If you are an entrepreneur looking to work hard at night with a new business project, we have a potential business idea for you: selling handmade candles.
Finding an Idea
If you want to learn how to make home candles and start a candle business, let’s take a look at how to make money online with this trending product.
Starting to Sell Candles Online ?️
Why make and sell homemade candles? Types of homemade candles. How to start a candle business. Tips for your candle business. Launching your candle-making business. FAQs about candle business.
Why Make and Sell Homemade Candles?
Homemade candles have become an essential part of home decor – a sector expected to reach $5 billion by 2026, according to MarketWatch. In recent years, there has been a sharp increase in the commercial use of candles, with spas and massage centers using scented candles for their calming effects, and restaurants creating aromatic environments for customers.
Consumers also buy candles as a focal point for their home decor, as well as for relaxation and stress reduction according to the National Candle Association. A quick glance at Google Trends shows that global interest in homemade candles remains steady.
While candles can be used for various purposes worldwide, most search interest for homemade candles is focused in North America, the UK, and Australia. This is great information for candle makers looking for a market for their handmade products.
Types of Homemade Candles
One of the great advantages when it comes to making candles for your business is the variety – there is a type of candle out there that will attract the attention of any potential customer.
Soy Candles
One of the most popular types of candles on the market today is soy candles, which are made from a soy wax base. This wax is extracted from soybeans and is thus made from a vegetable source (as opposed to regular candles made from oil or paraffin). The soy candle market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 8.5% from 2019 to 2025, according to Grand View Research.
Not only are soy candles made from a renewable source, but they also burn cleaner and longer. Thus, customers get greater value for their money when buying a candle that lasts longer.
Scented or Aromatherapy Candles
This is one of the most popular types of candles. Scented or aromatherapy candles provide a variety of fragrances for customers seeking to enhance their home with pleasant scents.
Whether designed to mask typical household odors or simply to create a unique fragrance, these candles come in dozens of scents – so there’s a fragrance to suit nearly everyone.
Vegetable Candles
There is a growing class of shoppers who are concerned about the materials companies use to make their products – particularly any animal-derived ingredients. Basic candles often contain animal ingredients such as beeswax, which is undesirable for some consumers.
But here come vegetable candles to the rescue! Vegetable candles use modified formulations made with ingredients like soy wax and plant-based waxes, fragrance oils, and natural scents.
Decorative Candles
When entering a home decor store, you may have noticed candles that come in different colors, shapes, and sizes. Some candles are simply made for decorative purposes – neither scented nor containing special ingredients. They add a distinctive look to your home space.
How to Start a Candle Business
Conduct Market Research
The candle market is divided into three categories: luxury, mid-market, and mass-market. Decide which market you will target. Do you want to be present in retail stores like Nordstrom or Macy’s? If so, the mid-market may be the best option. Do you want to sell your products only through your website and other online boutique stores? The luxury market may be the best choice.
Choosing
The target market will help you with everything from sourcing materials to building your brand and packaging. Once you have a target category in mind, you will want to identify the types of candles you will produce.
Building Your Brand
The second step in starting a candle-making business is building your brand. Branding helps you build an audience, influences your marketing efforts, and makes it easier to create better products for your customers.
A good brand is especially essential for candle businesses. This industry has grown significantly over the past decade, making it seem impossible to break into.
Let’s look at three ways you can stand out in the saturated candle market.
Unique and Interesting Scent Blends
Scent is the most important factor for consumers today. Research by the National Candle Association indicates that three-quarters of candle buyers say it is “very important” or “extremely important” in choosing a candle.
One way to stand out from the competition is through interesting scents. Developing a new blend gives you a place in the market. Instead of offering standard floral and woody scents, opt for more complex and sophisticated fragrances that buyers can’t find elsewhere: scents that make people think or remember something or feel a sense of intrigue and excitement.
Brand Story
Your brand story is the quickest way to connect with buyers. It is a narrative that shapes and articulates your brand to the public. It is the foundation upon which your mission, message, and voice are built.
Brand stories, especially in the candle industry, should be engaging, human, and authentic. They should make people feel something, prompting them to take action – whether that’s subscribing, purchasing, or donating, etc.
Take the story of Keap Candles as an example. Founders Harry Das and Stephen Tracy were dissatisfied with their jobs in tech. They wanted to do something more meaningful and inspiring through their work and turned to candle-making.
Visual Identity
Your visual identity (which includes your logo, imagery, website, social media, and packaging) is the most direct way to influence how people perceive your candle brand.
When it comes to your candle brand, you want to pay close attention to the aesthetics of your products. Customers will use your candles for their scents and to complement home decor, so you should design the products according to your audience.
Writing a Business Plan
Your business plan serves as a guide to direct your entire business when starting a candle-making venture. It helps outline your strategy, identify challenges, understand the resources you need, and analyze your business idea before you start.
Ask yourself questions: What is the ultimate goal for my brand? Who are my direct competitors? Do I want to be sold in retail stores like Target or Nordstrom? Or do I want to start an online store and sell my products directly to customers?
Define your business goals and stay informed about them as you build your candle-making brand.
Making Candles for Sale
As we’ve shown, you can create many types of candles in your own kitchen. Here, we will show you how to make a basic soy candle. You can take the same basic ingredients and tweak them a bit to create a custom recipe for yourself. Gather your materials
For this at-home soy candle recipe, you will need: soy wax, wicks (preferably cotton), strong adhesive, fragrance oil of your choice, a wooden spoon, a double boiler, a thermometer, a glass jar, and a pen or pencil.
When you have some of these items at home, you can easily acquire the rest without spending too much money. You can find soy wax in bulk on sites like AliExpress or Bulk Apothecary for about $4 per pound.
You can
For traders looking to obtain jars or other glass containers, search on AliExpress for various options for wholesale purchasing, or check out your local thrift store or dollar store for affordable glass containers.
Essential oils are available at your local craft store or on Etsy or Amazon. Other ingredients can be found in almost any grocery store. Gather the wax and the glass container.
Now, let’s prepare your materials to make the wax ready. Place the soy wax in a double boiler on the kitchen stove to melt. Fill the bottom pot with water and the top pot with soy wax, and turn the stove on to medium heat. Stir the wax with a wooden spoon, making sure to break up any large chunks.
While the wax is melting, take the wick and strong adhesive and stick the end of the wick to the bottom of the glass container. Allow the glue to dry, which will keep the wick steady while pouring the wax. Customize the wax mixture.
Once your wax has melted, take your favorite fragrance oil and stir it into the mixture at a rate of one ounce per pound of wax. If you want to change the color of your candle, stir in pieces of non-toxic wax colorant.
After the ingredients have melted and mixed, allow it to cool to 130-140 degrees Fahrenheit. Check the mixture with a thermometer to ensure it reaches the correct temperature. Prepare for pouring.
Now that the wax mixture has cooled to the right temperature, it’s time to pour it into the glass jar. Hold the wick with one hand and pour the mixture from the pot with the other hand. Fill three-quarters of the jar with the hot wax mixture.
To keep the wick straight, tie the end of the wick to a pencil and place it across the opening of the jar. Finish the candle.
Allow the wax to set before beginning the final pour. You may see a small hole in the wax around the wick – don’t worry, this is normal. Here’s where we correct this issue.
Take the remaining wax mixture and pour the last quarter into the jar. Allow the wax to solidify completely. Once the wax has set, trim the excess wick using scissors, and your candle will be ready to light!
Building Your Online Store
Now that the candles are ready for sale, where should you sell them? A great place to start is your own e-commerce store.
Creating an online store may seem overwhelming compared to listing your candles on online selling sites like Amazon. But these platforms cut into your profits and don’t allow you to express your brand freely. Your online store is more profitable in the long term and serves as a digital home for your brand.
When it comes to building an online store, Shopify is the simplest way to get started. You can build an e-commerce site without any programming or a huge budget.
For a monthly fee, you get a beautiful store, SSL certificates, fast web servers, abandoned cart recovery, and user-friendly marketing and sales tools for beginners. You also get access to the Shopify App Store, which offers over 4,000 plugins to enhance your store and increase online sales.
Creating a Marketing Plan
You have the recipe for success – now it’s time to figure out how to sell your soy candles (or other homemade candles). Online, like many business-to-consumer sellers, one of the best media for selling candles is through the internet. You can use multiple digital platforms, such as social media and your e-commerce site, to reach potential customers worldwide.
While not every digital medium may be a successful sales platform for every trader, here are some places entrepreneurs can try to start marketing their businesses.
On
Although the following list does not cover every channel that entrepreneurs can explore for their emerging businesses, here are some good options to help market your business online.
Instagram. Many lifestyle brands have achieved significant success in building a large audience on Instagram. Compile a collection of beautiful images related to your brand, and showcase your candles to display them to customers, reaching a larger audience. You can also use Instagram to connect with brand promoters and provide a behind-the-scenes look at how your candles are made.
Pinterest. Home decor is a major category for Pinterest users, making it one of the largest platforms that customers use to discover brands and products. Therefore, it is wise for candle makers to consider Pinterest research as a pillar in their marketing strategy.
Snapchat. As another visual platform, Snapchat is another viable option for handmade candle makers. As one of the fastest-growing social media platforms with over 200 million users, entrepreneurs working independently can use this medium to market to an expanding audience.
Giveaways and contests. As part of your social/media/content marketing strategy, you can use some of your products as prizes in a series of giveaways and contests. These contests not only help attract followers and build brand awareness, but you also have the opportunity to showcase how well your products perform.
Email marketing: Deliver your message (as well as offers, discounts, and other brand news) directly to your customers’ inboxes.
While selling products online is a winning method for merchants, do not hesitate to try selling your products in person. Handmade home candles are compact and easy to carry, making them perfect for selling on the go. Your aromatic home decor products are ideal for showcasing at craft fairs and local markets, providing merchants the opportunity to obtain direct feedback from potential customers.
If you are not convinced about selling your products in person, going to reality sales has many other advantages, including:
Getting direct feedback. If you are eager to improve your products (or just want to know the customers’ opinions), selling your products in person is a great way to do that. Meet target customers face-to-face, address their issues, and gather ideas for potential new products.
Discovering wholesale opportunities. Are you ready to expand your business? Or looking to explore wholesale selling? Markets and fairs are perfect opportunities to meet wholesale buyers and establish the foundation for that type of relationship.
Building your online audience and email subscribers. Whether you aim to grow your social media audience or build your email list, use fairs and markets to connect online. When visitors come to your booth or shop, ask them to subscribe to your email list or follow your social channels for new products, discounts, and freebies.
Networking and inspiration. Connecting with industry peers and other entrepreneurs is also a significant part of the draw for festivals, markets, and fairs. Other merchants may meet you with new ideas and help you find new solutions to common problems.
Although actual sales require different skills than sitting in your office, basic knowledge and the right tools can streamline the selling process while on the go. Use a mobile point-of-sale system like Shopify POS to help you set up your store or booth at the next market, farmers market, or craft fair, and make the sales process quick and simple.
Tips for Your Candle Business
Whether
If you are starting a candle-making business on the side or going full time, keep these tips in mind for your candle-making venture:
Capture Stunning Product Photos
Good product photography is essential for convincing people to buy your candles. Make sure the shape and label of the candles are clearly visible. Want a challenge? Take a photo of the candle in use in your home so shoppers can envision it in theirs. You can hire a professional photographer to take the pictures or capture high-quality images using your smartphone.
Create Additional Selling Opportunities
Having repeat customers is more profitable than constantly searching for new ones. Try multiple selling opportunities to increase revenue from your existing customers. You can also offer subscription boxes, like Frostbeard Studio. The brand offers a candle-of-the-month club, where customers receive a new candle each month for a set price.
Expand Your Product Line
Brands like Tofino Soap Company reuse their scents for products like soap, shampoo, moisturizers, perfumes, and other items to make and sell online. It’s an easy transition for many candle makers since the scents are already developed; you just need to create the new product. You can then offer new products based on the scents they buy regularly, create scent-centered care packages, and reach new audiences.
Boost Holiday Sales
About 35% of candle sales occur during the holiday season, particularly at Christmas, according to the National Candle Association, with 76% of buyers considering candles an appropriate holiday gift. Prepare for this season by creating holiday campaigns with special offers and targeted ads for potential buyers.
Stay on Top of Consumer Trends
Stay informed about what’s happening in your niche. Use sources like Facebook IQ, Think with Google, and Nielsen to understand customer pain points and track new trends. You can use these insights to come up with new product ideas, scents, and marketing campaigns to promote your brand.
Starting Your Candle Making Business
You’ve made it this far, which means you now have a solid understanding of how to start your own home-based candle-making business. With the tools and knowledge above to help you craft and sell homemade candles, you can move forward to create a source of income.
Source: https://www.shopify.com/retail/burning-at-both-ends-how-to-make-candles-into-a-burgeoning-business
Leave a Reply