Arberd Lalicic has been selling e-cigarettes online since 2010. With a life story ranging from the Balkans war, to various refugee centres around Sweden, 10 restaurants, clothing stores, watch sales, investments and financial independence, it's not something he really needs to do. But he quit smoking himself with the help of vejp and sees it as a tool for others. He would also find it very difficult to just sit still and twiddle his thumbs.
He has a name that hardly exists and a backstory that testifies to an incredible drive. If we take the name first, Arberd was actually meant to be called Albert.
- But when my father was going to register me in the municipality in my home country, he wrote so strangely that they wrote Arberd instead. So it's a name that barely exists," says Arberd in a café near the station in Helsingborg.
He calls the country in question Yugoslavia for short. Now, that state has not existed since 2003, but it was the country Arberd lived in and fled from. Without getting into the political strife in the Balkans, there was a series of wars and armed conflicts between 1991 and 2001 called the Yugoslav Wars. As a teenager, Arberd found himself in the middle of it.
- "I deserted from the military and ended up in a military tent in Ystad instead," says Arberd acidly, referring to the first refugee centre.
Started working immediately
He was 19 at the time and was about to turn 20. The family would be moved around a bit, mostly up in Norrland.
- It was Luleå, Boden, hell I was everywhere. The high coast somewhere - we had forest around us, and then Sollefteå. That's where I lived most of the time after that.
Somewhere around the time the residence permit finally arrived, Arberd became an adult.
- Yes, something like that. I started working quite straight away actually, and I took over my first restaurant back in 1995. It was a bit of an à la carte restaurant and pizza and kind of a mixed lunch restaurant.
That restaurant was followed by many more, about ten in total, and in about as many cities.
He came to Helsingborg in 2001, actually also with the aim of taking over a restaurant here. Arberd describes a life of 14-hour days, 362 days a year, and eventually he simply had enough. The restaurant in Helsingborg didn't materialise, but he stayed in the city anyway.
- I also saw that the restaurant business was going down, so you worked for nothing. So I started selling watches online and also opened a clothes shop.
A wide range of companies and investments
He also invested in other businesses and different types of online shops. At one point he had six different websites in different industries. Long story short, Arberd had a lot of experience in online sales when he ran into e-cigarettes around 2010.
- I have to admit that I used to be a workaholic. My children still think I am - but they haven't really seen me when I'm actually working," laughs Arberd.
- Now I do most of my work with a computer in my hand, and I hardly even count that as work. I can do it when I'm travelling or at home and I'd probably have the computer in my hand anyway.
The Eciggonline.se shop was actually unplanned and happened mostly by chance.
- As I said, I was really busy with the clothes shop and online sales of watches. But then I bought one of the first e-cigs that came along, which I ordered from England. And I just thought, damn, that's a good thing - maybe it would work. It wasn't available in Sweden then. I wasn't sure how people would receive it, but I thought what the hell and started looking around for places to buy them.
The e-cig started to be called vejp
It was, of course, from China. He started with a few hundred machines, got all the problems in Swedish customs with e-juice that all early vejp dealers in Sweden testify to, and built a website.
- For the first two years or so, there were hardly any sales. People simply weren't looking for it. But from 2013 onwards, it started to sell more.
Because Arberd was so early, he could pick and choose pretty much any domain name he wanted. Everything was available.
- Nobody called it anything else than ecigg then, so I chose it. But I got a little pissed when everyone started calling it vejp. I could have taken vape.se or whatever, but at least I have both eciggonline and vapeonline as my domains.
He never thought it would be something that really took off.
- No, I only had it as a side income and never thought it would be such a big deal. But precisely because I stopped smoking and they really helped me, I wanted to sell on.
Financial independence
Over time, around 2018, Arberd got rid of both the clothing store and the online watches. Now only the vejp sites remain, and when asked if they're doing well enough for him to stand, he answers a little evasively at first.
- I don't really live on that alone. I've been self-employed since 1995 and have invested a lot over the years. I've been financially independent for maybe 20 years, but you don't need to write that. I work mostly because I have to work on something, I'm not a person who can just sit still," says Arberd.
Do not send to Denmark
He says he will never open a physical store or expand in any other way, which might be quite lucrative right now with Denmark and the bans they have across the strait.
- No, I'd end up in the same situation I've been in before - working myself to death for even more money in my bank account. It's just right this way.
He doesn't even ship to Denmark, for example, but sticks to the Swedish market.
- It gets more complicated with all these rules. I stick to the simple things - keeping customers happy. This way I can guarantee that we dispatch all orders the same day they are ordered. I have two employees who do the packing and stuff and I can work from the beach myself," he says with a smile.
Vejp to be used for smoking cessation
He still 1TP8s himself, but just as often without any nicotine at all. Although he sells the product, he wouldn't want his children to take it up, and is firmly of the opinion that e-cigarettes are used to stop smoking.
- I always say that if you don't smoke, you shouldn't start vejpa. Vejp is not made for you to start, but precisely for you to quit cigarettes. It may not be the smartest thing to say as a seller of them, but it would be a double standard not to if I am going to tell my own son not to start.
The disposable vejp is not so highly valued by Arberd either.
- If I were the law, I would ban them outright. Firstly because it's far too strong. Nobody needs 17 or 20 milligrams of nicotine - it just makes you extremely addicted. Secondly, there is far too much plastic and batteries unnecessarily. Who thinks that everyone who buys those when they are out partying and drinking then goes and sorts them?
After all, he sells them himself on the site, but at the same time says that they are not really needed anymore when there are such developed systems where you just change the ready-made or refillable pod.
Loyal customers
The fact that online sales of vejp have exploded many years after Arberd himself started is not something he notices much after all.
- We've had roughly the same turnover for the last four years, and I think 95 per cent of my customers are repeat customers. I don't get many new ones, because people have to find me and we're not in first place when they search. But I am satisfied. We have regular and loyal customers who know that we don't bother with complaints or anything else and they get what they ordered as soon as possible. I don't pack very often myself, but I recognise almost every name on the labels.
Five quick ones for Arberd Lalicic and Eciggonline:
Who is your typical customer?
- Women around 40 years old. I think less than 5 per cent are in their 20s.
What is your own favourite flavour?
- I use Hangsen Ry4, I have done for about 10 years. I don't like sweet flavours, and not niksalt.
What would you never put in the tank yourself?
- When I was originally going to order flavours from China, they had flavours like chicken or even turtle...
What made you start vejpa?
- It helped me quit smoking
