Purchase and delivery methods used by internet tobacco vendors (ITVs) selling e-cigarettes
| 2013 n=281 | 2014 n=283 | |
| Strategy or method | ITV sites n (%) | ITV sites n (%) |
| Methods of payment* | ||
| Credit card† | 273 (97.2) | 262 (92.6) |
| PayPal | 65 (23.1) | 75 (26.5) |
| Money order/certified cheque/cashier’s cheque | 38 (13.5) | 34 (12.0) |
| Bank transfer‡ | 33 (11.7) | 48 (17.0) |
| Personal cheque | 32 (11.4) | 23 (8.1) |
| E-cheque | 31 (11.0) | 32 (11.3) |
| Cash on delivery | 12 (4.3) | 9 (3.2) |
| Western Union | 8 (2.8) | 10 (3.5) |
| Skrill (formerly named Moneybookers) | 5 (1.8) | 3 (1.1) |
| Bitcoin‡ | 1 (0.4) | 7 (2.5) |
| Sagepay | 1 (0.4) | 5 (1.8) |
| MoneyGram‡ | 0 (0.0) | 3 (1.1) |
| Other†,§ | 3 (1.1) | 26 (9.2) |
| Methods of delivery* | ||
| USPS¶ | 219 (77.9) | 209 (73.9) |
| UPS | 63 (22.4) | 73 (25.8) |
| FedEx** | 41 (14.6) | 39 (13.8) |
| DHL‡ | 7 (2.5) | 18 (6.4) |
| Pickup from vendor† | 6 (2.1) | 0 (0.0) |
| Courier† | 0 (0.0) | 11 (3.9) |
| Other†† | 0 (0.0) | 4 (1.4) |
| Not specified | 48 (17.1) | 35 (12.4) |
UPS, United Parcel Service; USPS, United States Postal Service.
*Because some vendors offer multiple payment and shipping options, subcategories are not mutually exclusive.†p<0.01 (data reflecting statistically significant differences between 2013 and 2014 are boldfaced).‡p<0.05 (data reflecting statistically significant differences between 2013 and 2014 are boldfaced).§2013: ‘Other’ payment methods include one to two vendors offering each of the following: Afterpay, Gopay (both found one each in 2013 but not in 2014), Mail in cash. 2014: ‘Other’ payment methods include one to two vendors offering each of the following: Dwolla, Giropay, Interac, WebMoney, Maestro, Bankersdrafts, CarrotPay, Coinbase, Payson, Virtapay, Wallety, Wiretransfer-NS, AlertPay, Payza, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Ideal, Paga, POD and Mail in cash.¶Internet e-cigarette vendors that shipped to the USA were classified as using USPS if they used any shipping method that results in delivery by the USPS in the USA, including international postal services (such as SwissPost), and more general references to types of mail including air, international, postal, express and priority.**FedEx includes vendors that advertised using Bongo International (2013, n=1; 2014, n=2), which was acquired by FedEx in December 2014.††2014: ‘Other’ shipping methods include one to three vendors offering each of the following: Local driver, Ontrac.