How Purchase Recency Can Shape a Dispensary SMS Plan

A customer who bought yesterday does not need the same message as someone whose usual visits have stopped. Yet a single SMS schedule can treat them as if they are in the same situation.

Purchase recency is the time since a customer’s latest recorded purchase. Used carefully, it can help a dispensary decide whether a message is timely, premature or no longer relevant. It should inform the marketing plan without becoming a guess about what a person has consumed or why they have not returned.

Start with the meaning of the purchase data

Confirm what the latest purchase field represents. Does it include all relevant locations? Are transactions arriving consistently? Does the record cover the period you want to evaluate?

A missing transaction can make an active customer appear inactive. A recently connected system can make a long-standing customer appear new. If the history is uncertain, use a broader, less assumptive message or wait until the data supports the intended audience.

AIQ includes a last-purchase date among its purchase traits. That capability still depends on the information available in the account and how the audience is defined.

Compare the gap with the relationship

The same elapsed time can mean different things for different customers. Someone who visits occasionally may be following their normal pattern. A regular visitor with an unusually long gap may be in a different situation.

Look at observed purchase patterns before choosing recency groups. Avoid a universal rule that labels everyone inactive after an arbitrary number of days. Where the data is limited, begin with simple groups and acknowledge what they cannot tell you.

Recency also works better alongside customer stage. A first-time purchaser who has not returned raises a different question from a long-standing member whose frequency has changed. The message should reflect that difference.

Build the plan around three different situations

Start with an illustrative three-group plan, then adapt the timing to your own purchase patterns:

• Bought recently: exclude them from a message asking inactive customers to return. Useful loyalty education may still belong in their email journey.
• Bought once, then went quiet: consider a first-to-second-visit journey that explains a relevant category or existing member benefit. They have less relationship history than a regular.
• Previously regular, now overdue by their usual pattern: offer a specific reason to reconnect, such as relevant new content or a verified update to their preferred selection.

This is a planning example, not a universal day-count formula. Decide which group has a useful, permitted SMS purpose before drafting a text. A concise message needs one clear action; it should not compress a whole newsletter into a smaller space.

Do not write “you must be running low.” A purchase record does not tell you what remains, how a product was used or what the customer needs. Recency helps you choose timing, not invent personal knowledge.

Apply SMS eligibility separately

A useful audience definition does not establish permission to text it. Confirm the customer’s SMS status and the requirements for the proposed message, market and provider. Do not assume that a purchase, loyalty membership or email subscription makes someone eligible for marketing texts.

Provider rules matter in cannabis messaging. AIQ describes carrier filtering that can affect text delivery. Changing the wording or hiding the subject behind a link does not override restrictions. Choose a permitted use case rather than trying to disguise one that is not.

If SMS is unsuitable, reconsider the message and channel within the applicable rules. The right answer may be a useful email or no additional contact, not another way to force the same promotion through.

Let a new purchase change the plan

Where reliable data and account controls support it, remove people from a return-visit reminder once they have returned. Otherwise, the campaign can ask customers to do something they have just done.

Review SMS alongside email and automated journeys. A recency-based audience may already be receiving another re-engagement sequence. Coordinate the customer experience rather than treating each campaign as an isolated opportunity.

Measure relevance, not just delivery

Look at available responses, opt-outs, destination activity and subsequent visits over a defined period. Distinguish observed purchases from proof that the text caused them, and account for other campaigns and normal shopping patterns.

Hiigher’s managed SMS marketing connects timing with segmentation and lifecycle strategy. Purchase recency is useful when it helps you make a more considerate decision about the next message, including when not to send one.