Life After the Vape Ban

Imagine you run a successful vape shop. For three years, disposable vapes have been your cash cow, with Elf Bars flying off the shelves, minimal customer questions, and pure impulse purchases. Then, in June 2025, the UK government bans them entirely.

What happens to your business?

If you’re like most shop owners, you likely assume the worst: customers disappear, revenue collapses, and you close up. That’s the intuitive answer, the one that leaps to mind immediately.

But here’s what actually happened: Some vape retailers doubled their business in six months. Others lost half their customers in the same period. The difference wasn’t location, prices, or product quality. It was something most retailers didn’t even think to monitor: what people were typing into Google.

The Question Nobody Expected

A strange pattern emerged in search data right after the ban took effect. While searches for “disposable e-cigarettes” plummeted 38%, precisely what you’d expect, something else was climbing fast. Searches for “nicotine pouch UK” jumped 95% in six months. Queries about “refillable pods” surged 75%.

People weren’t giving up nicotine. They were hunting for alternatives. And most of them started that hunt the same way: by asking Google.

Now here’s the puzzle: Every vape retailer in the UK faced the same ban on the same day. They all sold similar alternative products: refillable vapes, nicotine pouches, and starter kits. Yet some captured this wave of searching customers while others watched their traffic evaporate.

Why would identical businesses experience opposite outcomes from the same regulatory change?

What Your Mind Does When Habits Break

To understand what happened, consider what goes through someone’s mind when their routine is disrupted. Let’s say you’re a 28-year-old who’s been buying strawberry-flavoured disposable vapes at your corner shop for two years.

Every Monday morning, you grab one. It’s automatic, you don’t think about it any more than you think about buying milk.

Then suddenly, they’re gone. Banned. The shelf is empty.

Your brain, which had been running on autopilot, suddenly has to actually think. You face questions you’ve never considered: What do I use instead? Are refillable vapes complicated? What about those pouch things my friend mentioned? Are they safe?

This is the critical moment. You’re standing at a crossroads in your mind, and you realise you don’t have enough information to choose a path. So you do what millions of people do when they hit this wall: you pull out your phone and Google it.

The first brand that helps you answer these questions, providing clear and trustworthy information about your options, has a shot at your business. Not just this week. For years, once you’ve invested time learning about a product type and trying it out, switching again feels like a costly endeavour.

But if you land on a site that just shows you products with prices and expects you to figure it out on your own? You bounce. You keep searching. You’re in what researchers call “the messy middle“, that uncomfortable state where you’re comparison shopping but don’t yet have a framework for making the comparison.

The Traffic Score Mystery

Let me show you something that puzzled us when we first saw it. We track organic search traffic for over 100 brands in the nicotine sector, from global tobacco companies to small independent retailers. We refer to it as the Salience Nicotine Products Index.

In October 2024, a mid-sized retailer, Vape Superstore, ranked #3 in the entire sector, with an estimated 222,000 monthly visits from Google. They were crushing it. Six months later, in April 2025, they’d dropped to #4 with just 173,000 trips, a 22% decline.

Within the same six-month period, a company called Totally Wicked rose from #7 to #5, experiencing a 62% growth. Another retailer, Ecigone, experienced a 109% growth. A small site called The Ripple Co grew 192%, nearly tripling its traffic.

Here’s what makes this strange: The overall market actually grew 5% during this period. More people were searching for nicotine products, not fewer. So Vape Superstore was losing traffic in an expanding market.

What did Totally Wicked, Ecigone, and The Ripple Co do differently?

The Content Advantage Nobody Saw Coming

When we dug into what separated winners from losers, we found something that sounds almost too simple: The winners published helpful articles.

Not product descriptions. Not promotional content. Actual guides that answered the questions confused consumers who were asking Google.

Take VapeandGo, a retailer that grew 65%. When the ban was announced, they immediately published an article titled “UK Disposable Vape Ban: What You Need to Know.” Thousands of worried vapers searched variations of that exact phrase. VapeandGo’s article appeared at the top of the results.

These visitors didn’t just read and leave; many of them explored the refillable products VapeandGo sold, because they’d just learned why they needed one.

Or look at Ecigclick, an independent review site. They grew 107% by testing hundreds of vape kits and publishing detailed comparisons. When someone Googled “best vape starter kit 2025 UK,” Ecigclick’s review appeared prominently. They don’t even sell products directly; they’re pure content. Yet their traffic exploded.

The pattern becomes clear when you look at who’s losing. Elf Bar’s official UK site? Down 33%. Lost Mary (another disposable brand)? Down 19%. These were brands with massive name recognition, but they didn’t help people navigate the transition. They sold products that were later banned, and they didn’t adjust their content strategy quickly enough.

Even some big multi-brand retailers lost ground. VPZ, a major vape shop chain, actually saw its branded searches increase 46%, more people were explicitly looking for VPZ, but their overall organic traffic fell 25%. How is that possible?

Because while people were searching for their brand name, more people were searching for generic questions like “how to quit disposable vapes” or “best refillable vape for beginners.” VPZ wasn’t ranking well for those queries. Competitors who’d invested in content were.

Why Your Instinct About Online Shopping Is Wrong

Most executives, when they think about e-commerce, picture a simple journey: a customer needs a product → the customer searches for the product → the customer buys the product—three steps, clean and linear.

But that’s not how people actually shop for nicotine products, especially in 2025. Let me describe a typical journey we’ve observed:

A 35-year-old smoker hears about the vape ban and decides it’s time to try quitting. She doesn’t search for a product; she searches for information: “are vapes better than patches for quitting.” She reads a few articles. One mentions nicotine pouches as an option. She’s never heard of them, so she searches “what are nicotine pouches.”

She finds an article explaining they’re tobacco-free, discreet, and come in different strengths. Sounds interesting. But are they safe? She searches “nicotine pouch side effects.” Reads a few more articles, including one on the NHS site.

Two days later, she searches “nicotine pouch UK” to see brands. She clicks on a comparison article that lists top brands. One brand, Nordic Spirit, sounds appealing. She searches “Nordic Spirit review” specifically. Reads user reviews on Reddit. Watch a YouTube video of someone trying them.

Three days after that, she searches “buy Nordic Spirit UK” and finally makes a purchase.

That’s nine searches over nearly a week before a single transaction. And this is someone who was already motivated to quit; she wasn’t just casually browsing.

The crucial insight: She visited dozens of websites during this journey. The brand that ultimately got her money wasn’t necessarily the best product or the cheapest. It was the one that appeared helpful at multiple points in her research process. Their article about quitting methods mentioned nicotine pouches early on. Their brand came up in that comparison list. Maybe they had clear, non-salesy answers to her safety questions.

By the time she was ready to buy, she’d seen their name three or four times in contexts that felt trustworthy. That repetition created something that looks like brand loyalty but is actually recognition-based comfort: “Oh, I’ve heard of them before. They seemed legit in that article I read.”

The AI Complication

Now add another layer: Google itself is changing how it presents information. In 2025, when you search specific questions, Google doesn’t just show ten blue links anymore. It displays an AI-generated overview at the top, followed by a paragraph that synthesises an answer from multiple sources, accompanied by small citations.

Here’s what that means in practice: If someone searches “best way to quit smoking UK,” Google’s AI might generate something like: “Health experts suggest nicotine replacement therapies, including vapes, patches, and nicotine pouches. Refillable vape kits such as the Vaporesso Xros or Vuse ePod 2 are often recommended for smokers transitioning away from cigarettes, as they provide similar hand-to-mouth action with less harmful chemicals than combustible tobacco.”

Notice what just happened? The AI mentioned two specific product names: Vaporesso Xros and Vuse ePod 2. If you make one of those products, you’ve just been featured in an AI-written recommendation seen by thousands of potential customers. If you make a competing product that’s equally good but not mentioned?

You’re invisible in that moment.

The data on this is startling: 76% of facts in Google’s AI overviews come from the top 10 organic results. And when an AI overview appears, it can reduce clicks to regular results by 34%. In other words, if you’re not already ranking well for a topic, you won’t get cited by the AI. And if you don’t get cited, you might not get clicked at all.

This creates a winner-takes-all dynamic in a way we’ve never seen before. Traditional search results gave you ten chances to appear on the first page. AI answers might mention just one or two brands, and they’ll be the ones that already have strong content ranking well.

Some brands are already adapting. Totally Wicked’s 62% traffic growth wasn’t just from traditional SEO, they’re getting mentioned in these AI overviews because they’ve invested in detailed, factual content that AI systems find trustworthy enough to cite. Meanwhile, brands resting on their legacy reputation are discovering that AI doesn’t care about their brand history. It cites whoever has the most relevant, well-structured content right now.

What This Actually Means for Your Business

If you’re running marketing for a nicotine brand or vape retailer, you’re probably thinking: “This is interesting, but I don’t have time to become a publisher. I need to sell products.”

That’s precisely the wrong frame. Let me reframe it:

You’re not becoming a publisher. You’re becoming visible at the moments that matter. Think back to that 35-year-old trying to quit smoking. During her week-long research journey, she had dozens of moments where she could have discovered your brand, or your competitor’s.

Each Google search was an open door. The question is: Did your content appear when she opened those doors?

The brands losing ground right now aren’t losing because they have worse products. They’re losing because they’re invisible during the research phase. By the time a customer is ready to search for specific products, they’ve already decided which type of product they want and which brands seem trustworthy.

You’re too late to influence that decision if you weren’t there earlier.

Here’s what the data tells us about what actually works:

Capture the confused: Searches for terms like “disposable vape ban explained” or “what replaced disposables” spiked immediately after the ban. These are people who don’t yet know what they want; they’re maximally influenceable. If your content helps them understand their options, you’re not just getting traffic. You’re shaping their consideration set.

Own the alternatives: Remember that 95% surge in “nicotine pouch” searches? Most traditional vape retailers initially ignored this because pouches are not considered vapes. However, consumers don’t think in categories; they think in terms of outcomes. “I need something that delivers nicotine without smoking.” If you only talk about vapes, you’re losing people who might prefer pouches.

The retailer SnusVikings grew 66% by specialising in pouches right as demand exploded.

Answer the scared questions: People aren’t just searching “best vape”, they’re searching “are vapes safe NHS” and “nicotine pouch side effects.” These are high-anxiety queries from people worried about making a dangerous choice. If you provide clear, honest answers (ideally citing medical sources), you build trust that competitors who avoid these questions simply can’t match.

Prepare for zero clicks: As AI overviews expand, you need to optimise not just for clicks but for mentions. Being cited in an AI answer, even without receiving a click, helps build brand awareness. Someone sees “Vaporesso Xros” mentioned by Google’s AI as a good beginner kit.

Two weeks later, they see it in a shop. “Oh, I’ve heard of that.” That’s valuable even without a click-through.

The Return of Expertise (And Why Google Can Tell)

There’s a deeper pattern here worth understanding. Google’s algorithm has spent years improving its ability to distinguish between thin, promotional content and genuinely helpful expertise. They call it E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness.

In practice, this means Google is trying to figure out: “Is this article written by someone who actually knows what they’re talking about, or is it keyword-stuffed nonsense designed to manipulate rankings?”

For years, you could game this. Hire a content mill, produce 1,000 articles about “best vape for X,” stuff them with keywords, build some links, and rank well. That’s getting harder.

Consider Ecigclick’s success: They rank well partly because they’ve literally tested over 450 devices. They photograph them, review the experience in detail, and update their content when new models are released. Google’s algorithm can detect signals of this depth, including content freshness, word count, original images, time spent on the page, and external links from reputable sources.

Compare that to a thin affiliate site that just lists products with generic descriptions copied from manufacturers. Users bounce quickly. No one links to it. The content never gets updated. Google increasingly pushes these sites down in favour of sites demonstrating actual expertise.

This trend accelerates in regulated industries like nicotine. Google is aware that this is a sensitive health topic. They’re extra cautious about ranking content that might mislead people. So, they favour content from established brands, content citing medical sources, and content that discusses risks honestly rather than just promoting products.

What does this mean practically? If you’re going to invest in content, invest properly. A single, deeply researched, genuinely helpful article beats ten thin, optimised-for-keywords articles. The Ripple Co’s 192% growth came from owning a specific narrative (nicotine-free alternatives) with authentic content, not from churning out generic listicles.

The Visibility Paradox

Here’s something that confuses many marketers: VPZ, the major vape chain, saw their branded searches increase 46% but their overall organic traffic fell 25%. How can more people search for your brand while your traffic drops?

The answer reveals a critical distinction between brand demand and discoverability. When someone searches “VPZ,” they already know about VPZ, they’re further down the funnel.

But searches for “VPZ” represent a tiny fraction of total searches in the nicotine space.

The vast majority of searches are generic: “how to quit smoking,” “best vape for beginners,” “what are nicotine pouches,” “disposable vape alternatives.” If you’re not visible for these queries, you’re invisible to 95% of potential customers at the moment they’re forming preferences.

VPZ’s situation is particularly instructive because they’re not a bad brand, they have 150+ physical stores, decades of experience, and genuine expertise. But their website was optimised for people who already knew about VPZ. They ranked well for “VPZ near me” and “VPZ sale” but poorly for “best refillable vape” or “how to switch from disposables.”

Meanwhile, smaller retailers with more effective content strategies captured those generic searches. By the time these new vapers became aware of VPZ (perhaps while walking past a physical store), they would have already purchased their first kit from a competitor online.

The lesson: Brand recognition matters, but in fast-changing markets, discoverability matters more. If you’re not visible when people are forming their initial impressions, your brand recognition will only help with repeat customers. If you lose the first purchase to competitors, there won’t be repeat customers.

Your Decision Point

You’ve now seen the data: some brands doubled their traffic, while others saw a halving, all facing the same market conditions. You’ve seen the mechanism: Winners provided helpful content at moments when confused consumers were searching for guidance.

The question is what you do with this information.

The tempting path is to treat this as someone else’s problem, an SEO specialist’s job, or something to delegate to a junior marketer. That’s the intuition many executives follow. After all, you’re busy with product development, supply chain issues, and compliance with regulations. Can’t someone else handle the website content?

But remember what this is really about: When thousands of potential customers are actively looking for guidance, typing questions into Google right now, where does that traffic go?

It goes somewhere. Every search ends with someone clicking on someone’s content. The only question is whether it’s yours or your competitor’s.

The brands that treated this as a strategic priority, with their leadership involved in content decisions and allocating real resources to being helpful, are the ones that captured this once-in-a-decade wave of searching, confused, and persuadable customers.

The brands that treated it as a tactical SEO task to be outsourced? They’re the ones scrambling now, watching their traffic erode, wondering why their perfectly good products aren’t selling as well as they used to.

Which group will you be in six months from now?