Cigar.com Becomes Cigora as Convenience Cigar Sales Flatline
Scandinavian Tobacco Group is shrinking its U.S. online storefronts. Effective September 28, 2026, the long running site Cigar.com will be absorbed into Cigora.com. After the switch, the combined shop will operate as "CIGORA presented by Cigar.com." Traffic from the old URL will redirect automatically. Customer accounts, order history, and loyalty points are supposed to move over without a reset.
Cigar.com dates to 1996 as an independent retailer. It later passed through Cigars International and Swedish Match before landing in STG's portfolio. Cigora launched in 2022 as STG's newer, community first premium site. The company says the merger keeps Cigar.com's catalog, forums, and accessories while giving those shoppers Cigora's broader assortment, exclusives, and updated rewards. Matthew Pysher, Cigora's merchandising manager, framed it as carrying the older brand's trust onto a newer platform rather than shutting the door on it.
The move trims one name from STG's U.S. direct to consumer cluster, which still includes Cigars International, CigarBid, Thompson Cigar, and PipesandCigars.com. It is a consolidation play: fewer sites, one modern stack, and a push for stronger loyalty and personalized offers instead of running two overlapping catalogs.
That digital cleanup lands as convenience stores hold the line on cigar revenue, but only because prices are climbing faster than sales are falling. Circana data for the 52 weeks ending July 12, 2026 shows total U.S. c-store cigar sales at $4.11 billion, up a modest 0.3 percent year over year. Look closer, though, and the picture shifts: unit sales dropped 5.5 percent to 1.90 billion, while the average price rose 6.1 percent to $2.17. Stores are simply selling fewer cigars for more money, and that markup is the only thing keeping total sales from slipping.
Large mass cigars still dominate the channel. They generated $3.86 billion, up 1.0 percent, and now hold 93.9 percent of c store cigar dollars. Units in that segment dropped 4.7 percent to 1.81 billion, but a 6.0 percent price increase to $2.13 per unit covered the hole.
Premium handmade cigars had a rougher time in convenience stores. Dollar sales dropped 10.2 percent to $214 million, and units fell even harder, down 21.0 percent to 72.7 million, despite prices climbing 13.8 percent to $2.94 a stick. That doesn't necessarily mean fewer people are buying premium cigars overall, though. Industry reporting chalks it up to a channel shift: premium buyers are increasingly shopping at specialty stores and online retailers instead, neither of which this convenience store data captures.
Little cigars kept losing ground too, squeezed by flavor restrictions. Convenience stores sold 9.8 percent fewer of them, and even with prices ticking up, revenue still slipped 6.9 percent to $36.8 million.
Put together, the two stories point the same direction. Mass market volume is softer, so manufacturers and retailers lean on price. Premium volume in grocery style outlets is leaking to the web. STG already raised U.S. wholesale prices and tariff surcharges earlier in 2026. Folding Cigar.com into Cigora is the retail counterpart: concentrate the online customer base, modernize the storefront, and try to keep those shoppers inside one loyalty system instead of spreading them across duplicate sites.
Whether the combined Cigora site actually holds Cigar.com's old regulars will show up after September 28, when the redirect goes live and the emails start landing.