The allure of running an online vape shop is incredibly strong for would-be entrepreneurs. Vaping is very rapidly supplanting smoking as the preferred way to consume tobacco and other herbs, and it’s very likely that there will be very few smokers remaining over the next couple of decades. In other words, the vaping community is growing rapidly, and selling vaping products online can be extremely profitable. The vaping industry is an absolutely perfect one for any good entrepreneur to enter.
The drawback of running an online vape shop, though, is that it’s very easy to do it poorly. People don’t realize the amount of planning that goes into launching an online vape shop, and it’s difficult to appreciate the size of the investment you’ll need to make before you can even get started. The worst part is that if you make a mistake when planning the launch of a vape shop, your venture could essentially be dead before it even gets started.
If you want to launch an online vape shop, it’s crucial that you heed the advice of veterans who have experienced the ups and downs of the vaping industry and know what it takes to be successful. So, do you want to join the vaping industry? If you’re going to launch an online vape shop, you need to do these four things first.
Choose a Short and Catchy Domain Name
Before you can begin developing your online vape shop, the first thing that you’ll need to do is register a domain name. You should think for a long time about this and brainstorm several possibilities because it’s hard to come up with a good domain name that isn’t already used by someone else.
A good domain name should be as short and memorable as possible. Remember that establishing brand recognition is always a crucial aspect of running an online business. If someone hears about your website from a friend or in a radio advertisement, that person should be able to immediately type your URL on their phone or computer without misspelling it. If someone can’t type your website’s URL after hearing it, your domain name is probably too long or too complex.
Choose an E-Commerce Platform
In order to sell products online, you need to have a website with e-commerce functionality. An e-commerce engine allows a customer to create an account, view products, add items to their cart and check out.
Shopify is a popular e-commerce platform for new website owners. It’s very easy to get a shop running with Shopify, even if you’ve never owned a website before. Shopify is somewhat expensive, though, because you’ll pay a fee for each transaction in addition to the platform’s basic monthly hosting fee.
WooCommerce is a well-liked alternative to Shopify. Its basic version is free, and it runs on top of the content management system WordPress, which is also free. Compared to Shopify, WooCommerce is significantly less expensive and allows for greater flexibility in the development of your website. However, you may find it difficult to set up a WooCommerce vape shop if you’ve never administered a website before.
Choose a Payment Processor
Before you can begin selling products online, you need to have an account with a payment processor that will process credit card transactions for you. As an online vape shop owner, though, you’ll find that your options are a bit limited in this area because many popular payment processors – such as PayPal – don’t process transactions for vape shops. Shopify also doesn’t process transactions for vaping products, so you’ll need to find your own payment processor even if you have a Shopify site.
You’ll need to work with a payment processor that explicitly allows vaping transactions, and that means your transaction fees will be a little higher than they would be if you sold other types of products. You’ll need to account for those transaction fees when pricing your products because the fees will eat into your profits.
Choose a Wholesaler
Running an online vape shop means that you’ll need to have products to sell, and that means you’ll need to find at least one wholesaler to supply those products. It’s important to carry a wide variety of products if you want to sell vape gear online because vaping is very much a long-tail business. Few products or brands are truly dominant, and people have very individual tastes. People will expect to find their favorite products and accessories at your vape shop, or they’ll go elsewhere. Stocking your shop will require a significant investment on your part, and that means you need to find a wholesaler with an attractive price structure.
A good distributor provides a reliable source for a wide variety of products and offers those products at a fair price that leaves plenty of room for you to earn a profit – and price is only one of the key factors that should influence your decision as you look for a distributor for your online vape shop. Authenticity is the other major concern because fake vape gear is much more common than you might realize. It’s wise to work only with original manufacturers – such as Rokin Vapes – or with distributors that only source their products from the original manufacturers. That way, there’s no chance that you’ll accidentally end up stocking your vape shop with counterfeit goods.
Develop Your Website
Before you can begin selling vape gear online, you need to have a website. One of the benefits of using a popular platform like Shopify or WordPress is that there are already plenty of pre-built website themes that you can download and install on your site. After you’ve installed a theme, you only need to populate your website with content and products.
Before you use an off-the-shelf theme, though, it’s important to remember that a good online merchant always stands out from the crowd. If your website looks the same as any other online vape shop, people won’t remember it, and you’ll have trouble establishing a brand identity. It’s also crucial for any online seller to have a website that projects an image of professionalism and trustworthiness.
Prior to launching your online vape shop, you should compare it to your competitors’ websites. Where would you feel most comfortable spending your money as a consumer – especially if you’ve never heard of the site before? If you can’t honestly say that your site compares favorably to what’s already out there, you need to go back to the drawing board. Creating an online vape shop probably means that you’ll incur some development expenses, but that’s a worthwhile investment because you’ll never make any sales if your site doesn’t project the right image.
