E-cigarette Sales Surge by Almost 50%: CDC Data

According to CBS News, data released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that e-cigarette sales have grown by nearly 50% over the past three years, increasing from 15.5 million in January 2020 to 22.7 million in December 2022.

These data come from an analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of data from market research companies. The analysis was published in the agency's "Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

One-time-use sales surpass replaceable magazine sales.

Fatma Romeh, the Chief Market Analyst at CDC, stated in a declaration that...

The significant increase in e-cigarette sales from 2020 to 2022 is primarily driven by the growth of non-tobacco flavored e-cigarettes, such as the dominance of mint flavor in the prefilled pod market and the leading position of fruit and candy flavors in the disposable e-cigarette market.

According to the national youth tobacco survey data released in 2022, more than 80% of middle and high school students use e-cigarettes with fruit or mint flavors, as pointed out by Romei.

According to data, even though disposable e-cigarettes accounted for less than a quarter of total sales in January 2020, by March 2022 disposable e-cigarette sales surpassed pod system sales.

From January 2020 to December 2022, the unit share of pod systems decreased from 75.2% of total sales to 48.0%, while the unit share of disposable e-cigarettes increased from 24.7% to 51.8%.

Sales of e-cigarettes | Image source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States

Sales volume of pod systems | Image source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States.

Sales of disposable e-cigarettes | Image source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States.

The total number of e-cigarette brands in the market has increased by 46.2%.

According to data, the number of e-cigarette brands in the United States market is continually increasing. During the CDC study, the total number of e-cigarette brands in the US market increased by 46.2%, from 184 to 269.

Deirdre Lawrence Kittner, the Director of Smoking and Health Office at the CDC, stated in a release:

The sharp rise in e-cigarette use among teenagers in 2017 and 2018, fueled largely by JUUL, highlights the rapid evolution of sales and use patterns in the e-cigarette industry.

The overall sales growth of e-cigarettes has slowed down.

According to data, total sales increased by 67.2% from January 2020 to May 2022, rising from 15.5 million units per period to 25.9 million units. However, from May 2022 to December 2022, total sales decreased by 12.3%.

Even though overall monthly sales have been decreasing since May 2022, sales are still millions higher compared to early 2020. The CDC attributes the recent decline to several factors, including the efforts of health departments to regulate the sales of nicotine products.

At the national level, the FDA has taken multiple measures this year in an effort to curb unauthorized sales of e-cigarettes.

Director of the Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) at the FDA, Brian King, stated in a declaration that:

All participants in the supply chain, including retailers, have a responsibility to prevent illegal e-cigarettes from being placed on the market.

A previous CDC study report analyzed that the comprehensive flavor ban in Massachusetts resulted in a sharp decline of 94% in the sales of flavored e-cigarettes in the state.

It is worth noting that more and more state and local governments in the United States are also attempting to impose restrictions on the sale of flavored e-cigarettes.

As of December 31, 2022, seven states (California, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Utah) and 378 jurisdictions (including counties, cities, towns, and villages) have implemented some form of restriction on flavored electronic products.

The CDC acknowledged that other factors may also contribute to the sales slowdown, including the increase in high-dose or high-volume disposable e-cigarettes purchased at one time, resulting in more or stronger doses each time.

Moreover, this data is limited to the sales performance of traditional brick-and-mortar retailers. This suggests that some sales may not have actually declined, but instead shifted elsewhere, such as online orders or specialized e-cigarette stores not included in the company's sales data.

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Health officials have raised concerns about the surge in e-cigarette sales, which have coincided with a rise in calls to poison control centers.