If you own a vape shop, you know that carrying a selection of vaporizers is absolutely essential. Products like dab pens, 510-thread batteries and dry herb vaporizers are just as widespread and popular as e-liquid vaping devices – and since the customer bases for e-liquid devices and herbal vaporizers only partially overlap, carrying both types of vapes can expose your vape shop to a much larger potential customer base.
Carrying vaporizers in your vape shop, however, isn’t just a matter of choosing the right products to offer – it’s just as crucial that you get your products from the right distributor. A good wholesaler can help your vape business reach its maximum potential for profitability because it has the products your customers want when they want them. Just as importantly, a good wholesaler will also have a generous price structure that leaves plenty of room for you to earn a profit. Another thing you might not realize is that the right distributor can also potentially open up new opportunities and sources of revenue for the future.
If you feel as though your vape business isn’t reaching its full potential, choosing a better distributor can help you turn things around.
Here’s why.
A Good Distributor Has the Products Your Customers Want
The product selection is probably the most important quality of any vape wholesaler. It’s even more important than the price structure because getting your products at amazingly low wholesale prices doesn’t matter if none of your customers actually want to buy those products. These are the three qualities that you should always see when you look at the products offered by a vape wholesaler.
- You should see a good variety of vapes such as vape pens, dab pens, 510-thread batteries, dry herb vapes, empty cartridges and more. Ideally, you want to find everything that you want to carry in the herbal vaping category in one place.
- You should see brand names that you recognize. If you’re not familiar with the brands in the herbal vaping industry, read some reviews from consumers before choosing a brand. If you carry vaporizers from a company that has a good reputation, it’ll reflect positively on your vape shop in your customers’ eyes.
- You should see a product selection that’s constantly growing and evolving. A good wholesaler anticipates consumers’ future demands, so you can focus on running your shop instead of reading about product trends.
A Good Distributor Offers an Attractive Price Structure
A vape distributor’s product selection is crucial, but having the world’s most popular vaporizers and cartridges won’t help your vape shop if the distributor’s prices are so high that you can’t earn a profit. A wholesaler’s prices need to be low enough that you can resell the products at prices your customers are willing to pay and earn money in the process.
When you evaluate a wholesaler’s price structure, remember that you shouldn’t just look at the base prices. You also need to know if it’s possible for you to get even better prices by ordering products in higher volumes. Many vape distributors offer tiered pricing that allows you to get lower prices by ordering more products – and if a wholesaler that you’d like to buy from doesn’t advertise a tiered pricing structure, don’t be afraid to ask. A distributor can often be very flexible with pricing if there’s a possibility of landing a large customer.
A Good Distributor Can Fulfill Your Orders Immediately
One of the first things you’ll learn as a vape shop owner is that consumers don’t have a great deal of loyalty in the vaping industry. If customers can’t find a particular product in your shop, they won’t wait for you to get it in stock – they’ll just buy it elsewhere. If you don’t have a product available to sell when your customers want to buy it, you’ll definitely miss out on sales.
With that fact in mind, it’s crucial to choose a vape distributor that consistently has the majority of its products in stock and ready to ship immediately. It’s greatly beneficial for your inventory management if you know that you can always order products and expect them to be shipped within a day or two.
Finding a distributor with reliable stock is important, but it’s perhaps just as valuable to buy from a wholesaler that doesn’t ship its products from an overseas warehouse. Many of the world’s vaping products are produced in China, so it’s tempting to order vape gear from Chinese wholesalers because the prices are often quite attractive. There are three problems, however, with sourcing wholesale vaporizers from an overseas distributor.
- Overseas distributors will often ship products by boat, which means that those products may potentially take weeks to arrive.
- Ordering vaping products from overseas shippers always carries a risk of customs delays or seizures.
- When you order vape gear from an overseas shipper, it can be difficult to know for certain that you’re going to receive authentic products. Fake vapes are extremely common, and it’ll reflect poorly on your business if you sell products that turn out to be counterfeit.
A Good Distributor Can Offer Business Opportunities for the Future
The last thing to consider before you choose a vaporizer distributor for your vape business is that a truly great wholesaler doesn’t just provide products to put on your shelves – it can also help you unlock new revenue streams and business opportunities for the future.
This wholesaler, for example, has an extensive white-label program. They can customize many different aspects of their products, making it possible for you to essentially build your own vaporizer brand from scratch without the prohibitive development costs. You can order vaporizers with your own custom colors and logo. The devices will show up at your door in retail-ready packaging, and you can begin selling them immediately.
Although launching your own vaporizer brand may not be something that you’re seriously considering at this time, it’s worth keeping this idea in the back of your mind for the future because it’s important to always remain on the lookout for new growth opportunities.
