Edit: How to win business as a vendor.

[Christos]

Hi vendors, this is a general thread not aimed at anyone in particular but I thought I would perhaps give you some insight into an individuals purchasing habits.
Firstly, i tend to purchase juice by the litre if it's really good and I can't make something equivalent.
That being said, I find it very disheartening to finally find a decent juice and purchase all your remaining stock with the promise of it being available in a week. 2 weeks later still no stock. 3 weeks later still no stock. 4 weeks later same story.
I've been told stock will be available in the 7th week.

This after it was supposed to be available in week 3.

I'm not here to bash anybody but no juice is good enough to run out of. If you can't have it available when it's needed then your customers will move on and find something else. I'm the guy that would buy the juice for the next 2 years to a lifetime Sadly I no longer look forward to the jiuce because it's just not feasible to get used to it as an ADV only for me to go without.
I'd rather and am currently trying 6 other juices to replace the juice I liked.

Just a thought for vendors.

 

[Noddy]

Jip, that is one of the most frustrating things. Find myself in the same boat. This is actually one of the reasons Im considering to quit vaping. Spend money on juice, sometimes find a great juice, want to buy more. Out of stock for a week or two is not a big deal, but when its months, that just frustrates me and I spend my money elsewhere.

 

[Christos]

Jip, that is one of the most frustrating things. Find myself in the same boat. This is actually one of the reasons Im considering to quit vaping. Spend money on juice, sometimes find a great juice, want to buy more. Out of stock for a week or two is not a big deal, but when its months, that just frustrates me and I spend my money elsewhere.

Just a pity I can't find what I'm looking for.

 

[shaunnadan]

Hi

So I want to share my opinion on this topic.

Vaping in South Africa is very much community driven, it's also not all run by 100% business minded people. There are very few vendors who are doing this as a full time job. A few have become successful enough that they could leave the rat race but for many it's a part time run from home business. Compared to any other industry, our vendors are a bit soft and too friendly.

Now carrying sufficient stock levels has a few speed bumps along the way. This is applicable to almost any business - the biggest being capital, physical stock storage, capacity to turn over goods, etc

Now lets consider juice as local and imported.

Local juice is either in house or resold from the juice maker.

Now one of the major things to consider is that a huge percent of concentrates and Nic is sourced from overseas. If you consider the limitations of capital and shipping, getting concentrates and nic in bulk quantities is difficult. TFA has recently stopped shipping to South Africa certain (double star) concentrates in bulk due to them being considered as "flammable" the only work around is via an official hazmat company.

There is also the issue with stock availability from the juice makers. They can only produce as much as their capacity can handle and most often they have to limit vendors on what stock they can purchase from them. It needs to go all around and if the juice maker can only produce x amount of bottles , then the 15 vendors stocking their juice will need to take a share.

Imported juice carries its own set of risks. Vendors Need to deal with rate of exchange, shipping and customs all working against them. International agents will sell you bulk juices according to allocated slots and your playing against some big names from all across the world.

While it is frustrating having to deal with no stock availability, sometimes we just need to accept that there are a lot of factors that are purely out of our vendors control.

 

[Nightwalker]

Hi

So I want to share my opinion on this topic.

Vaping in South Africa is very much community driven, it's also not all run by 100% business minded people. There are very few vendors who are doing this as a full time job. A few have become successful enough that they could leave the rat race but for many it's a part time run from home business. Compared to any other industry, our vendors are a bit soft and too friendly.

Now carrying sufficient stock levels has a few speed bumps along the way. This is applicable to almost any business - the biggest being capital, physical stock storage, capacity to turn over goods, etc

Now lets consider juice as local and imported.

Local juice is either in house or resold from the juice maker.

Now one of the major things to consider is that a huge percent of concentrates and Nic is sourced from overseas. If you consider the limitations of capital and shipping, getting concentrates and nic in bulk quantities is difficult. TFA has recently stopped shipping to South Africa certain (double star) concentrates in bulk due to them being considered as "flammable" the only work around is via an official hazmat company.

There is also the issue with stock availability from the juice makers. They can only produce as much as their capacity can handle and most often they have to limit vendors on what stock they can purchase from them. It needs to go all around and if the juice maker can only produce x amount of bottles , then the 15 vendors stocking their juice will need to take a share.

Imported juice carries its own set of risks. Vendors Need to deal with rate of exchange, shipping and customs all working against them. International agents will sell you bulk juices according to allocated slots and your playing against some big names from all across the world.

While it is frustrating having to deal with no stock availability, sometimes we just need to accept that there are a lot of factors that are purely out of our vendors control.

Are u a lawyer? Because u have a damn good way of putting things in place

 

[shaunnadan]

Are u a lawyer? Because u have a damn good way of putting things in place

I am Project Manager

 

[Christos]

Hi

So I want to share my opinion on this topic.

Vaping in South Africa is very much community driven, it's also not all run by 100% business minded people. There are very few vendors who are doing this as a full time job. A few have become successful enough that they could leave the rat race but for many it's a part time run from home business. Compared to any other industry, our vendors are a bit soft and too friendly.

Now carrying sufficient stock levels has a few speed bumps along the way. This is applicable to almost any business - the biggest being capital, physical stock storage, capacity to turn over goods, etc

Now lets consider juice as local and imported.

Local juice is either in house or resold from the juice maker.

Now one of the major things to consider is that a huge percent of concentrates and Nic is sourced from overseas. If you consider the limitations of capital and shipping, getting concentrates and nic in bulk quantities is difficult. TFA has recently stopped shipping to South Africa certain (double star) concentrates in bulk due to them being considered as "flammable" the only work around is via an official hazmat company.

There is also the issue with stock availability from the juice makers. They can only produce as much as their capacity can handle and most often they have to limit vendors on what stock they can purchase from them. It needs to go all around and if the juice maker can only produce x amount of bottles , then the 15 vendors stocking their juice will need to take a share.

Imported juice carries its own set of risks. Vendors Need to deal with rate of exchange, shipping and customs all working against them. International agents will sell you bulk juices according to allocated slots and your playing against some big names from all across the world.

While it is frustrating having to deal with no stock availability, sometimes we just need to accept that there are a lot of factors that are purely out of our vendors control.

Wholeheartedly agree and I'm willing to support anybody who is open and honest about their situation.

This rant is not aimed at those vendors but rather the ones who keep telling you the goods will be available next week, followed by the same story every week for 5 to 6 times with no results.

I hate false hope sales, surely you can appreciate telling your clients how it is without leading them on with false hope.

 

[Nightwalker]

Wholeheartedly agree and I'm willing to support anybody who is open and honest about their situation.

This rant is not aimed at those vendors but rather the ones who keep telling you the goods will be available next week, followed by the same story every week for 5 to 6 times with no results.

I hate false hope sales, surely you can appreciate telling your clients how it is without leading them on with false hope.

Oh dear God. I hope you didn't think I was making a joke out of your plight.
I was screwed over by a vape/hubbly/cigar thingymajig in PE. Roughly, very roughly and sadly did not know it as I was just a freshly hatched Vaper trying to get of a 50 cig a day addiction.
Then like a super hero, Gary was somehow found by me and by all that's holy, I shit you not, I chat with him before 5am about orders I want and he even made ejuice higher in vg for me as I have a pg intolerance.
There are the bad seeds out there, there are the I'm trying my best to have a vape shop and a normal job and then you have the big boys.
So I say, find your Gary or lately Craig is also in my only buy from them list.
I still give other vendors a try too. Well I think you know what I've been trying to say. Good luck

 

[Christos]

Oh dear God. I hope you didn't think I was making a joke out of your plight.
I was screwed over by a vape/hubbly/cigar thingymajig in PE. Roughly, very roughly and sadly did not know it as I was just a freshly hatched Vaper trying to get of a 50 cig a day addiction.
Then like a super hero, Gary was somehow found by me and by all that's holy, I shit you not, I chat with him before 5am about orders I want and he even made ejuice higher in vg for me as I have a pg intolerance.
There are the bad seeds out there, there are the I'm trying my best to have a vape shop and a normal job and then you have the big boys.
So I say, find your Gary or lately Craig is also in my only buy from them list.
I still give other vendors a try too. Well I think you know what I've been trying to say. Good luck

No worries

 

[PrenessaM]

Wholeheartedly agree and I'm willing to support anybody who is open and honest about their situation.

This rant is not aimed at those vendors but rather the ones who keep telling you the goods will be available next week, followed by the same story every week for 5 to 6 times with no results.

I hate false hope sales, surely you can appreciate telling your clients how it is without leading them on with false hope.

I think some of the big vendors are established well enough to know what realistic lead times are. I have never had an incident when I've had to wait longer than what I was told.

Have you had a chat with the vendor and asked if there was anything delaying their delivery? Perhaps they are in the same boat depending on someone else and being told it's only 1 week away.....

 

[Christos]

I think some of the big vendors are established well enough to know what realistic lead times are. I have never had an incident when I've had to wait longer than what I was told.

Have you had a chat with the vendor and asked if there was anything delaying their delivery? Perhaps they are in the same boat depending on someone else and being told it's only 1 week away.....

Sadly, I have had the discussion with the vendor 4 or 5 times.

I dont think my expectations are unrealistic.

 

[PrenessaM]

Sadly, I have had the discussion with the vendor 4 or 5 times.

I dont think my expectations are unrealistic.

Is the juice an in house brand or specific to only that vendor ?

 

[Christos]

Is the juice an in house brand or specific to only that vendor ?

It's specific to that vendor I.e their own brand.

 

[PrenessaM]

It's specific to that vendor I.e their own brand.

Then it's most prob a concentrate that's out of stock locally or difficult to get.

 

[Christos]

I would like to thank the vendors who have engaged with me about this thread.

I want to point out and stress this is not about bad publicity or degrading any vendor.
My main goal was to vent my frustrations and give some insight into my purchasing habits.

It's clear that there has been miscommunication where I thought the jiuce was just not being made but in fact the delays are actually because new meand are being put in place to meet demands now and future demands.

I really feel the outcome had been positive but bear in mind that finding a juice that you like is a difficult task.
I think I have found about 5 juices in my vape career only to never get stock when needed.
This is the reason I diy buy diy lately has been difficult to get ingridients.

I'm happy to report that certain vendors have not only addressed the issue but also shared plans on going forward which I appreciate and will support.