If you’ve ever looked for vaporizers online, I really can’t blame you for thinking that they are one and the same. Anybody who’s done any kind of shopping for vaping equipment can easily walk away with the impression that if you’ve seen one online vape store, you have pretty much seen them all.

This really is too bad because this means that people are just looking at the surface. If you were to look at these websites, a lot of them have the same parts. They have an about page and contact page. Everybody seems to employ the same graphic designer. A lot of the websites have the same layout. Many have blogs. What exactly separates them from each other?

Well, you have to look at the details because if you think that all online vape stores are one and the same, you are simply putting yourself in a bad position. To put it unkindly, you are setting yourself up for a rip-off.

And the worst part to all of this is that it’s all your fault because there are problematic online stores out there and if you did any kind of basic diligence, you would see them a mile away. You losing time on the phone and playing email ping pong with these people didn’t have to happen.

You didn’t have to waste your time going through all that unnecessary drama. All you needed to do was to pay attention to the following factors.

They carry well-known brands

The first thing that you need to look for when comparing different online vape stores is their brand selection. If you notice that a store is just trying to pass off generic vaporizers, that should raise a red flag for you.

If they call themselves vaping or vape product specialists, then they should present products that the market demands. A lot of the big brands out there are not exclusive. A lot of the big brands out there don’t sell their own products from their own exclusive online store. They have many different distributors.

There’s really no reason why an online vape store that claims to be a specialist shouldn’t carry really well-known brands. 

They must have a solid and clear return policy

Let’s get one thing clear. Even if you have made up your mind as to which brand and model to get, it’s still very easy to get disappointed. That’s just the way things are in the world of online commerce. You can only trust pictures to a certain extent. 

Great looking images can only take you so far. There will be information gaps based on pictures and it’s nobody’s fault. The online vape store might bend over backward to give the very best high definition high-resolution pictures to their customer base. 

Customers can do their best to check out the product from many different angles and view as many different pictures as possible. Still, at the end of the day, there’s a disconnect. People aren’t happy. Well, thankfully, the customer’s always right.

If you don’t get that impression from the return policy of the vape store you are thinking of doing business with, walk away. It’s that simple. Otherwise, you’re walking into a rabbit hole. It’s not like these companies will take your money and scram. They’re not going to do that. 

They’re not going to trade all the goodwill and brand equity that they have built up over the years for a few measly bucks. But you have to understand that when you start the return or refund process, you’re going to have to spend your most important asset.

I’m not talking about the money in your wallet. I’m talking about something far more precious. I’m talking about your time. Because for every minute you spend playing email ping pong, writing up an email regarding what went wrong, packing up the product to send back to the seller, you could’ve been doing something else that is more worthwhile or puts a lot more money in your pocket. 

Do you see how this works? This is called an opportunity cost. It’s a good idea to avoid opportunity costs from the get-go by looking at the return policy, paying close attention to the terms of sale and making your decision accordingly.

Otherwise, you’re just going to create headaches for both yourself and the seller. This problem did not need to happen.

Shipping transparency 

Another problematic area in online vaping e-commerce involves shipping. You have to understand that it’s a dog eat dog world out there. There are lots of vape stores coming online seemingly every month. It seems like everybody in this dog is getting on the online vape store bandwagon.

Given the competitive climate, you can bet that there will be some unscrupulous people bending the rules and hiding their agenda. One common trick is to get search engines to pull up their ridiculously low prices.

That’s how they get a competitive advantage. When people do a search for a certain type of product and certain brand and model, they pull up these stores and then they pull up the price. The searcher, of course, gets taken in by the low price. So they click buy and by the time they click other pages and they’re ready to check out, they get a nasty surprise.

It turns out that that website is charging pretty much the same amount of money as other sites. They feel cheated, they feel duped, they feel that they just wasted their time. Don’t be one of those people. Go straight to the shipping page or the shipping terms and conditions and see what’s up.

If it turns out that the website is basically just trying to bait people with low prices and then socking it to them with higher than normal shipping fees later on in the checkout process, you’re just wasting your time. You don’t want to play that game so get straight to the answer.

By keeping these tips in mind, you will avoid becoming a victim. Do yourself a big favor. You only have so much time to spend shopping online. Use that time wisely by comparing online vape stores the smart way.