Nielsen, Headset team up on cannabis analytics for CPG companies

Nielsen and Headset, an analytics firm that compiles point-of-sale data from legal cannabis sales in the U.S., said they are teaming up to provide data and insights for consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies.

The tie-up illustrates how the cannabis is rapidly maturing via the use of technology as well as data.

Under the partnership, Nielsen will combine its consumer research with Headset's data from point-of-sale terminals, catalog and demographic and purchase data. The goal of the partnership is to better segment the market and give CPG companies insights for new products and markets.

To date, companies like Anheuser-Busch Inbev and Molson Coors have been teaming up with cannabis players such as Tilray and HEXO Corp., respectively, to explore new markets for non-alcoholic beverages. Constellation Brands has also invested in Canopy Growth Corp.

Marijuana means business: Everything you need to know about the cannabis industry | Medical marijuana: How IT can spark the budding cannabis industry | With hemp legalization, CBD industry poised for explosive growth | Harvesting marijuana with robots is hard. Here's how one company figured it out.

As the cannabis industry evolves it stands to reason that CPG companies will cautiously wade into the market. Nielsen, which already provides data and research to enterprises, recently acquired Cannabiz Consumer Group, a research firm that specializes in studying the impact of marijuana legalization on CPG spending.

Headset will provide more data to complement Nielsen's research. Headset and Nielsen are already working on an industry report and said they will co-develop a suite of research and data tools for the Canadian market where cannabis is legal nationwide.

The Headset software stack includes:

• Retail software to optimize inventory, reorder, and track weight totals as well as product categories. There are also modules to track budtender sales and productivity, vendors in the market and sales trends.
• Applications for product manufacturers, processors and distributors to better forecast and share data with partners.
• Reporting tools tracking market intelligence and brand sales trends across the industry and categories. For instance, Headset can aggregate best sellers in legal cannabis states in the U.S.

Here are screenshots of Headset's inventory module as well as budtender productivity tracking.