In the past 12 months or so specialist e-cigarette stores have been opening left, right and centre. Although the ecig revolution started to gain traction some three years ago it is in the last year that interest from consumers has completely mushroomed. In parallel with this phenomenal growth in public interest, ecig shops have been opening across the country to meet demand.
More Ecig Stores, Great! Well… Mostly So
Specialist ecig shops were few and far between until fairly recently, although some garages sold cig-a-likes and there was the odd market stall selling cheap imported carded/eGo kits, if you wanted anything half decent you had to shop online – unless you were lucky enough to have one of the few specialist shops in your area.
Most town and cities now have at least one ecig shop and major cities may have several from which to choose. Some of the more recent entrants into ecig high street sales have no background in online ecig trading and view vaping as a simple cash cow to be milked until dry, however many others are independent traders sourcing their merchandise from wholesalers in the UK and beyond – some of these shops are good but some of them are not.
The more successful and established online retailers of ecigs, like ECigWizard are also opening local shops, visiting these gives you the opportunity to view, handle or even sample the product while benefiting from their long acquired experience of ecig products and their direct relationship with the hardware manufacturers.
Official Resellers
ECigWizard’s ecig stores have proliferated due to their Official Reseller scheme which has a number of benefits to both the ecig retailer and the vaper. Under the scheme ECigWizard shops, complete with all the usual branding, stock and service are opened by individual shop owner/managers.
This is great for vapers because ECigWizard Official Reseller shops offer all of the benefits of dealing with a national and international company while also reaping the customer care, service, dedication and passion that can be offered by someone who owns a shop and looks after his customers accordingly.
From the retailers viewpoint ECigWizard’s Official Reseller scheme gives them the opportunity to have their shop associated with one of the country’s most successful ecig businesses – in style, branding, stock and service without suffering the burden of franchise fees, while simultaneously benefiting from unrivalled service which has been perfected over the past years retail and wholesale trading.
ECigWizard has shops in Audenshaw, Biddulph, Birmingham, Bourne, Bramhall, Brigg, Donegal, Eastbourne, Falkirk, Hastings, Kettering, Kings Lynn, Leicester, New Romney, Norwich, Penzance, Peterborough, Scarborough, Spalding, Stamford, Sunderland, Wednesbury and Wilmslow – and there are many, many more on their way, currently in the pipeline and due to open soon are shops in Boston, Bristol, Congleton, Corby, Croydon, Gateshead, Liverpool, Newry and York. Check the ECigWizard Store Finder for addresses, maps, etc.
The Future
I think that it is a safe prediction that the proliferation in ecigs shops will continue for the foreseeable future, this reflects the fantastic roll that vaping offers as a viable, cheaper and safer alternative to smoking. Not all the ecig shops that are currently open will survive in the longer term, those that offer poor value, second rate customer service or inferior quality goods will be recognised by the consumer and will be avoided – after all, vapers now can often choose between competing local ecig shops. I know of at least a couple of ecig shops in my home town that have closed within a few weeks or months of opening but I suspect that few people were sad to see them go.
Good specialist ecig shops must be staffed by knowledgeable and enthusiastic fellow vapers who are willing and interested in taking the time to explain and demonstrate their products. The products themselves must be of a reasonable quality and sold at a fair price. E-liquid quality is paramount and a wide choice of great flavours is necessary, these should all be available for testing too.
Other Outlets
It seems to me that the market for e-liquids and basic ecig hardware and accessories will become so large in the future that it will expand beyond specialist ecig retailers. In parallel with tobacconists being the specialist suppliers and newsagents selling the regular pack of twenty I imagine that the major brands of e-liquid will be distributed, via sales agents, to those retailers who currently keep cigarettes behind the counter – it seems probable too that basic ecig hardware would also be offered by these non-specialist outlets as their familiarity and prevalence continues.
Another possibly viable business model may be the use of kiosks, akin to those currently seen in town centres selling cigarettes, to handle simple and quick sales of a core selection of e-liquids and possibly a few accessories too.
With the ever increasing number of establishment owners banning the use of ecigs on their premises an obvious retail route to follow would be the Coffee/Vape lounge, offering a typical up-market coffee bar environment that also sells ecig hardware and e-liquid.
If the Welsh proposal to ban vaping in enclosed public spaces were to be introduced or even spread across the UK as a whole then ecig shops of the future may have to ask their customers to test-vape e-liquid flavours outside. Maybe ecig shops will need a ‘smoking hut’ in the future, if short-sighted, ill-informed health officials get their way!
Online too
The Internet was the powerhouse behind the ecig revolution and sales of ecig hardware and e-liquids through internet store sites will inevitably continue to play a popular and useful role in supplying the needs of vapers. Online sales are a feature of many retail trades and there is good reason to think that this will continue to be the case for ecig sales. The variety and convenience of ordering online will always have an audience, although the ability to try before you buy in shops has seen them become the preferred method of buying e-liquid for many vapers over the last few years, taking the risk out of buying an e-liquid online which may not suit your palette when it’s delivered - but internet shopping remains a strong player in terms of the ecig hardware.