Co-Marketing Promotions

How Cannabis Dispensary Co-Op Promotions Work

Co-op promotions are joint marketing agreements between a cannabis dispensary and a vendor. The vendor agrees to share the cost of a discount — typically a percentage off retail price — in exchange for increased shelf visibility and sales velocity. ShelfSpace manages the entire lifecycle: proposal, approval, tracking, and credit generation.

This is part of our credit recovery system. When a co-op promotion runs, we track the discounted sales and generate a co-marketing credit memo against the vendor's account. The credit is then applied to the vendor's next settlement or payment. Both sides agree to the terms before the promotion starts, so there are no surprises.

Who Can Propose

Either party can initiate a co-op promotion:

• Retailers propose through their ShelfSpace dashboard when they want a vendor to co-fund a discount event
• Vendors propose through their vendor portal or through ShelfiQ when they want to drive sales velocity at a specific store

When a proposal is submitted, the other party receives a notification and can accept the terms, counter-propose with different numbers, or decline entirely. See Creating a Promotion for the step-by-step process.

Promotion Terms

Every co-op promotion includes:

• Discount percentage — the retail discount offered to customers (e.g., 20% off)
• Co-marketing split — how much of the discount the vendor covers vs. the retailer
• Start and end dates — the promotion window
• Scope — all products from the vendor, or specific SKUs
• Budget cap — optional maximum dollar amount the vendor will cover

Credit Generation

When the promotion ends, we calculate the total discount given during the promotion window using actual POS sales data. The vendor's share becomes a co-marketing credit memo, which goes through the standard approval process. The vendor reviews it in their portal and confirms the amount before it is applied.

Co-marketing credits appear in the co-marketing credits section of the credit recovery dashboard, with full detail on which products were sold at what discount during the promotion period.

Tracking Promotion Impact

While a promotion is active, both the retailer and vendor can see real-time performance data: units sold, discount given, budget remaining, and sales lift compared to the pre-promotion period. This data lives in the Insights dashboard and helps both sides measure whether the promotion is delivering results.