Although portable vaporizers have become the focus for many vape shops, there’s still a very dedicated niche market and steady demand for desktop vaporizers.
And with good reason:
Desktop vaporizers are extremely powerful, are more reliable and are more versatile than portable vaporizers.
Anyone who only vapes from the privacy of his/her own home, anyone who vapes mostly in group-/party-settings, or anyone who uses marijuana medically, will be highly interested in a desktop vaporizer.
So even though the portable vaporizer industry is evolving at a faster rate, desktop vaporizers are here to stay.
Therefore, stocking up at least a few popular and high-quality desktop vaporizers, will do wonders for your vape shop.
And today you’re going to learn how to pick which desktop vaporizers to stock up in your shop.
How to Select The Best Desktop Vaporizers
To make the right selection for your vape shop, what you want to do is cover several price ranges and different vaping styles.
For example:
Not everyone wants to shell out $500 for a premium vaporizer.
And not everyone likes to vape out of a balloon.
If you cover several price ranges and different vaping styles, you’ll have a nice variety of desktop vaporizers, ready to satisfy the full demographic of vaporizer users.
Here’s a general guideline you can use when picking vaporizers based on different price ranges:
- Low-end ($0-$200)
- Mid-range ($200-$400)
- High-end ($400+)
And these are the different vaping styles you absolutely want to cover:
- Whip
- Balloon
- Direct-draw
- Solo vaping
- Group vaping
- Bong vaping
This is only part of the story though.
You also want to make sure to pick desktop vaporizers which are actually proven to be popular.
This is your vape shop, and your reputation on the line. So, when starting out, I highly recommend to choose proven and reliable vaporizers so your customers associate your shop with quality and reliability.
The way you can gauge the popularity of a particular vaporizer, is to take a good look on some vaporizer forums.
So, summarized we have 3 criteria on choosing your selection:
- Cover all the price ranges
- Cover all the different vaping styles
- Only stock up proven and popular vaporizers
Now, let’s a dive a bit deeper into the different vaping styles so you can truly understand how a vaporizer user thinks.
The Different Vaping Styles
Although the function of any vaporizer is the same (heat your material up until a point where it gives off vapor, instead of smoke…), every vaporizer gives its own specific twist to the vaporization process.
Here are all the different types of desktop vaporizers that correspond to different vaping preferences:
Whip-Style Desktop Vaporizers
With a whip-style desktop vaporizer, your customer will be able to produce massive and intense draws or small puffs, while keeping a comfortable distance from the vaporizer.
Your customer will be able to sit back or lie down on the couch, and just puff away with great comfort, while getting medicated.
This makes whip-style vaporizers pretty well suited for medical users, and great for customers that are looking for those big hits.
The only downside is that these types of vaporizers usually do need some drawing technique, because with some of these whip-vaporizers the temperature in the bowl is being regulated by the draw technique.
But they’re absolutely a must-have in any vape shop.
Balloon-Style Desktop Vaporizers
Balloon-style desktop vaporizers blow the vapor into a balloon (bag) which is detachable from the unit.
This makes balloon-style desktop vaporizers actually the most mobile or ‘portable’ desktop vaporizers.
Your customer can detach the balloon and just walk around the house with the lightweight balloon in hand.
A balloon also provides the coolest and smoothest vapor of any desktop vaporizer.
This is because when your customer is inhaling from a balloon, he/she is not directly connected to the source of vapor production and vapor cools down fast.
This makes balloon-style vaporizers the most suited vaporizers for medical users.
They’re foolproof and there’s never any risk of combustion or too hot vapor.
Balloon-style desktop vaporizers are also very well suited for group/party vaping! It’s just super convenient to pass around a bag filled with vapor.
Direct-Draw Desktop Vaporizers
These vaporizers are usually the hardest hitting vaporizers and the vaporizers which are most easily attached to a bubbler/bong.
They also provide the purest flavor because usually they’re built with glass and glass simply is the best material for pure flavor preservation.
Any ex-smokers which are skeptical towards vaping will be looking for these.
High quality direct-draw vaporizers hit extremely hard and will produce a high-level of medication very fast (just a few hits).
Also, any user which is looking to mainly vape with water-filtration (which is pretty big chunk of users) will look for a direct-draw vaporizer.
Desktop Vaporizers Suited for Solo-use
Most desktop vaporizers usually have large bowls and need a relatively large quantity of material to produce proper vapor.
But some users will be able to get by with just a few pinches of material and don’t want to be forced to use a large amount of material every time they feel like vaping.
Therefore, it’s highly advisable to have at least 1 desktop vaporizer in your vape shop which has a small bowl, so solo- and/or small-users can get something for their needs as well. Log vaporizers usually fit this bill.
Desktop Vaporizers Suited for Party- and/or Group-Vaping
In contrast with vaporizers with a small bowl which are well suited for solo-vaping, group vaporizers have a large bowl.
When vaping in a group-setting, the last thing a user wants is to keep grinding and refilling the bowl after one of his/her friends took a few draws from the vape.
So, a large bowl is the first requirement for a group-style desktop vaporizer.
The second requirement for a group-style desktop vaporizer is related to ease of use and convenience.
In a party-setting the last thing your customer wants, is to pass around super-expensive glassware which most direct-draw vaporizers have.
They want something easy and convenient:
- A balloon-style desktop vaporizer.
- A whip-style desktop vaporizer can also be decent, but generally group-vapers will go for balloon-style.
Conclusion
Today you’ve learned that desktop vaporizers are a must to stock in your vape shop, if you want to cater to home-users, group-vapers and/or medical users.
You now understand why it’s important to stock up on desktop vaporizers which cover a wide range of prices and a wide range of vaping styles.
But also, especially when just starting out, why it’s important to stock up on popular models. If you’re looking for specific models, I highly recommend you check out Herbonaut’s list of 7 best desktop vaporizers.
If you cover all the price ranges and vaping-styles and make sure you get the most popular models, you’ll soon be known as one of the ‘go-to’ vape shops for quality desktop vaporizers!
Jesse is the Digital Marketing Director at VapeMentors and Chief Technology Mentor. He is an ecommerce and internet marketing expert with a background in business and technology.