When you enter a dispensary in search of a specific strain, sleepy-time gummy, or vape pen, you’re usually on an in-and-out mission. Any accessories you walk out the door with are typically last-minute, impulse purchases. Costing around $5, $10 or $15, the price point is low enough that consumers are comfortable making a quick decision. With enough foot traffic, those small purchases can add up quickly for operators.
So, why aren’t more dispensaries spending time ensuring they carry the right accessories and that they aren’t running out?
Whatever the reason, Luv Buds Founder and CEO Brett Harris is helping dispensaries and smoke shops make smarter choices when it comes to accessorizing their retail stores. As the largest distributor of cannabis accessories in the US, Luv Buds brings a data-driven approach to their clients.
While most dispensaries view smoking accessories as impulse add-ons, Luv Buds is helping operators manage the category like a structured retail business unit—using data, inventory management and branding strategy to turn what’s often a 2% revenue contributor into a meaningful growth engine.
Running Smarter Business
After years of rapid expansion, growth in the cannabis industry today looks a little different. It’s not about new licenses; it’s about running smarter businesses. One of the clearest opportunities is also one of the most overlooked: accessories, a category that lags far behind traditional retail performance because it’s rarely managed with the same discipline as core products.
That’s the gap Luv Buds has built its model around closing.
“In traditional retail, accessories should represent around 10 percent of revenue,” Harris explains. “In our space, unfortunately, it represents about 1.5 to 2 percent. Operators are there to sell cannabis, and they don’t consider the fact that there’s this alternative revenue stream at their fingertips.”
Harris notes that buyers and managers often don’t focus on replenishment schedules, par levels, or sell-through data when it comes to accessories. Luv Buds is working to change that by acting as a “category captain,” helping retailers manage inventory, analyze performance, and receive timely replenishment recommendations.
“Our goal is to get the industry from 1.5 or 2 percent up to 7 percent,” Harris says. “Obviously, that benefits our business, but all the decisions we make are really in the interest of our customers.”
A few ways Luv Buds is helping their customers is by asking big questions: How do we help them pay off their tremendous debt? How do we help them increase their revenue? How do we help them service their customers better?
“There’s no reason why consumers should have to buy their product one place and go buy their accessories somewhere else,” Harris adds.
Accessories That Double as Marketing
In cannabis, accessories aren’t just products—they’re a marketing strategy. Because traditional advertising and marketing expenses aren’t deductible under 280E, branded accessories can function as confirmed cost-of-goods items while delivering constant brand exposure in customers’ hands.
Harris offers a simple example: the lighter. A required tool for anyone smoking flower, a lighter is used frequently and shared often, making it one of the most effective branding tools a dispensary can offer.
“Having a lighter that doesn’t have your name on it doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Harris says. “They’re holding that lighter every time they light something, every time they hand it to someone, and it’s probably getting stolen and going in the hands of somebody else. So, making sure that people have that in their hands at all times is very important.”
Through Luv Buds’ custom and white-label programs, dispensaries can ensure that everyday items like lighters, ashtrays, and grinders carry their branding—serving as subtle, repeated reminders for comers to keep coming back.
Luv Buds Brings Longevity and Credibility
Founded in Denver in 2015, Luv Buds was designed from the beginning as a business solution—not a novelty accessory company. Harris, who describes himself as the first management consultant in recreational cannabis, built the company with a deep understanding of retail operations, distribution and the financial realities unique to the industry.
That approach has helped Luv Buds grow into the largest cannabis accessory distributor in the country. But for Harris, scale isn’t the end goal.
“We’re proud of how big we’ve become,” he says. “But what matters most is being more important to our customers—helping them run better businesses and succeed in a challenging market.”
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