E-Cigarettes Just Passed The $1 Billion Sales Mark

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electronic e-cigarettes

REUTERS/Eric Gaillard

A shop owner, who gave his name as Yohan, uses an electronic cigarette near a poster which reads "electronic cigarette, free trial" in his shop in Nice June 7, 2013. France intends to ban electronic cigarette smoking in public places by imposing the same curbs enforced since 2007 to combat tobacco smoking.

E-cigarettes is officially a $1 billion per year business.

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This is according to Wells Fargo data cited by V-2 Cigarettes, a major online electronic cigarette retailer.

Sales in brick and mortar stores are now at $700 million annualized, while online transactions are expected to tick at least $500 million.

“When combined with online sales, the industry has now exceeded $1 billion for the first-time ever, with the consumption of e-cigs likely surpassing that of traditional cigarettes in the next decade,” Wells Fargo's Bonnie Herzog said.

Here's V-2's full release:

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Miami, FL – V2 Cigs (www.v2cigs.com), the worldwide online leader in electronic cigarettes with over 1 million customers, today announced that, for the first-time, the electronic cigarette category has surpassed $1 billion in annual sales across both traditional and digital retail channels. Wells Fargo Securities also projects total 2013 retail sales to reach a record $1.7 billion by the end of the year—an increase of at least 240 percent, respectively, over the previous year’s estimated $500 million mark.

“Conservative data indicates that traditional electronic cigarette retail sales on an annualized basis is $700M,” said Bonnie Herzog, Managing Director and Senior Beverage and Tobacco Analyst at Wells Fargo Securities. “When combined with online sales, the industry has now exceeded $1 billion for the first-time ever, with the consumption of e-cigs likely surpassing that of traditional cigarettes in the next decade.”

E-cig retail sales through online channels will total an estimated $500 to $625 million in 2013. As America’s largest volume online retailer of electronic cigarettes and the third-largest overall electronic cigarette company in the world, whether on or offline, V2 will own at least 20 percent of the total online market with year-over-year sales doubling in 2013 to well north of nine figures.

Established in 2009 as an online-first retail brand, V2 announced a partnership with National Tobacco Company (NTC) in April of this year to distribute their world famous e-cig products to traditional retail outlets across the nation.

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With more than one million customers spread evenly across the country, V2 is perfectly positioned to drive online buyers into traditional retail locations. Through the partnership with NTC, V2 products are now sold in over 10,000 outlets nationally, including HESS gas stations, with the company fully deployed in no less than 35,000 retail locations by December 2013.

“Over the past few years, traditional retail brands have been transitioning online—but today we’re seeing a new trend with the most successful online brands moving into retail,” said Andries Verleur, CEO of V2 Cigs. “2013 was already on track to be our best year, in excess of nine figures in net sales, but post-NTC, our long-term growth will be unparalleled. Our strategy demonstrates the competitive power of developing high-demand brands online first and making them available to a wider audience at retail.”

After debuting in traditional retail outlets only several months ago, offline sales already account for more than 20% of V2’s total net sales, with offline retail expected to outpace online sales in 2014.

V2 Cigs is the flagship brand of VMR Products. V2Cigs.com receives over 6 million unique monthly visitors. For more information about V2 Cigs, please visithttp://www.v2cigs.com.