod system, if cannabis businesses blindly pursue high-end smart pod systems, they may increase costs and not benchmark with competitors like Pax easily. Because high-end smart pod systems usually require maintaining and managing app data. The budget threshold for high-end smart pods is high, and it is not suitable for brands with an insufficient budget and low-risk resistance.
It can be seen that there is a lack of transitional products between high-end smart pod brands Pax and non-smart regular pod STIIIZY. The younger user group needs a pod product with basic intelligent functions and a higher cost-effective entry-level smart pod. Hence, cannabis businesses should launch entry-level smart pod systems with combined smart functions and reasonable prices. This is the pod system that is suitable for filling the gap in the pod market and blazing a new trail for cannabis brands.
3.1 Pod Upgrade: Balance Cost and Function
Cannabis businesses first need to balance between function and cost when upgrading the pod system products. On the one hand, cannabis brands can improve user vaping experience and product competitiveness through upgrades; on the other hand, choosing the appropriate intelligent solution could help them consider cost and risk. For example, add some basic intelligent functions to the pod system, such as power display, voltage adjustment, dose control, visual indicator, etc. to improve user experience and control costs at the same time.
For those cannabis businesses looking to enter the pod product market, they need an innovative product with reasonable pricing, attractive cost performance, and smart functions. A cost-effective cannabis pod can provide more value to consumers. By attracting consumer attention, thereby increasing their willingness to purchase. Such a product will help them stand out in the competitive market. In addition, the trend of the cannabis vape product market is constantly changing, and this product also needs to help cannabis businesses grasp the trend of products, increase the market share of products, and lead to effective business growth.
3.2 Pod Upgrade: Reducing User Learning Cost is Key
In a fast-paced society, cannabis users are becoming more sensitive to the learning cost of new vaping devices. Therefore, it is crucial to reduce the learning cost of users when upgrading the pod system. In addition to improving the pre-sales and after-sales customer service system, and promptly answering user questions. Simplifying the pod features and optimizing user interaction methods will be the key to the intelligent upgrade of the pod.
First of all, what cannabis businesses need is a smart pod with basic smart features that can meet user needs. At the same time, after the user purchases, there is no need for excessive maintenance costs. And the product still needs to have a unique positioning outside of intelligent functions. It could be a distinctive appearance or a high cost performance. Therefore, the intelligent upgrade of the pod needs to simplify the pod system features, retain the most core and commonly used functions, and let users get started quickly. In terms of interaction methods, the pod only needs to design a simple and intuitive interface. So that users can understand the functions of the pod at a glance. This can effectively reduce user learning costs and allow more people to enjoy the convenience brought by the intelligent upgrade of the pod.
4. Expand the Cannabis Pod Market with Xlite
Born in response to the trend, Xlite, has launched a new concept: ‘light intelligence‘. It is to retain the core intelligent experience and intelligent interaction and remove the complex and cumbersome parts that are not easy for ordinary users to learn and use. Greatly reduce the entry threshold and learning cost of cannabis users. This can not only effectively grasp consumers but also bring new opportunities to the cannabis pod market.
Xlite is a high-cost-effective product that aims for product positioning and market price vacancy. Unlike traditional non-smart pod vapes and high-end smart pod vapes represented by Pax. Xlite provides personalized functions without requiring users to connect the pod vape to the mobile phone App for complex settings. Users just need to insert the pod into the battery, and then can enjoy various personalized vaping experiences such as voltage adjustment and dose control reminders.
Xlite not only has smart features such as dose reminders and leading for a healthy vaping experience. It also has more preheating and voltage adjustment functions than regular pods. These features can allow users to taste different flavors of cannabis products in a better way. Furthermore, its interaction method is more novel than many pod vapes. Equipped with a touch-sensing button, users only need to tap to complete the voltage adjustment. Its appearance is transparent and technological, which is more in line with the aesthetic needs of the younger generation. Hence, Xlite is the first choice for cannabis consumers to upgrade from ordinary pods to smart pods, and it is also the best pod system to help cannabis brands expand the cannabis pod market.
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