Author

Topic: Selling Vaporizer E-commerce Business www.vapetropolis.com (Read 3364 times)

newbie
Activity: 35
Merit: 0
Auction closed as no bid reached the reserve price. We're going to continue running the business ourselves for the time being. If anyone is interested going forward, please contact us at : [email protected]
newbie
Activity: 35
Merit: 0
10 btc placed by private message. Thanks for the opening bid!
newbie
Activity: 35
Merit: 0
Hey again, we would like to bring to your attention that Vapetropolis was mentioned in a CBC article yesterday. Canada's oldest and largest news network. 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/bitcoin-makes-inroads-in-toronto-with-atm-debit-cards-1.2498543
member
Activity: 67
Merit: 10
thank you for that. I had 2.5 I could of thrown in the mix, but had already assumed the 10 figure based on inventory.
newbie
Activity: 35
Merit: 0
Hi guys, in response to "sstark",  we're going to set the minimum bid at 10 bitcoins(Roughly the price of the inventory on hand).  Winning Bidder can do their due diligence and use escrow it they prefer. 



 
member
Activity: 91
Merit: 10
scratch that bid ^ , wrong auction.
member
Activity: 91
Merit: 10
hero member
Activity: 711
Merit: 500
member
Activity: 67
Merit: 10
are you able to state a reasonable starting bid? It's going to be difficult for most to evaluate the right price to start bidding on this.
newbie
Activity: 35
Merit: 0
newbie
Activity: 35
Merit: 0
Selling Vaporizer E-commerce Website www.vapetropolis.ca / www.vapetropolis.com

Introduction
Hi guys, we are selling an E-commerce website that sells vaporizers and related accessories.  The vaporizer and e-cigarette industry is one of the fastest growing industries.  Excellent alternative to mining.  Currently we use a 3rd party warehouse for fulfillment but we recommend drop shipping which is already set up.

Some quick site facts:
•   1400 unique visitors avg per month.  http://imgur.com/jwxeckr
•   Revenue to date is just over $40k. This is including revenue from in person sales and through coingig.com
•   Has generated over 60 Bitcoins to date.

About Vapetropolis
Vapetropolis.ca opened its doors for business in late November 2012. The business began as a vaporizer web outlet selling exclusively to Canadian consumers, but quickly opened its doors to the U.S., and then the U.K., when market opportunities abroad became apparent. A new market was opened up for the business in mid-April when the website became the first vaporizer store in the world to accept Bitcoin. To date, Bitcoin sales have risen in a promisingly steady manner, both in gross and in percentage of total sales. The business is currently in the process of opening its doors to the worldwide market through implementing worldwide shipping in the checkout process.
Vapetropolis.com offers a range of vaporizers and accessories to the worldwide market. Product offerings comprise a carefully cultivated range of vaporizers from mid-low to the very high end of the market. A wide range of accessories are also offered, including some branded items.
Fulfillment is executed through a 3rd-party warehouse located in Toronto, Canada, and recently through dropshipping relationships with both GotVape.com and Australianvaporizers.com.au.

Why we are selling
Me and my partner have moved on to promising new projects (one of them being bitcoin related).  This is the site that has taken us off the ground and given us the ability to start more ambitious projects.   

What You Get
•   Website - Wordpress integrated into Magento (Front Page = wordpress for easy seo, rest of site is magento)
•   Domain name transfers - vapetropolis.ca, vapetropolis.com,  vapetropolis.info
•   All site files and artwork (product images, youtube video reviews)
•   Inventory (Roughly $10,000) -
•   Dropshipping Relationships with GotVape, Australian Vaporizers
•   Relationship with VaporizerBlog, use of their videos
•   All Social Media Accounts. (facebook, twitter, youtube)
•   Established Localbitcoins.com account
•   Coingig.com account

Financial Details
Website Revenue: http://imgur.com/ergddXS
Bitcoin sales from April to January:
http://imgur.com/dco7L6L
http://imgur.com/fzgjv6f
http://imgur.com/6AZhm6I
http://imgur.com/MthOnLP
http://imgur.com/viAldZG
http://imgur.com/vI1fjjS

*note we used the mtgox payment gateway then switched to bitpay in April.  Coingig and in person sales not included.

Expenses
The website is hosted on xpcwebhosting.com on a monthly 19.95 Silver Plan.  Warehouse costs roughly 200-500 a month based on sell volume(This is our biggest expense and we recommend dropshipping to cut costs).

Marketing
Our current marketing is done through retargeting on adroll.com and costs about $10/month based on traffic.

Known Issues
•   Have taken pre-orders for a product that we are currently waiting to receive.(Prefer buyer to be from U.S to resolve this situation quicker.)
•   Paypal disables account saying that they do not allow the sale of "e-cigs and vaporizers" (we believe it is because we accept bitcoin).
•   Google suspends adwords account saying that they do not allow e-cig and vaporizer advertisements.

Final Thoughts and Recommendations for Buyer
As you can see the site has generated a healthy amount of revenue in its first year and is well positioned in the bitcoin community.   The Bitcoin community is very receptive to vaporizers than most communities as their ideals are similar. We recommend the buyer to market the website within the bitcoin community as much as possible as worldwide shipping will help generate more in sales.  Unfortunately we no longer can use paypal as a payment gateway and we recommend the buyer to immediately set up another payment gateway such as authorize.net.  Paid advertising may be tricky as many advertisers and ad networks will not allow the advertising of "e-cigs and vaporizers" .  Despite these setbacks much can be done to increase revenue and optimize profits.  The warehouse is our biggest expense and can be cut out immediately  through dropshipping.  Since we do not want to sell the website without the inventory we currently hold,  we suggest the buyer to store inventory at home and fulfill orders until they run out.  Any orders that aren't in stock can be dropshipped.  This would be ideal, in our opinion to transition to dropshipping. 

Other considerations:
•   Can adjust product offerings easily.
•   Currently we use the starter plan on Bitpay which has a 1% transaction fee and is free monthly.  The professional plan is 0% transaction fee and costs $30 a month.  This could be ideal to lock in more bitcoins if you believe they will continue to appreciate.
•   Start an affiliate program.
•   Continue to post videos on the youtube channel.

Bonus: 
•   We've paid to implement Worldwide shipping (currently we only ship to US, Canada, and UK) as we've received numerous requests. 
•   $1000 Store Credit from our main supplier
•   30 day e-mail and phone support.

Bidding Terms
Serious bidders only! Please make sure you have available funds before making bid.
This auction has a hidden reserve
Minimum Bid increment is 0.5 Bitcoins.
Don't Bid if you have doubts, contact us first.
Auction will end on Sunday, January 19, 2014 at 4pm Eastern Time.



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