Starting a vape shop has the potential to be one of the best small businesses opportunities in 2026. The United Kingdom now has more vapers than smokers, with more people making the switch all the time. Selling vapes can be very profitable, and vapers are a uniquely happy and satisfied customer base because they feel good about their decision to make the switch. It’s a win for everyone.
As great of an opportunity as the vaping industry is, though, you have to go in with a solid business plan and can’t assume that you’ll be profitable right out of the gate. Starting a vape shop is expensive, and the industry is loaded with hidden expenses that you might not be aware of if you haven’t done your homework.
What do you need to know before you get started? Look out for these unexpected expenses that you’ll encounter if you start a vape shop.
Inventory Costs
You’re already aware of the fact that you need to have inventory in order to sell vape gear. If you don’t know vaping intimately, though, you’re probably unprepared for the sheer volume of goods that you’ll need to have if you want customers to even give you the time of day.
Vaping is very much a long-tail industry in which no brand really dominates. People have their own preferences for devices, flavours and nicotine strengths. If you don’t have what they want, they’ll go elsewhere and won’t come back.
On top of that, product preferences can change rapidly when a new brand, model or type of product catches on with the public. You need to avoid saddling your business with unsold inventory that no one wants because it’s last year’s model. That requires very careful balancing.
If you want customers to consider your vape shop well stocked, you’ll need to have:
- Convenient vaping products like pre-filled pod systems and “big puff” vapes in as many brands and flavours as possible.
- A range of refillable vapes, including simpler devices for new vapers and higher-end mods for people with more experience.
- Replacement parts such as pods and coils for all of the devices that you carry.
- Bottled e-liquid from as many brands – and in as many flavours and nicotine strengths – as possible.
Payment Processing Fees
If you want to run a vape shop, you’ll need a way to accept payments. Cash transactions are increasingly rare these days, which means that customers will use credit and debit cards to pay for the vast majority of their purchases. In order to process those transactions, you’ll need a merchant account – and that’s where you’ll run into the next unexpected expense.
Payment processors typically require vape shops to open “high-risk” merchant accounts. That’s because, compared to transactions in other industries, vaping-related purchases tend to have a higher likelihood of fraud and chargebacks. Having a high-risk account means that you’ll pay higher transaction fees. It may also mean that you’ll have to pay a monthly fee to the payment processor and that the processor will hold a portion of your revenue in reserve to cover chargebacks. You’ll need to incorporate those things into your pricing strategy to ensure that you can remain profitable.
SEO and Marketing Services
Whether you’re planning to open a brick-and-mortar vape shop or an online shop like Vaporia, you’re going to need help with marketing. That’s partially because you’re going to be busy running your business and partially because there are strict limitations on how vape businesses can market themselves. You need to work with someone who understands compliance.
- If you’re running an online vape shop, you can’t use keyword bidding or promoted social media content to bring traffic to your site and will need to rely on organic search engine traffic instead. Ranking well on search engines requires search engine optimisation (SEO).
- If you’re running a brick-and-mortar vape shop, SEO is still important because most people go online to search for local businesses. Unless you’re lucky enough to live in a town without an existing vape shop, you’ll need to give people a compelling reason to visit you instead of going to their usual store.
Employee Wages
If you’re an experienced businessperson, you already know that it’s virtually impossible to run any kind of store without employees. Even if you’re running an online vape shop and intend to pack and ship orders yourself in the beginning, that’s going to become more and more difficult as your sales grow.
Trustworthy cashiers and efficient order packers aren’t easy to find, and it’s always worthwhile to pay them a fair wage. One thing that you might not have considered, though, is how valuable it can be to hire people who vape and actually know the products.
- If you’re running a brick-and-mortar vape shop, employees who vape will be more effective salespeople because they can make better product recommendations and answer customers’ questions.
- If you’re running an online vape shop, people who know the products will pack orders more efficiently and are less likely to make mistakes.
People who know what they’re doing can command higher wages, which can be an unexpected expense if you were hoping to hire people on the lower end of the salary spectrum. It’ll probably be worth it for you, however, in the long run.
Packaging and Shipping Fees
One of the good things about running an online vape shop is that you can avoid a costly storefront lease and operate out of a less expensive warehouse instead. The bad news, though, is that the costs for packaging materials and postage might be higher than you’re expecting. Royal Mail 1st Class parcels start at £4.40 at the time of writing, and the price goes up quickly depending on weight and whether other services are added.
On top of the postage, you’ll also have to pay for the packaging materials. You don’t want to be cheap here because refunds due to broken items will negate any money that you might have saved by using less expensive materials.
When you sell vape gear online, you need to have a solid pricing strategy because you’ll be competing with every other online vape shop in your region. Order fulfilment can cut significantly into your profits, so you’ll need to factor that into your pricing if you don’t want to lose money.
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