US Vaping Market in Q1: Sales Volume Up 8%, Revenue Down 6% YoY

Due to inventory constraints caused by domestic production shutdowns in February and the outbreak of the pandemic in the United States, sales growth slowed.

According to Nielsen retail data, in March the North American vaping market recorded a 3.3% year-over-year increase in sales volume, while revenue fell 8.1% year over year due to price reductions, with prices down 11%. In the first quarter, sales volume rose 8.1% year over year, while revenue declined 6.0% and prices fell 13%, for an overall performance in line with expectations.

Although overall market growth has slowed, the industry excluding JUUL grew by nearly 40%, indicating that market demand still has considerable potential and that addictive consumer products show relatively strong resilience in times of disruption.

JUUL sales came under pressure, while Vuse and Njoy emerged strongly.

It can be seen that Juul, the North American vaping giant, continued to show a downward trend in sales volume. Its first-quarter sales volume fell by about 17.8% in total, including a 21.1% decline in March, with the pace of decline widening slightly. Its market share in March was 57.4%, down 8.4 percentage points from 65.8% a year earlier.

By contrast, Vuse and Njoy maintained very strong growth momentum, with Vuse first-quarter sales volume up 72.8% year over year and Njoy first-quarter sales volume up 317% year over year, while prices also remained relatively firm.

Among them, Njoy’s product bundle pricing rose 39.8% in the first quarter, which may be related to the company’s own product mix adjustment, as it stopped selling disposable fruit-flavored vaping devices starting in February this year.

Summary: The pandemic caused some short-term drag on market growth, but Vuse and Njoy continued to post growth rates far above the industry average, maintaining strong momentum.