The farther the world moves into the era of mechanised and computerised production, the greater becomes the value of handmade goods. Handmade candles in particular sell excellently these days- if you can manage to find good products and the right audience.
The raw materials for candle production cost very little unless you are going for more sophisticated wax like soy, and the selling prices are generally higher because of the manual labour and art involved. It is possible to earn great margins from selling candles online since you find a larger audience on the internet than you would trying to sell from your home or physical store.
Let’s take a step-by-step look at how you can sell your candles online.
- Before you beginyour online handmade candle business, decide who is going to manufacture the candles. You might yourself be interested in or even skilled at making candles, or you may choose to buy the candles from other candle-makers. Either way, be certain about what you want and go about your business with a clear head. Next, decide what kind of candles you want to sell. There are a great variety of candles out there: container candles, pillar candles, votive candles, aromatherapy candles, decorative candles and so on. But not all of these will sell well with all audiences. At the beginning, you may choose to go with those that will require less investment.
- Research. No business can be started on a whim. You must know full well what you are dealing with. Find out all you can about the candle making business, the materials needed, their prices, the different kinds of candles and their market and so on and so forth. If you are going to be making the candles yourself, go online or enroll for courses to learn the art, and if you are already skilled at it strive to get better and improve the quality of your work.
- Build an e-store on ShopVii. You may sign up for a free trial period or go all in and get a permanent, fully-hosted ecommerce store on ShopVii. Add your products to the store and make sure you begin with your best pieces because, as a newbie, you will need to grapple for the customer’s attention. Include good pictures of your products to get a better response from the customers. You may read our blog on launching an online store for a detailed instruction on building your e-store.
- Pricing. Striking the right price can be difficult with handmade goods because there is no rule to the charges you may apply for your work. But you must understand that any arbitrary price will not work. Compare the prices of other candle makers available online and try to rate your products a little lower than the others while keeping a sufficient margin for yourself.
- Packaging.Here’s a fact: anyone visiting an e-store on the internet to buy a candle is probably not buying it out of necessity, but rather as a luxury. Candles have surpassed their value as a medium of light and have gone on to become objects of splendour and are now even used as therapeutics in aromatherapy. The packaging of your candles should be such that it appeals to the customer; your product should be a treat to the eye.
- Advertising and Promotion. Use social media and your contacts to inform people of your work. Add pictures and exciting content along with a link to your ecommerce website and post it on Facebook, Instagram etc. Request popular pages to do the same. Get your friends to tell the people they know about your work and get the ball rolling.
It is a common observation that new e-stores that specialize in a particular kind of product are likely to do better. Selling candles online can take you from a small home business to a national or even global brand if you keep working with commitment and passion. Follow these steps and don’t forget to share your experiences with us. Happy candle-making!