The vaping industry is more competitive than ever, and that eats into a vape shop’s potential profitability. If you’ve been running a vape shop long enough, you can probably remember a time when your shop had no competition. Those days are long gone, though, and even most medium-sized cities now have at least two or three vape shops. To compete with the newcomers, you’ve had to lower your prices – and that probably means you’re not as profitable as you used to be.
So, what can you do to increase your vape shop’s profitability? That question doesn’t have a simple answer, but one certain thing is that choosing a better distributor can go a long way toward improving your shop’s earnings. In this article, we’ll explain why.
A Good Vape Distributor Offers Domestic Shipping
One of the biggest benefits of buying from a domestic supplier like Colorado vape distributor Mi-Pod is that doing so means you’ll be getting your products from a warehouse near you rather than from an overseas seller most likely based in China.
When you order vape gear from overseas, you’ll have to deal with two problems. The first problem is extended shipping times; it can potentially take weeks for products to arrive from an overseas distributor by boat. By the time you receive the products, you may have already missed out on potential sales.
The second problem is customs clearance. Customs officials seize shipments of vaping products on a regular basis, and that can further delay receipt – if you ever receive the products at all. Buying from a domestic distributor ensures that you’ll receive the products you need in time to avoid missing out on sales.
A Good Vape Distributor Offers Better Pricing
If you’re fretting over the increased competition between vape shops in your city, there is a silver lining in that the increased competition doesn’t just apply to retailers. In the beginning, vape shops generally purchased their products directly from the manufacturers. More recently, though, the distributor model has taken over. It’s better for the manufacturers, who can ship their products in greater bulk to a few suppliers instead of shipping smaller packages to many retailers.
Successful vape distributors can potentially earn a great deal of money, and that means there are many more wholesalers today than there were a few years ago. The heavy competition has forced wholesalers to offer more attractive price points, and that means switching to a new distributor may significantly reduce your product costs.
A Good Vape Distributor Offers Everything You Need in One Place
One important thing to remember as you choose a vape supplier is that the prices of the products themselves aren’t the only product-related expenses that you’ll encounter as a vape shop owner –your time also has a value. If you’re spending your afternoons browsing distributors’ websites for all of the products you need, it means that you’re not running your shop and growing your business. The best distributors allow you to get everything – or nearly everything – that your vape shop needs in one place. That’s a much more convenient way to buy supplies, and it’s going to save you a great deal of time.
A Good Vape Distributor Has Reliable Inventory
One of the top problems faced by vape shop owners today is the fact that the less reliable wholesalers often have persistent inventory issues. That’s partially because of the inherent problems with ordering vaping products from overseas manufacturers, which we described above. An experienced vape distributor knows when to order products – and in what volumes – to ensure that any potential delays with shipping and customs won’t affect their customers.
Before you do business with any distributor, you should take some time to browse their website. Do you see a lot of “out of stock” messages, or are virtually all products in stock and ready to ship? A good vape distributor has a reliable supply chain, and that means the products you need will always be available for immediate fulfillment when you need them.
A Good Vape Distributor Keeps Up with Trends
If you’ve been a vape shop owner long enough, you’re very aware of the fact that trends in the industry can change suddenly and with little notice. Only a few years ago, just about everyone who vaped used a huge dual-battery mod. After that, pod-based devices took hold. That trend was only temporary, though, as disposable vapes soon took over and became the industry’s most popular products. A good vape distributor stays on top of the changing trends and always carries the products that consumers are demanding. More importantly, a good wholesaler will never try to push products on you that your customers aren’t really going to want.
A Good Vape Distributor Can Help You Enter New Product Categories
Do you ever visit the competing vape shops in your city to see what they’re up to? If you do, you’ve probably noticed an interesting trend that’s been building over the past several years – it’s becoming increasingly common to find vape shops that have entered new product categories and no longer sell vaping products exclusively. Selling different types of products allows you to expand your customer base by reaching consumers who aren’t interested in vaping products. It also opens up new revenue streams among your existing customers who might be interested in things other than vaping. Some of the other product categories that vape shops have entered over the past few years include CBD and other hemp products, dry herb vaporizers and alternative nicotine products such as nicotine pouches.
A good vape distributor understands the parallels that exist between the vaping industry and other related industries and can help you unlock those new revenue streams by showing you what you should carry and how to display it. Some vape shop owners have actually found that their new lines of business have generated even more interest – and more profit – than their vaping products.
