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The global e-cigarette industry’s estimated worth was $21 billion in 2021, with Canada identified as one of the world’s top-selling markets.1 In Canada, market tracking data reveal that e-cigarette sales made at convenience stores increased by 52% from 2019 to 2020.1 Specialty vape shops were initially the standard for acquiring e-cigarettes, but convenience stores are emerging as key retailers. Euromonitor International’s market research—commissioned by Health Canada—indicates: ‘The rapid evolution of the vaping market in Canada is unprecedented. The entry of closed devices and increased accessibility to vaping products have had a dramatic impact on the Canadian market and fueled a period of growth through 2019’.2 The report goes on to identify that the key factors fostering growth of the Canadian e-cigarette market include new retail channels (ie, the addition of convenience stores that made e-cigarettes more widely available), the introduction of nicotine salts (enabling high-nicotine deliveries that are perceived as smooth—not too harsh—by users), a variety of flavour offerings and the development of closed advanced vaping systems wherein a pod (cartridge) comes prefilled with vaping liquid. Such vaping systems are for limited use, wherein once the pod becomes empty, it is discarded and replenished with a new one. The sale of prefilled pods offers producers high-profit margins relative to the devices. According to Euromonitor International’s report, the key competitors in the Canadian market for this product category include JUUL, Vype/Vuse, Logic, Blu and STLTH. Still, Logic and Blu have since been discontinued in Canada.3 4 Moreover, while British American Tobacco initially marketed Vype in Canada,5 it has been replaced by Vuse in an apparent effort to standardise and globalise marketing efforts for the e-cigarette brand.6 7 The disposable e-cigarette market in Canada is now highly consolidated, being dominated by Vuse and JUUL (comprising an approximate …
Footnotes
Contributors TD was the sole contributor to the writing and analysis of the study.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests TD is an associate editor of Tobacco Control with respect to Product Marketing and Promotion. He has also served as an expert witness in tobacco and e-cigarette litigation, often for governments whose policies regarding the marketing and promotion of tobacco and e-cigarette products were challenged on constitutional grounds.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.