When you own a retail store in any industry, choosing what products to carry is one of the biggest challenges you’ll face. That’s especially the case, though, if your industry happens to be one that’s constantly evolving and changing. The vaping industry is a perfect example of that. Vaping products have existed for just a little over a decade at this point, and the industry hasn’t been around long enough for any one product or type of product to truly take hold and become dominant. Every time it begins to appear as though the industry is coalescing around something, a revolutionary new product comes out and changes everything.
Whether you’re a vape shop owner or just an interested observer, you’ve undoubtedly noticed that the product selection at a typical vape shop is almost unrecognizable today in comparison to a few years ago – and changing consumer preferences have a great deal to do with that. A modern vape shop serves clients who have been vaping for a while and are always on the hunt for new things.
These are some of the new products that you’re likely to see if you enter a vape shop today – and if you own a vape shop, they’re the products that you should strongly consider adding to your stock.
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Disposable Vapes
Over the past few years, disposable vapes have been the most popular products in the vaping industry – and for now, at least, that shows no sign of changing. The biggest reason why disposable vapes have become as popular as they are is because they’re able to compete directly with tobacco cigarettes in ways that weren’t possible before.
In the past, buying a disposable e-cigarette meant you’d be buying a small cylindrical device that cost more than a pack of cigarettes and lasted perhaps half a day before running out of e-liquid or battery power. It was hard to convince most people to switch from cigarettes to a device that cost more but was less satisfying, so people who switched to vaping typically used rechargeable pod- or tank-based devices instead.
Today’s disposable vapes have evolved in many ways. They offer a much greater variety of experiences. There are dozens of Hyde disposable vape flavors on the market, and that’s just one brand. They also come in different shapes and nicotine levels, helping to ensure that there’s something available for all possible preferences. The most important feature of today’s disposable vapes, however, is that they’re less expensive and longer lasting than the disposable e-cigarettes of the past. A single large disposable vape can last as long as an entire carton of cigarettes – so for many vapers, there’s little reason to bother with traditional refillable vaping devices.
Alternative Nicotine Products
Vaping isn’t the only tobacco-free way to satisfy one’s nicotine cravings – and recently, several new alternative nicotine products have entered the market. Some of the new alternative nicotine products that have hit the market over the past few years include oral nicotine pouches, nicotine-infused toothpicks and flavored nicotine gums. These aren’t the same as the traditional nicotine replacement products that only come in mint and orange flavors. They’re available in a much wider variety of flavors, and they’re much more enjoyable to use.
Alternative nicotine products aren’t always easy to find at traditional tobacco retailers. Those stores devote much of their shelf space to tobacco products, and the small amount of space that’s left over is devoted to a few popular vaping products. Vape shops, therefore, have much to gain by offering alternative nicotine products because they’re not available in other brick-and-mortar stores. Nicotine pouches and other alternative nicotine products have an advantage that vaping products lack in that you can use them anywhere. Many people have quit smoking – and a few have even quit vaping – by switching to these products.
Hemp-Derived Products
Hemp-derived products like CBD have been extremely popular in the world of herbal supplements over the past few years, and vape shops deserve much of the credit for the popularity of those products. CBD is available from most stores that sell herbal supplements. Many people buy it from their local vape shops, though, either because they prefer to use CBD by vaping it or because that’s where they discovered CBD for the first time.
As influential as vape shops have been in the world of CBD, they’ve been even more important in the success of other cannabinoids such as Delta-8 and Delta-10 THC. While CBD is used like a traditional herbal supplement, Delta-8 and Delta-10 are largely used for more recreational purposes – and that makes vape shops the perfect retailers for those products.
Dry Herb Vaporizers
The word “vape” means different things to different people. For most people, it means using a nicotine-infused vapor to replace cigarette smoke. For others, though, vaping actually involves heating dried plant material to release its active compounds. Whether you’re an e-liquid vaper or a dry herb vaper, the goal is essentially the same. You’re inhaling a particular compound – whether it’s nicotine or something else – as vapor rather than smoke. E-liquid and dry herb vaping require completely different hardware, so it makes complete sense for a vape shop to carry both types.
For vape shop owners, carrying dry herb vaporizers isn’t just a matter of catering to the cannabis community. It’s also a way of blurring the lines between vape shops and traditional smoke shops and giving vape shops alternate sources of income that don’t depend on just one type of product. For almost as long as it has existed, the vaping industry has been in a constant state of flux from a regulatory standpoint. Vape shop owners don’t want to be put out of business by a sudden regulatory change, but most of the people in the vaping industry would never consider selling cigarettes as a backup option. Selling dry herb vaporizers, however, represents something of a happy medium because those devices can be used with loose-leaf tobacco. If the government ever regulates most e-liquid vaping products out of existence, many vape shops have a chance to remain in operation by promoting tobacco vaping as a smoke-free alternative that’s most likely immune from government overreach.