With so many smoke shops out there, what can you do to make yours stand out?
Like any successful retailer, the first step is defining your niche. Next is offering unique products and services — and hosting events is a great way to bring those unique offerings to a wider audience.
Smoke shop events are a great tool for connecting with customers, driving sales, and building your brand — but coming up with great smoke shop event ideas can be tough.
We’re here to help. Here are some of our top ideas for smoke shop events, along with some tips and tricks to ensure they’re a success.
Hosting an event is, for all intents and purposes, an advertisement for your shop. Because of that, any event you host must follow the FDA’s tobacco advertising and promotion rules.
Here are the key points:
Read through yourself, and ensure you take note of any local rules and regulations. With a firm understanding of the rules, you can come up with smoke shop event ideas that are both successful and fully compliant with the law.
Hosting events is a great way to drum up interest in your shop and build an identity around your brand. However, when you think about smoke shop event ideas, don’t take a scattershot or generic approach.
Instead, craft a winning event idea by thinking about:
Don’t forget to leverage the reports on your point of sale (POS) system system to gain insights into your customers’ preferences.
Here are five smoke shop event ideas to get your juices flowing.
Once you identify your top-selling items, drive repeat business by hosting events for new product releases in those categories. For example, if vapes are popular in your shop, host an event to showcase new flavors and pens.
Remember, you aren’t allowed to give away free tobacco samples, but you can use your POS system to create a custom sample set and sell it at a steep discount.
Another tip: any store event is also a social event. When customers show up for product launches or tastings, they won’t just be looking to try new products but to learn more and network with other tobacco enthusiasts. Keep your staff up to date on the latest products and ready to make recommendations.
Offering limited discounts is a no-brainer. Think of Black Friday, holiday, clearance sales, and all of the other discounts offered in the retail industry. Discounts are an effective tool in retail to drive repeat business and to upsell customers, so your smoke shop should use them, too.
Use your POS system to find which holidays and seasons are your busiest and create unique promotions to support them. Set up displays and custom product bundles that fit the season. For example, you could sell a sleek black vape pen and fall flavors around Halloween or offer customizable gift packs at Christmas.
You could also have repeating discount days for certain types of products. For example, you could offer buy one, get one (BOGO) at a certain time every Monday or in-store discounts on the last Friday of the month. Set these days based on your business goals.
Are you trying to increase sales on a day that’s usually slow? Or maybe you want to increase sales volume during your peak hours? No matter what, don’t choose days at random.
Pro tip: Discounts are not only great for driving repeat business but are also effective for highlighting and selling slow-moving inventory.
Many people are interested in learning more about cigars, vape pens, rolling papers, and other products, but don’t know where to start. As a smoke shop owner, this gives you a chance to share your expertise while connecting directly with customers and encouraging sales.
Host educational events that teach people the basics of different topics like selecting tobacco for pipes, how to select and use different rolling papers, or even how to do vaping tricks. Whatever topics you’re passionate about are potential topics for events.
Make sure that any educational event features certain products and that those products are ready to buy (even at a discount) after the event is over. People are more likely to purchase a product when they’re confident in how to use it.
Many people love to socialize and have a smoke, but with rules and regulations around smoking in public places, there are fewer opportunities to do so. Hosting a cookout, music, or comedy event can be a great way to bring your customers together while enjoying some entertainment.
The types of social events you can host will depend on the size of your shop and your city’s zoning rules. If you are hosting an event indoors, make sure you have adequate ventilation.
You could hold a raffle and giveaway products for the price of admission. When people are having a good time, they might be more willing to buy, so make sure your store layout entices customers to invest.
Related Read: Mastering Modern Smoke Shop Design: 5 Creative Ideas
If you haven’t already set up a customer loyalty program in your smoke shop, you’re missing out. Customer loyalty programs are a highly effective method for small businesses to drive repeat business.
With a database of your customers, you can look at historical data to understand their preferences and tailor your advertising accordingly.
A membership program can also provide easy promotional event opportunities. Offer exclusive discounts and product launch invitations for your customer loyalty members. A modern POS system lets you customize membership programs that fit your business and reach out to customers with promotional deals.
This idea can be especially appealing for high-end smoke shops like cigar lounges. A members-only cigar lounge creates a sense of exclusivity and gives you a chance to sell more high-end goods.
Even the best smoke shop event ideas aren’t guaranteed to be successful if they’re not well executed. When planning your store’s events, keep the following tips in mind:
As an independent smoke shop owner, use all of the tools and tricks at your disposal to make your events a success and increase your profits.
There are a lot of great smoke shop event ideas out there — so where will you start?
Remember, when planning an event, make sure you:
Cigars POS, designed specifically for smoke shops, gives you everything you need to plan and run successful events and promotions.
Contact us today to find out how you can use your POS system to drive more customers to your business.