With aspirations to become the number-one vape service for convenience stores, Vape Local’s data-led solution aims to partner with independent retailers across the country.

Here, Better Retailing finds out what it is, how the service works, which brands it has partnered with and how it could put more money in your till.

Vape Local category trial is evolving

Powered by industry giants Vape Base, Vape Local combines 10 years of sales analytics and vape industry knowledge with specialist convenience and FMCG expertise to provide a concept to capitalise on the ever-growing vape market.

Partnering with headline brands, such as Large Juice, Vaporesso, Riot Squad, Vype, Airscream and many more, Vape Local offers retailers exclusive access to fast-growing vape brands that enable them to stand out from the competition.

Vape Local’s proposition has evolved fast in recent months. Regular readers of Vape Retailer will have seen it change from countertop displays to gantry units to help retailers squeeze more profit.

Win £250-worth of free Vape Local stock!

A select few convenience retailers across the country are currently trialling gantries in store, with another five due to have installations this month. Early signs show that some have already increased their vape sales by 30-40%.

The service has launched in response to increased demand from convenience store shoppers, and the fact that existing solutions tend to offer a one-size-fits-all approach. Vape Local specialises in marrying sales data to retailers’ own regional product data to create a planogram of their local shoppers’ habits.

“Our solutions are designed to maximise the potential and opportunity from this growing convenience category,” says Steve Prescott, Vape Local business development director. “At the same time, we offer a platform that helps educate the retailer and consumer in product safety, compliance, best practice, plus much more, to provide the best-possible experience.

Vape Base launches trial with 10 convenience stores

“This will help simplify and streamline the gradual changeover from smoking to achieve the government’s aim of being smoke-free by 2030.”

Vape Local’s bespoke displays can be a tailored to fit individual stores and can take into account back-wall space that retailers would rather leave dedicated to other profitable areas, such as spirits or medicines.

This flexibility is, of course, extended to pricing and ranging, which is always the retailers’ final decision.

Read the full interview with Large Juice, Riot Squad and Vapresso – three of the partners behind Vape Local – in September’s issue of Vape Retailer, plus an in-depth case study with a West Midlands-based retailer

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