Online vs. Local Vape Shops: What’s the Best Way to Buy Vape Gear?
By Space Coast Daily // May 21, 2020
The options that people have for buying vape gear have really changed over the past decade. Vaping began as a primarily online phenomenon. Companies imported e-cigarette kits and refill cartridges from overseas manufacturers and sold them through their websites, often recruiting bloggers as affiliates to help with getting the word out.
After a few years of continued growth, though, it became obvious that the vaping industry was here to stay and that it presented serious opportunities for entrepreneurs.
It wasn’t necessary to become an importer and start an e-cigarette brand to make money in the vaping industry; one could just as easily rent a local storefront and become a reseller of vaping products.
By the mid-to-late 2010s, practically every community with a large enough population had at least one local vape shop. Online vape shops like Premium Vape Australia, meanwhile, have larger selections than ever and operate with an incredibly high level of professionalism.
In short, when you shop for vape gear, you have a wide array of online and local vape shops ready and willing to sell to you. How do you choose between the two? Realistically, you’re likely to buy from both online and offline vape shops during your time as a vaper because both types of vape shops offer their own benefits.
This article, then, is mainly an intellectual exercise. What, exactly, are the benefits of buying from online vs. local vape shops? Let’s explore the question further.
Online Vape Shops Have the Best Selection
A brick-and-mortar store has limited shelf space, and many local vape shops are no bigger than studio apartments. A local vape shop can’t possibly hope to carry every vaping device and every e-liquid flavor on the market. Local vape shops have to devote their shelf space to the products that are most likely to sell.
Online vape shops like the Dollar E-Juice Club, on the other hand, store their inventory in warehouses
What’s more, online vape shops don’t have to clear out their unsold inventory to make room for hot new products. If an older product sits around in a warehouse for a while, that’s not a problem.
Given these factors, it’s unsurprising that you’ll always enjoy the best selection when you buy your vape gear online. If you enjoy unearthing the unusual when you shop for vape gear, shopping online is easily the best way to do that.
Local Vape Shops Give You Instant Gratification
A good online vape shop will always do its best to get orders packed and mailed right away, but there’s no getting around the fact that you’ll always have to wait a while for gratification when you buy online.
Online vape shops can’t compete with the experience of getting into your car, driving to a local vape shop and having a product in your hand as soon as you pay for it.
You will pay a premium price for the instant gratification, of course, but it’s still nice to be able to get your vape gear right now rather than in a few business days.
Although it’s obvious that buying your vape gear online is the best choice if you don’t want to overpay, it bears mentioning that a local vape shop can still play an important role for you in an emergency.
Have you run out of e-liquid unexpectedly? Did you just burn your last coil out? When you need something in a hurry, you’ll be glad to have a local vape shop.
Online Vape Shops Have the Best Prices
Local business owners have considerable expenses that online vape shops don’t have to worry about. Running a brick-and-mortar vape shop means that you have to rent a storefront, buy display cases, hire a staff, pay for utilities, buy a point-of-sale system and more – and all of those expenses are in addition to maintaining a product inventory.
Yes, the vaping industry is a potentially very profitable one – but when you consider all of those extra expenses, it should come as no surprise that many owners of local vape shops are not wealthy.
All it takes are a few investments into new products that end up not selling as well as expected, and a vape shop can potentially be in dire straits financially.
Online vape shops have expenses too, but those expenses are often trivial compared to those of a brick-and-mortar vape shop because not needing to maintain a storefront greatly reduces operating costs.
Another major difference between online and local vape shops is that a local vape shop usually needs to have staff members from the first day that the shop begins doing business.
Online vape shops often need employees as well – packing orders is a lot of work – but an online shop can wait until it actually has a significant volume of orders before hiring employees.
Local Vape Shops Keep Money in the Community
It’s important to remember that when you buy from an online vape shop, you aren’t just giving money to some faceless corporate entity.
Online vape shops are small businesses that support employees and their families, just like any other small business. However, there is a key difference between online and local vape shops in that buying from a local vape shop means that you’re keeping some of your money in your local community.
Does it help you to spend your money locally? It might if you own a local business yourself, because it may mean that your customers and potential customers have more money in their pockets.
Even if that’s not the case, though, local businesses pay city taxes that contribute to infrastructure repair and help to pay the salaries of firefighters, police officers and teachers.
So, in that sense, buying from a local vape shop does help to improve your day-to-day life. It’s good to spend some of your money at a local vape shop, even if you only do it once in a while.
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