5 Mistakes We Avoided When We Opened up Discount Vape Pen
Finding the Wrong Retail Space
It’s important for a business to have a great location, but sometimes the most sought-after locations aren’t necessarily the best for vape shops. Many neighborhood vape shops flourish without being anywhere near an expensive mall, where you’ll typically find underage kids and annoyed parents.
The goal is to focus on making the most of a space you can afford, and choosing a location that provides convenience for customers in a decently populated area. A great option for a new business is to split office space with other businesses to test it out before signing a multi-year lease. You should also take a look to see what other vape businesses are in the area – although competition isn’t a bad thing, oversaturation of a certain market is.
Ignoring Sales Opportunities
You may have built your store under the idea you’d be selling to neighborhood locals, but that doesn’t mean you should be ignoring the area’s tourists and visitors.
You should immediately get your business listed on all available social platforms, including Yelp, Google Maps & Apple Maps. These platforms are easy to get listed on, and they also enable your business to get listed on other GPS mapping systems. If a certain customer is looking for a physical vape shop via these mapping programs, you could potentially lose a ton of sales by not opting for these mediums. If you’re listed on Yelp and Google Maps, encourage your happy customers to comment and rate your business to help the business rank higher on search.
Not Having a Website
All of the above isn’t even relevant if you don’t have a website. Even having a simple, minimally-priced website will make your business look more legitimate, but if you have some extra space in your budget, work with a web design team to build a website that people will remember. Tactics like this make your business look more official, and not like some shady shop on the corner.
Over-purchasing Inventory
The best strategy is to always have the latest and greatest e-juices and box mods, right? Nope. Lifespan of tech is notoriously short- don’t let yourself get tricked into hitting high minimum orders just so you can stock the next hot mod. Within the next 2-4 months, the latest box mod or juice will be released, leaving you with a large inventory of outdated models.
Not having Social Media
Social media is more than just a trend for kids. These days, if you don’t have social media, you’re not a legitimate business… or at least most customers believe that. In order to create a solid social media foundation, have descriptive profiles and provide good, high-res visuals. You should also make sure to interact with your users by liking other photos and commenting on other pages to spread your business’ awareness and overall reach.
With many retail vape shops are opening on every corner, some will be successful, and many will not. In order for any vape business to succeed, you’ll need to be willing to put in the time, research and effort to make the right decisions for you and your business. Focusing on proper retail space, inventory, budgeting and marketing will help build the right foundation for your vape business’ success.