How To Start the Year Selling Vape Products Like a Champion
Estimated 0 min read
Incredibly, a large percentage of US adults admit to having vaped recently, with young adults leading the pack at a whopping 17% of vapers in young adults between the ages of 18-29. It must also be said that a very small percentage of vapers in general actually buy products in person, with most users saying they receive their products in the mail.
This leaves vape businesses like yours and ours in an awkward position; we sell products online but vape bans can make it difficult to ship products on a nationwide scale. So, what’s the best option, selling vape products online or in brick and mortar shops?
In other words:
What’s the best way to reach potential customers?
We believe that there should be a combination of both options in order for a vaping business to reach its true potential. Which is why we’ll walk you through online retail platforms and legal requirements and discuss a few ways to grow your business, which is ultimately everything you want.
Legal Requirements for Selling Vapes Online
Tobacco products are federally regulated, meaning that going into the tobacco business takes a lot of planning. Making sure your business is in compliance with federal and state laws does not break any vape or tobacco bans, and is ultimately licensed to sell these types of products.
For starters, you should first be aware of what the FDA considers a ‘tobacco product’. In some cases, this could mean that the product is vaped or made with synthetic nicotine and doesn’t contain a mg of tobacco-derived nicotine. So, our suggestion is to start reading through the FDA’s list of legal requirements.
You’ll also want to check if your business is legally considered a retailer or a manufacturer. It’s completely possible that mixing e-liquids or fixing/making mods on devices could also make you a manufacturer. This would make it so your business is also covered by manufacturer regulations, which you’ll also want to follow in order to avoid any issues.
But perhaps:
The most important thing to bear in mind is that you’re ultimately selling age-restricted products. You’ll need to be extra careful when selling them online and avoid selling to minors, not only to avoid issues with the law, but to stop younger audiences from consuming products they should not be consuming. The FDA also provides a variety of tools that can help you do this, including the agency’s age calculator and their tobacco retailer training programs.
Luckily, online retail platforms have many tools that can help you comply with regulations. In fact, some of them, including the one we use, seem to be built to help vaping businesses continue their business in a world that seems to make it more difficult every time.
How To Ship Vape Products
Vape shipping has been restricted since 2021, with several bans that restrict vape shops from shipping products easily, primarily designed to protect underage audiences. These restrictions were made even more difficult to comply with since the PACT Act went into effect.
While the PACT Act was designed to protect consumers, it was also designed in a way that makes it very difficult for smaller businesses to comply with it. Not to mention that registration itself is very confusing, takes a long time, and may not be accepted.
On top of it all:
USPS is no longer transporting smokeless tobacco products and other vapes. The same seems to apply to private shipping services like UPS and FedEx. This may seem like it’s almost impossible to ship vape products, but ‘almost’ is the keyword.
Investors have realized there is a need for services that help vape retailers ship their products and plenty of shipping companies now offer an alternative you can use like ShipStation and BigCommerce, just to mention a few.
There are some platforms that allow you to sell products online quite easily, but this is not necessarily true when it comes to vape products. A great example of this is Shopify, a platform that makes it extremely easy to sell products as long as they don’t have to do anything with smoking or vaping. No reason you can’t, but it’s safer to look at the platform's terms and conditions before you commit to one.
The Right Vape Products To Carry
At VapeRanger, we offer a wide variety of vape products. But if you’re looking for the right vape products to start off with, then probably everyone will tell you that the most important category is disposables. Which is why we’ve included a shortlist of our top 3 best selling items below.
Elf Bar BC5000 Rechargeable Disposable Vape Pen - 5000 Puffs
Elf Bar Lost Mary OS5000 Disposable Vape Pen - 5000 Puffs
Elf Bar Airo Max Disposable Vape Pen - 5000 Puffs
What Online Platform Should You Use?
As you know, vaping provides a great alternative for smokers who want to quit smoking but want to continue consuming nicotine. Regardless, vaping is considered a threat by anti-smoking groups as well, and because of that, by the government too. Which can make it very difficult for vape companies to comply with state and federal laws.
The first thing you need to do is to make sure that your business complies with these laws and uses a platform that offers a high-risk payment processor. That said, do some research and checkout which platforms can make it easier for you to conduct your business and focus on selling. And if you’re looking for a solid option in the vendor department, make sure you register for a wholesale account and get access to one of the most extensive vape wholesale product lineups anywhere.
