As Cities Begin Reopening After COVID-19 Lockdowns, What Does the Future Hold for Vape Shops?

For vape shops around the country, the outlook has been tenuous at best for the past couple of months. As cities everywhere entered lockdown to slow the spread of COVID-19, vape shops in most districts were deemed “non-essential” and were forced to remain closed.

Even in areas where vape shops were allowed to remain open, many shops suffered because people were reluctant to go out for things like e liquid that could just as easily be ordered online.

Vape shops still suffer from that problem today, but as cities begin to ease their lockdowns, people are beginning to get out a little more. So, what is the way forward for vape shops? How can you start to pick up the pieces and get back to something resembling business as usual? This article will offer some practical advice to help vape shops survive and thrive in the COVID-19 era.

Be Ready to Find New Wholesale Sources

One of the first things that you may need to do upon reopening for business is seek out new sources of wholesale products. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused supply chain issues for vaping hardware as well as e-liquid. Vaping hardware products such as devices, coils and pods are sometimes in short supply because the flow of goods from China still isn’t as consistent as it was before the pandemic. E-liquid, meanwhile, has sometimes been hard to find consistently because the manufacturers haven’t been able to keep up with the influx of orders.

With spotty supply shipments coming from the original manufacturers, many wholesalers are having trouble keeping items in stock. Some wholesalers that also sell products on a retail basis have suspended the wholesale sides of their operations entirely. In short, you will probably need to expand your network of wholesale suppliers to maintain stock of the products your customers want.

Make Your Customers Feel Safe

As your city reopens and people begin to get out and about again, one of the most important things for you to do is ensure that people feel safe in your vape shop. Most health authorities recommend that all store employees wear face coverings, and you should require your customers to do the same. Limit the number of customers allowed in your shop simultaneously to maintain proper social distancing. Sanitize all surfaces in the store regularly throughout the day and disinfect the keypad on your point-of-sale system after each transaction. It would also be wise to discontinue all in-store vaping for the time being.

Don’t forget to post a notice in the store detailing what you expect from your customers and what you’re doing to ensure their safety.

Be Mindful About Product Recommendations

Keeping in mind that some vaping products are a little difficult to find right now, you should be careful about the products that you recommend to customers looking for new vaping devices or tanks. The last thing that you want is to make a customer unhappy later when you don’t have the required coils or pods for a product that you just sold. If you know that you can’t get the required accessories for a particular product consistently, you should tell prospective buyers that and steer them toward other products.

Offer Curbside Pickup if Possible

If there are no laws in your area forbidding vape shops from doing it, you should strongly consider offering a curbside pickup service for customers who would rather remain in their cars. Curbside pickup isn’t just helpful for customers who want to minimize the number of stores they enter; it’s also helpful for your vape shop because social distancing requirements will severely limit the number of customers who can be in your store simultaneously.

You can take orders for curbside pickup over the phone or online and check customers’ ID when they arrive to pay for their merchandise. There’s a good chance that your point-of-sale system is running on a tablet anyway, and in that case, taking payments outside the shop is really no extra trouble.

Start Selling Vape Gear Online

If you haven’t already added an online sales component to your website, now would be an excellent time to do so. The fact that some cities have begun to reopen doesn’t necessarily mean that all of your customers are going to feel comfortable resuming their normal daily activities just yet. That’s particularly true when it comes to buying vape gear because there’s no vaping product that can’t be purchased just as easily online as at a local vape shop.

If you add e-commerce functionality to your website, though, you’ll have an advantage that other online vape shops lack: close proximity to your customers. The fact that you can offer lightning-fast shipping to customers in your local area will be a strong selling point if you can get the word out.

Find New Revenue Channels as Soon as Possible

As you may already know, much of the U.S. vaping industry is operating on borrowed time right now. This year, all manufacturers of vaping products are required to submit premarket applications for their products to the FDA in order to continue selling those products. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the FDA to move the application deadline from May to September, so for a few more months, you can continue selling all of the products that you’re selling now.

In September, every vaping product that doesn’t have an associated premarket application on file with the FDA will become illegal to sell. Many major vape juice companies have indicated that they are prepared to file applications for some or all of their products, but no one can say today exactly what the American vaping industry will look like in September.

The only way to ensure the future stability of your vape shop is by looking for additional revenue sources right now. Depending on your customer base and position within your market, some of the things that might be worthwhile to add to your product selection include CBD, glassware and dry herb vaporizers. By September, you want to make sure that you’re no longer dependent on e-liquid as your primary source of revenue.