The vape and e-cigarette market share stood at $28.17 billion in 2023 and is now expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 30% until 2030.
Now this clearly means stiff competition amongst eCommerce vaping brands—which is why we’ve put together a bunch of CRO techniques that can help your vape brand stand out.
How To Increase Sales In Your Online Vape Store 1. Highlight “new arrivals” to address shifting trends With many governments clamping down on disposable vapes, the vaping industry is undergoing a significant change.
And if your vape store isn’t keeping up with changes like vape kits that can accommodate displaced disposable vapers or users switching from single-use vapes, then conversions can dip.
One antidote for this is a “new arrivals” section you can furnish every few weeks on both the homepage and a dedicated category page —setting this section up to serve dynamic content is also a great idea. Make it even more effective with quantity discounts .
2. Highlight benefits of buying from you It’s a fact that you can’t run Google Shopping ads on vaping products—now that leaves you with just one thing:
To talk about the instant benefits of buying from you, so that shoppers stay back, browse and buy.
Check out how Smoke Cartel makes no bones about the three most important advantages they make available to their shoppers—this appears within the first two scrolls on the homepage :
Know what’s better still: show a comparison chart so that shoppers know where you’re trumping competition—exactly what Apple Juice Depot does through a “no clone zone” microcopy callout on the homepage that then leads to this separate page::
3. Simplify new product discovery If your shoppers find your vape store products easily, only your conversion rate won’t improve—research has proven that 89% of shoppers will spend more if they’re able to discover without customer support.
For the vape store shopper, nothing is more enticing than a range of trustworthy brands & products—what’s more, when you supplant the right keywords, your ranking improves as well.
Check out how neat Element Vape’s primary navigation is—each category is neatly divided into sub-types and brands as well as visual cues:
4. Show bestsellers with trust badges Bestsellers or in other words, the top 10% of your vaping products that generate 80% of your revenue .
One would think just showcasing them in prominent positions will cut it—except that with rising competition, your bestsellers need to draw a second layer of customer trust .
Here are a few trust label ideas you can explore:
✅ 500+ positive reviews (replace 500 with any number you deem fit)
✅ Child Resistant Certified
✅ Rated #1 by X (X = the name of an authoritative publication)
Vape Cove labels products that come with a “child resistant” certification:
5. Highlight the best offers in the first fold (and use a carousel) The first fold in your vaping store homepage is literally your best shot at the first 5 seconds of fame.
So, instead of restricting it to a single product or promoting a product category, show the best ongoing offer(s) here.
Here’s a look at what Eight Vape does—they use this space to highlight their BOGO deals through an image carousel :
6. Showcase brand authority It’s on you to prove that you’re a brand that exactly knows what it’s talking about.
Since vaping is both a science and art, good for you if you’re able to establish brand authority in subtle ways—consider the following:
✅ Use a notification bar to talk about the most recent certification you’ve earned (for example, a fully FDA-compliant vape shop)
✅ Showcase a trust badge to say how many vaporizers you’ve sold
✅ Feature “staff picks” that are recommendations by “vapor experts”—here’s how Vapor.com does it:
7. Differentiate your USP A great, differentiated USP is a win-win for your vape customers and your business.
The clearer you are about your unique selling proposition, the better you’ll be able to use the right content for product descriptions , image labels and call-outs across your store.
When a great USP reflects on your vape store site, high intent customers naturally find it easier to find you.
One eCommerce vape brand that’s going the whole distance to make their store stand out on the lines of a distinct USP is Black Note—they specialize primarily in tobacco flavored e-liquids:
8. Don’t wait to show social proof Whether it’s paid or organic traffic, the quicker you show relevant social proof , the faster you build customer trust.
Most vape stores spread the pieces of info across the store, but during our A/B tests we’ve seen, if you can showcase them together as short call-outs, they work the best.
Vaping store LiQuid offers a great example:
9. Use breezy video content to educate A short product page video on unpacking, features & specifications or even unique benefits of the given product, can improve your conversions.
The only caveat: position your product video well—here are a few locations we’ve found to work well:
✅ Right under the product name as linked microcopy (the link carrying the shopper to a Youtube video)
✅ Right under the first fold
✅ As an inclusion in the main gallery
Notice how Smoko features this video—the good thing is it’s just 5 seconds long and keeps auto-playing:
10. Create reasons for repeat visits 92% of shoppers who are first-time visitors won’t buy anything then and there.
And this is why it makes sense to optimize your vaping website to make them come back for more.
Here are a few ways to do this on your vape store:
✅ Announce a product launch on your homepage (and give exact time & date)
✅ Nudge shoppers towards email opt-ins through “the biggest limited edition product drop of the year”
✅ Attach the “back soon” label to some of your out-of-stock products (ensure you change the CTA to “notify me”)
✅ Reserve a “coming soon!” section on your website—check out how Ice Vapour makes it a part of their primary navigation leading to an independent page:
You might like reading: 28 No-BS Ways To Get More Email Subscribers in eCommerce
11. Create guides that help the customer journey Figure out the most common questions among your shoppers and answer them in one blog each—check out how wonderfully Vaping.com throws light on what 50/50 vape juice is and also recommends interesting in-store products:
Similarly, Vape Club has a whole page dedicated to guides and news—targeting both new vapers as well as those experienced enough to make more discerning buying decisions:
12. Leverage gamification for micro-conversions Gamified website experiences can amp up shopper visits by almost 106%.
In our working experience with 500+ global brands, we’ve noticed how small gamification tweaks even lead to higher form clicks, product page visits, video watches etc.
In the following example, notice how Vaporesso takes the attention of shoppers to 10 color variants of the same product. However, since the variants are not clickable, and they keep highlighting the sticky menu “buy” button above, most shoppers are likely to end up clicking on it:
You might like reading: 11 Brilliant Ways to Get More Micro-Conversions (For 2024)
13. Offer product recommendations across price points We’re sure you already know that your vape store’s target market can be quite varied .
Now when you’re trying to translate this into conversions, addressing this element is well worth it.
For example, if your best selling products constitute vaporizers mostly, you can make recommendations across price points—in the process targeting a larger audience who lands up on your store.
That’s exactly what the folks at Da Vinci Vaporizer do:
14. Highlight a free shipping threshold prominently 47% of shoppers would add more to an order just to receive free shipping .
And that’s a benefit you have to leverage on your vape store.
Our suggestion: Don’t hide it away within your product pages—bring it up in terms of content hierarchy so that shoppers don’t have to wait to discover this info.
Here’s an example from Vaporfi—they use their notification bar to feature their free shipping threshold:
15. Offer low-priced upsells Up to 30% of eCommerce revenue can come from upsells.
But the thing is, your vaping upsells need to make sense to the shopper.
If they’re almost as expensive as the main product, shoppers will probably view it as an expensive purchase.
Instead do what Planet of the Vapes does intelligently—they suggest complementary products as upsells, which are also way cheaper:
You might like reading: How to Increase AOV on Shopify: 27 Upselling Ideas
16. Offer discount-led push notifications After all, push notifications can take your average click-through rate to almost 30%.
A part of why they’re attractive for shoppers is because they don’t have to spend time on a form field, filling in their email.
And a great message to anchor the shopper increases the latter’s chances of clicking “allow”—check out how Element Vape creates a sense of promise by hinting at future discounts:
17. Highlight membership rewards 60% of shoppers admit that their experiences with a brand they’re a signed member on, are way better because it’s not just transactional.
And this is the mindset change that you can bring about in your vape store by highlighting loyalty rewards.
Be clear about how shoppers can earn, how many points they’ll win extra on every purchase and what additional benefits they can enjoy—vape brand Black Lava Vape calls out all the member benefits like this:
18. Stock up on a “daily deal” site It’s great that you have your own vape store, but also consider featuring your products under a brand that aggregates products from creator brands.
Collaborating with vape deal sites can especially be helpful in bringing about conversions.
Vape Deal is a brand like that—check out how their homepage actually mimics a product page and catches attention with “featured deal of the week”:
19. Showcase coupons on popular sites Another way to get organic conversions on your vaping store is to actually feature chosen products on authority sites, along with coupons.
In the following example, Vaping 360 features a Mi-Pod product and offers an exclusive Vaping 360 discount:
20. Feature freebies to create more conversions Many eCommerce stores feel the chills when freebies are the topic of discussion.
But when it comes to vape stores, how well you feature them will decide:
- The average order value
- The customer lifetime value
- The sense of loyalty you’re able to cultivate
After all, “free” gets many shoppers to act because they instantly perceive a value-add quality in the purchase.
Without denting how you make profits, consider offering freebies only when:
✅ The purchase is over a certain amount
✅ The gift in question will lure them back to the store
Check out how Planet of the Vapes gets it right—their freebies include a gift card to enable re-purchases and a small container for herb stashing:
21. Change the pop-up game Shoppers have had enough of the “15% off on your next purchase” exit intent pop-up —and it’s not a single store’s fault—since almost everyone’s doing it, shoppers are jaded.
Instead, feature a message that’ll make potential customers shake off the scrolling fatigue and take note—exactly what Pod Vapes does with their limited time email opt-in, even *qualifying* the urgency:
22. Make your live chat stand out What makes a case for a great chat function on your vaping site is that you’re likely to have a vastly varied target audience:
More men than women are vapers.
About 65% of the total vaping population are ex-smokers.
Millennials prefer vaping because they prefer CBD.
So, our point is: make your live chat be super prominent for all of these different segments to find a good reason to stick around—check out the friendly live chat service Vape Superstore offers:
In terms of UX design prominence though, do what Geek Vape does—the button stands out in a bold orange:
23. Get the best review sites to write Take your “authority” in the vape space up by a few notches by collecting reviews from some established magazines and newsletters.
This can be a highly effective way to get organic traffic conversions from people who visit those publications and find social proof to then visit your store.
As an example, we found this piece that covers a great vaping product by Element Vape—why it works is because Vaping 360 is considered a reliable and trustworthy source of information.
It covers a number of areas that potential shoppers would find relevant including product intro & specs, battery life & charging as well as how to get started among others:
24. Offer expert insights on popular platforms Since the vaping market is booming, there’s just too much information out there that shoppers may not readily trust.
However, that’s not the case with popular platforms like Reddit where shoppers and brands alike descend to talk about challenges, flavors, concentrates as well as advice on popular and not-so-popular products.
Find the right thread to join in, share reflections and even suggest products from your store:
Recommended reading: 15 Ways Online Jewelry Stores Can Boost Conversions
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20 Reasons Your Pet Supplies Store Has Low Conversions (60+ Ways To Fix)
153 A/B Testing Ideas for eCommerce (Homepage, PDP, Cart, Checkout)
Don't let your vape store UX go up in smoke... 98% of visitors who visit an eCommerce site—drop off without buying anything.
Even on vape stores that have the most amazing products.
Why: user experience issues that cause friction for visitors.
And this is the problem Convertcart solves.
We've helped 500+ eCommerce stores (in the US) improve user experience—and 2X their conversions.
How we can help you:
Our conversion experts can audit your site —identify UX issues, and suggest changes to improve conversions.
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