Are you a vaper? Chances are that whether or not you are interested in vaping yourself, you probably know someone who has made the transition from tobacco smoking to electronic cigarettes in the past few years. While many wrote it off as a fad when vaping first became mainstream around ten years ago, this has certainly been proven wrong over time, and now many people have adopted e-cigs over the more antisocial habit of smoking cigarettes.
Long term studies have not yet proven that vaping is completely harmless, however it is generally accepted to be a lot less dangerous to the user than smoking, and it doesn’t present the risks of secondhand smoke, as only water vapor is exhaled and there is no burning end. This has made it popular both as a smoking cessation aid, and a thing people do for pleasure even once they have weaned themselves off of nicotine and are using nicotine free e-liquids.
The Growth of Vape Related Businesses
As one might expect, the huge growth curve of vaping as a popular activity has meant that a lot of businesses have sprung up to cater to the market. Brands selling e-cig devices were the first to emerge, but now there are thousands of businesses in the vaping sector, including those who make accessories for vapers, such as cases and chargers, and even those who specialize in marketing for e-cig related companies, such as eventige.com. It is understandable, given that the vaping market is a regulated one, that businesses need to exist to support the businesses actually creating those products, to ensure they are compliant.
However, one of the biggest growth sectors in vaping in 2017 has been luxury e-liquids.
Consumable, And Open to Experimentation
One of the main reasons why e-liquids have been such a big business trend this year is that they are the part of the vaping culture that is consumable, meaning any user will need to keep replenishing their supply of them. Once someone owns a device, there is really no reason they’d buy another one any time soon, but they will need to stock up on liquids to use with it.
Equally, it is the area of the market where people try new things. E-liquids come in a wide range of flavors, and so the luxury end looks to create more and more enticing or interesting sounding options. They can also be sold in appealing gift sets, helping them appeal to the gift buying market.
Niches Within Niches
Another point is that now the vaping community is so large, there is demand for specialist products within the e-liquid sector. This demand means niche e-liquids, such as those that are certified vegan or kosher, or which are designed for people with certain allergies, or even to be pet friendly (to use around your pets, not for the pets to vape!), have been able to find an audience.
It will be interesting to see if the growth in e-liquid businesses has peaked, or will keep rising in 2018!