An estimated 80 percent of cigarette smokers only smoke one brand. Other tobacco enthusiasts are no less picky. If you want to open and operate a successful smoke shop, you need the right products and brands on your shelves.
But with hundreds of smoking products available today, how do you choose? It’s tough when you’re first starting to figure out the must-have items that will appeal to vapers, roll-your-own fans, cigar connoisseurs, and classic cigarette smokers. Get the mix wrong, and your inventory goes stale as customers look elsewhere.
This post walks through 23 items to consider for your smoke shop product list, giving you the tools you need to build the perfect mix for your store.
Building a Smoke Shop Product List
With the increasing popularity of vaping and other developments and trends in the tobacco and smoke market, running a smoke shop can be a profitable business. However, if you want your store to succeed, you need to craft the perfect product mix for your target audience. How can you get started building your smoke shop product list?
The first step in building your smoke shop’s offerings is market research. Examine consumer demographics and preferences in your area to identify target customer profiles. Get a sense of what draws certain groups to smoke shops, including crucial products they purchase. This information helps you select in-demand inventory suited to local interests immediately.
Related Read: 4 Helpful Tips for Better Tobacco Shop Inventory Management
You should also analyze competitors' smoke shops' product lists and specialties. What products is everyone else in the area carrying? What items are missing from their shelves?
Determining what gaps exist or where you can offer unique, harder-to-find items can attract customers. Carrying specialty pipes, imported cigars, or unique vape juice flavors may win you a niche.
Just as crucial as initial product selection is continuously monitoring sales patterns once open. Your point of sale(POS) and inventory management software will be your greatest ally in these efforts. Analyze bestselling items, peak purchase times, and customer requests to spot opportunities. Remember that seasonality may also impact your inventory needs, so review your point of sale data over time and adjust accordingly.
Regularly adjusting your smoke shop’s product list based on real data keeps your store and your stock relevant. Catering to new trends and emerging customer demand is critical for making your store the hottest smoke shop in town. With this in mind, let’s examine a few product categories you might consider stocking in your store.
1. Cigarettes and Tobacco Products
Cigarettes are perhaps the most obvious offering for any smoke shop. Research demand in your area to ensure you stock all the major brands your customer base will expect. You should also consider stocking menthol, lights, and regional cigarette brands.
Related Read: Smoke Shop Profit Margin: 5 Ways To Maximize Profits
But don’t stop at cigarettes! Consider stocking products like cigars to cater to a different clientele — stock premium cigars and inexpensive options to provide options to your customers based on their budget. You should also consider a variety of sizes and flavors, like robusto, toro, or hand-rolled cigars, to appeal to the aficionados in your target market.
You may also consider stocking an assortment of loose pipe tobacco in pouch and tin packaging to provide options for pipe smokers. Finally, carry all necessary rolling paper styles, sizes, and accessories like rolling machines and filters to supply self-rollers.
List:
- Cigarettes: Various brands and types of cigarettes, including menthol, light, and regular
- Cigars: Different sizes and flavors of cigars
- Pipe Tobacco: Assorted blends and flavors of loose pipe tobacco for pipe smokers
- Rolling Papers and Accessories: Different sizes and materials of rolling papers, filters, and rolling machines for customers who prefer to roll their cigarettes
2. Smoking Accessories
Smoking accessories can enhance or simplify your customers’ smoking experience. Offering these accessories in your store can bring new customers in the door and win loyal customers looking for the latest accessories.
Carry butane torch and liquid fuel styles of lighters from major brands like Bic and Zippo. You should also sell matches, as many smokers — especially cigar smokers — prefer this classic lighting option.
Related Read: Mastering Smoke Shop Inventory Management: 4 Top Tips
You may also consider carrying ashtrays in your store. Stock metal, glass, and ceramic ashtrays to cater to different personal décor tastes. You will also want to ensure you stock cleaners, pipe stands, tampers, and filters to keep the pipe smokers in your audience happy.
Depending on your store’s size and market, you may also consider stocking humidors. You can carry large, stand-up humidors or smaller desktop varieties to give the cigar smokers in your market a variety of options.
List:
- Lighters and Matches: Various lighters and matches, including disposable lighters, refillable lighters, and novelty designs
- Ashtrays: Different shapes and materials of ashtrays, such as glass, ceramic, or metal
- Pipe Accessories: Pipe cleaners, pipe tools, filters, and pipe stands
- Humidors: Carry various shapes and sizes of containers designed to preserve the freshness of cigars
3. Vaping and E-Cigarette Supplies
Vaping and e-cigarettes have taken the smoke shop market by storm in recent years. Consider carrying these products to attract a more modern smoking audience to your store.
Some of the most essential vaping products are vape pen starter kits and basic e-cigarettes. You can also carry advanced personal vaporizer mods matched with popular e-liquid flavors and nicotine concentrations.
Related Read: Average Vape Shop Profit Margins: How Much Do Vape Shops Make?
If you have many vape enthusiasts in your target market, you may also want to carry coil options, chargers, cases, and upgrades to allow customers to customize their vapes. You’ll also want to stock well-known vape battery brands like SMOK. Having beginner-friendly vape pen systems and advanced mods helps your store cater to all e-cigarette enthusiasts.
List:
- Vape Pens and Mods: Different styles and models of vape pens and mods
- E-Liquids or Vape Juices: Various flavors and nicotine strengths of e-liquids
- Coils and Atomizers: Replacement coils, atomizers, and accessories for maintaining and customizing vaping devices
- Batteries and Chargers: Batteries, chargers, and other vaping accessories
4. Pipes and Accessories
Another category you might consider for your smoke shop product list is pipes, pipe tobacco, and pipe accessories. Let’s start with the pipes themselves. Stock a variety of pipes, including glass and wooden pipes, to cater to a variety of smokers.
Carry basic spoon pipe shapes as well as hammer, chillum, steamroller, or sherlock pipe designs. One bonus of carrying a variety of pipe designs is that you can easily craft an attractive window or shop display showing off your pipe design options.
In addition to the pipes themselves, you’ll want to consider pipe accessories. Carry replacement screens, filters, and cleaning kits for pipe maintenance to keep the pipe smokers in your customer base happy.
List:
- Glass Pipes: Various styles of glass pipes, including spoon pipes, chillums, and bubblers
- Wooden Pipes: Different wooden pipes, such as briar, cherry, or rosewood pipes
- Pipe Screens and Filters: Carry different materials and sizes of screens and filters
- Pipe Cleaning Tools: Consider pipe cleaners, reamers, and brushes for cleaning and maintaining pipes
5. Hookah Supplies
Another category you may want to consider for your store is hookah supplies. Hookah smoking has grown in popularity over the past few decades, and offering supplies for these smokers in your store can help you reach a new audience.
Consider carrying traditional Middle Eastern hookah styles, along with modern designs to cater to various hookah smokers. Carry reputable imported shisha tobacco blends in flavors like mint, fruit, and candy.
You’ll also want to carry hookah charcoal. Carry both chemical, quick-lighting charcoal and natural coconut coal. Finally, ensure your store has essential hookah accessories like foil, brushes, hoses, and tips.
List:
- Hookahs: Different sizes, styles, and materials of hookahs
- Hookah Tobacco (Shisha): Various flavors and brands of hookah tobacco
- Hookah Charcoal: Natural and quick-lighting charcoal
- Hookah Accessories: Foils, tongs, hoses, and mouthpieces
6. “High-Risk” Supplies
Finally, you may consider carrying supplies considered “high-risk” in your smoke shop. Note that some of the products listed in this section have legal complications in some states and localities, so review your local laws and restrictions before carrying any of these products.
The first product you might consider is kratom. Kratom is a product made from the leaves of the kratom tree. This product has effects similar to both opioids and stimulants, but is not regulated in many markets.
Next, you might consider stocking delta-8. This product is a tetrahydrocannabinol, meaning it’s a product derived from the cannabis plant. Though it’s structurally similar to the THC heavily regulated as marijuana, it is technically in a gray area between CBD and THC, making it a viable product for some stores in markets where cannabis cannot be sold.
Finally, you can stock paraphernalia in your store. Items like bongs, pipes, vaporizers, and certain types of rolling papers commonly associated with marijuana smokers might be a viable option for your store.
List:
- Kratom
- Delta-8
- Paraphernalia: Items like bongs, pipes, vaporizers, and certain types of rolling papers
Managing Your Smoke Shop Product List
The categories discussed in this post should give you the information you need to create a starting smoke shop product list. However, if you want to manage your store effectively, you need more than just a killer product mix — you need the right tools in place to manage that inventory.
An effective point of sale system can help you manage your product mix, analyze sales trends, and optimize your stock to meet customer demand. But not all point of sale systems are created equal. You need a solution like Cigars POS, a point of sale system designed specifically for smoke and tobacco shops.
Cigars POS offers features every smoke shop owner needs from their point of sale solution, including carton-pack inventory tracking, age verification, custom label printing, and loyalty program management.
See Cigars POS in action with a free software demo to evaluate whether it’s the right choice for your store.
