ECigIntelligence has carried out an online survey of vape stores in the US every year since 2016; here we present the rules of our 2020 survey in detail, including an analysis of how EVALI and COVID-19 have affected business.
EVALI (the US lung crisis) and the false reporting of it was the biggest reason given by stores for a decline in revenues between 2019 and 2020, followed by COVID-19; state and local flavour bans were referred to as a reason for decline by only a small number stores.
Despite the retail restrictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, half of respondent stores still do not offer online sales, and there was no large increase in online sales reported by those who do. Vape stores remain pessimistic about the outlook for the industry, but nearly two-thirds of those stores selling their own e-liquids intended to file a premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).