Residents complain about the anti-tobacco law, which has created many problems for both consumers of tobacco products and their suppliers. Strict rules governing smoking in public places and raising the price of cigarettes make smokers unhappy to huddle with cigarettes in backyards and nooks and crannies and save cigarettes in a pack, and manufacturers to calculate losses.

But an entrepreneur differs from an ordinary person in that he knows how to benefit from any situation. If the state has seriously taken up tightening the rules in the field of smoking, then why not make a business on an alternative to the usual way of satisfying nicotine addiction?

Electronic cigarettes are gaining more and more popularity among Russian consumers. These devices are evaporators that simulate the process of smoking using a steam generator. When a person using an electronic cigarette takes a "puff", the nichrome coil inside the steam generator heats up and converts the liquid that the device is filled with into vapor. In the process, there are both the taste of nicotine, and smoke resembling cigarette smoke, and the device that the "smoker's" hands are occupied with. At the same time, electronic cigarettes cause much less harm to the health of those who use them, and are absolutely harmless to others, so their use in public places is not prohibited by law.

In addition, electronic smoking simulators are an effective way to combat addiction to real cigarettes. According to statistics, 75% of smokers who switched to these devices were able to significantly reduce the rate of nicotine consumption, and 65% were able to stop smoking altogether.

The range of electronic smoking devices is very wide - they can take the form of both familiar cigarettes and cigars, pipes and even hookahs. In addition, electronic vaporizers are available in various flavors, and if you wish, you can "smoke" mint, vanilla, chocolate, strawberries - in a word, almost everything your heart desires.

Before starting a business

If you decide to open a point of sale of electronic cigarettes in your city, then you should start with market research (you can do it yourself or order it from a specialized agency). You need to find out who is the main consumer of this product in your city (usually people from 21 to 30 years old, with an average income who want to quit smoking), what is the average retail price for key items, which brands and types of electronic cigarettes are most in demand, in which area of ​​the city the products are least represented, and other details necessary for writing a business plan.

Location

When choosing a place to locate a retail outlet, focus on two indicators - an approximate indicator of the income of the population living in a particular area, and the presence of competing outlets. Many aspiring entrepreneurs tend to bet on the central areas of cities, but competition in such places is much higher, as are rental rates. If you see that the sales niche of electronic cigarettes in the center of your city has already been filled, then it makes sense to take a closer look at remote areas with developed infrastructure - the trend now is that there is an active development of the urban periphery of megacities, the opening of shopping centers, consumer stores, etc. . An area with developed infrastructure is suitable for the implementation of your project.

To start, it will be enough to rent a small retail space in one of the local stores - shopping malls are best suited for this purpose, since the traffic there is many times higher than in specialized stores. For the functioning of the business, a small stationary counter-showcase with an area of ​​3 square meters will suffice. Its monthly rent will cost an average of 10 thousand, but the exact price depends on many factors (region, district, rental policy of the owner of the area, etc.), so it is better to find out the specific numbers yourself by contacting the landlords in the area you are interested in.

If your budget is limited and you cannot afford to risk the funds that you will invest in rent, then it makes sense to start with an online platform and sell goods through an online store. Then it will be necessary to create a website with a high-quality product catalog, which will have a form for online ordering goods. Creating a simple “virtual business card” will cost you 10-15 thousand rubles, but you can make a website yourself using a free online designer. To promote an online store and increase impulse purchases, you will need to invest in contextual advertising.

Documents and licenses.

Before opening a retail outlet, you must also register as a business entity. In this case, an individual entrepreneur is most suitable - its registration will cost 800 rubles (payment of state duty) and will take an average of five days. In addition to the receipt of payment of the state duty, the future individual entrepreneur will only need a passport, TIN and an application of the established form. The most convenient tax regime for individual entrepreneurs is the simplified taxation system (STS). It provides for the payment of 6% from the “income” object or 15% from the “income minus expenses” object.

As for additional licenses for the goods sold, they will not be needed - in the Russian Federation, electronic cigarettes are not subject to mandatory certification, and foreign certificates do not carry much weight.

Range

As mentioned above, the range of products described is quite wide - from cheap "cigarettes" with a maintenance-free evaporator and a non-removable unit (the so-called "eyes" to more advanced models where you can replace the battery, choose the taste of the liquid in the evaporator, etc. Choosing , what exactly to order for your store, you can go along one of two vectors:

A wide range of inexpensive goods is the basic option for starting. In this case, it is better to rely not on well-known companies, but on the representation of a large number of options in order to compete with already functioning outlets.

Bet on advanced devices. If vaping (electronic “smoking”) is sufficiently developed in your city, then inexpensive “cigarettes” are most likely already presented on the local market. In this case, it makes sense, after familiarizing yourself with the results of marketing research, to satisfy the needs of more advanced users - those who prefer a higher class of goods. One of the owners of the business selling electronic cigarettes advises ordering branded products not from suppliers directly, but from resellers - the cost will not be much higher, but there is an opportunity to buy goods in small batches (five to ten items each). Of course, there is a risk of purchasing counterfeit products - in order to minimize it, it is better to cooperate with resellers who already have a reputation as conscientious counterparties and value it (for example, TenOne).

To order the first batch of goods will require from 50 to 100 thousand rubles. The exact amount of the initial investment in this section of starting a business project should again be assessed on your own by making a list of what you are going to purchase and analyzing the range and prices of suppliers.

From whom to order?

Ordering goods from Russian suppliers is beneficial for an entrepreneur with faster delivery times than from abroad (during the period during which one parcel comes from China, you can make two or three purchases from Russian firms), and the absence of problems with customs services. However, entrepreneurs note that in addition to pluses, compatriot suppliers also have significant drawbacks, such as: periodic delivery delays (the Chinese take this matter much more responsibly), a larger percentage of defective consignments of goods, a change in payment after the fact, when the final price greatly exceeds agreed.

If you order goods from China (AliExpress, FastTech.Com, etc.), you will have to face other difficulties. So, branded suppliers work exclusively with MOQ (minimum order quantity), which means that goods of famous brands cannot be ordered in small batches of several units. Therefore, mostly inexpensive low-segment items supplied by non-brand companies are imported from China - we have no minimum order quantity.

When ordering from abroad, you should take into account which delivery service your potential supplier cooperates with - if it is DHL or another standard company, then there is a high risk that the ordered batch will go through customs clearance, which is fraught with additional costs and delays for the buyer delivery. Therefore, cooperation with a local logistics company will not be superfluous. The standard scheme for ordering goods from China is as follows: the buyer transfers money to the seller, the seller sends the goods to the warehouse, from where the consignment is delivered by air to Russia. Payment for the services of a logistics company is made after the fact, when the buyer has already received the goods.

As for the markup on the initial price of the goods, on average it is 45%. However, if you sell exclusive brands, being the only representative of the brand in your city, then the price can be doubled.

Personnel

If you want to maximize the flow of customers, then it is necessary for the point to work seven days a week. Therefore, you will need two sales assistants who will work in shifts. Their responsibilities will include not only the release of goods to customers, but also advising on products, as well as promoting them. A potential buyer must be properly informed about all the benefits of electronic cigarettes (environmental friendliness, the ability to quit smoking, a wide variety of flavors, etc.) - then the chance that he will become your consumer increases, even if he does not purchase the product immediately. Therefore, your employees must have good communication skills and the gift of persuasion.

The most appropriate system of remuneration for sales consultants is a salary plus a percentage of sales. The average salary is about 11 thousand rubles, but the exact figures depend on the region.

Profitability

According to average estimates, the profitability of this business is about 37%. With an approximate number of buyers of 5 people per day, the average daily revenue will be about 14,000 rubles. If the point works seven days a week, then the income with this indicator will be 420 thousand, and the profit minus monthly expenses (rent, advertising, employee salaries, contingencies, etc.) will be about 157 thousand rubles. However, for a more adequate assessment of the profitability of the business of selling electronic cigarettes, we advise future entrepreneurs to independently evaluate all one-time and monthly expense items based on the prices of your city - this will require the Internet and one or two days of monitoring time.