New Business Venture

LightningVapor

Hi !

I'm thinking of starting a new business selling eliquids.
I know this has been done to death but! a bit different.

Most of the irish stores all seem to sell the same Dekang, Joyetech liquids etc..

What I'm thinking of doing is importing and selling Premium E-Liquid's from Halo, Virgin Vapor,Fuzion Vapor,Mt Baker Vapor, Viper Vape and so on.

For instance last week I attempted to ordered unicorn blood from Shane at Fuzion Vapor and they didn't even ship to Ireland, I had to get it sent to parcel motel and that including shipping from the US it was very expensive.

If you would be interested in this please tell me, I know I can't be the only one...

Thanks
Ronan

For the moderators I am in no way advertising or self promoting, I'm simply trying to find out if this would be a viable business.

grindle

vaporium.eu and e-smokeireland.eu have the lion's share of premium liquids at the moment, VapourPal and BargainVapour sell DKS as well.
More options are always good, I'd say go for it.
The Vapor Chef is another to try.

StickyIcky

In my opinion there's far more than enough e-liquids I could buy than I ever would already online in Ireland.

The biggest problem from a users point of view is the gamble one takes when purchasing e-liquids over the internet without ever having tasted them before.

I'd really only be excited at this point in time if someone said "we are opening a shop pretty much in Dublin City Centre where you can come down and taste test our juices".

Until that happens it's just going to be another online store you're buying blind from gambling your money that you'll like the juice... or not.

LightningVapor

Thanks for the input guys !

I totally understand your point StickyIcky, I have looked into opening a store in the City Centre but from my point of view until Vaping gains more in popularity i don't think it's viable. With the rent and the rates of the city centre it's very expensive.

As for the saturation of online stores here selling e-liquid and taking a gamble that's the reason I would only stock premium and highly rated/recommended liquids.

Take "IndoorSmokers" for example I can't find any vendors in Ireland that stock any of the liquids he recommends except Halo.

platinums

Best of luck. Consumers win in the advent of new shops. More competition drives down prices typically. Well unless they are all in cahoots and fix pricing...

Having said that there are a lot of shop, but not a lot of quality shops.

I agree with sticky, if you could take the gamble out of buyin juice, ie massive taster packs. im talking 50 juices wiht just enough to get a cart full a couple times would be awesome. Its a lot of logistics so thats probably why it hasnt been done.

Bargain vapour were doing 5ml juices but i got a few and was put off because it was all low grade dekang.


Anyways good luck.

Pique

I'd even say 2.5ml testers would be better. Enough to fill a clearos and get a day or so out of it.

10 for €20 from a range of 50 would definitely be appealing.

Hal1

We can be you're testers . I would suggest offering low nice juices too. Anywhere I've bought from sells the usually 24/18/12/0 mg. I might want to reduce my nic intake from 12mg to 6mg. I don't have that option at the moment. I've been buying Irish and want to continue to do so. Thanks.

Finglas Incubus

You don't specify if you plan to self fund the business but if you intend getting finance than you'll need a solid business plan that sets out your upfront and ongoing costs, expected revenues, market growth and so on.

If it were me, I'd first try to determine the potential size of the market. You also have to factor in potential threats - online is one of the most significant. For that reason, it may make sense to setup an online shop shop in conjunction with a bricks and motor operation.

Retail is tough right now and the market for good quality liquid is limited (but may well grow if demand is there - but you can also create demand). Limiting your product portfolio to liquids could stifle your revenues, I think you would seriously need to sell associated paraphernalia to sufficiently diversify your offering and further drive sales of liquids.

If I sample liquid at your shop and I like it, I'm more likely to order it online if I'm not based in the generally vicinity of the retail outlet. I might also choose to buy the same liquid from your competitors if its cheaper to do so, for that reason, there has to be a compelling reason for me to buy from you rather than someone else - cost will be the main factor to consider. You need to get your margins right in order to 1. make money and 2. attract and maintain customers.

The viability of the business can only be determined by analysing the figures and doing your homework. After that, a properly executed business plan based on sound research will see you through. Good luck with whatever approach you decide to take.

platinums

As a retailer i would say:
The custom juice makers for the reasons above don't put the exact flavor of strawberry or lemon (eg Perfumers apprentice "Fresh Strawberry", Dekang "lemon" ) in their custom made juice so this really stops you going elsewhere.

Keep the same price for online as in shop that way you wont lose out. A

But as a consumer: online prices should be cheaper than in shop, but you can probably get away with keeping the price the same as you are first and foremost a B&M outlet.

its a pain in the a$$ when a shop stops selling a particular juice of changes the ingredients, as you dont know what was in it and cant buy the exact flavour anywhere else.

eeloe

Online, maybe...

B&M, if it's high end juice only, you'll be hard pushed to keep it afloat selling just juice, if your opening an 'e-cig' shop you're gonna have people coming in all day looking to get started, and not all new vapers wanna splash out on expensive juice right away!