Introduction
This tutorial walks you through how to sell candles online, even if you're a beginner with no experience. If you love making things with your hands, this could be a great business for you.
We'll cover everything you'll need to get started, including how to build your candle store using the gold standard of eCommerce, Shopify.
If you're not interested in making candles yourself, you can use the print on demand or affiliate marketing business model to sell other people's candles. Maybe you have an existing online business, if so adding candles to your product line can also be profitable and compliment what you're already doing.
With the low costs associated with making candles, starting a candle business can become very profitable if you plan, establish goals, develop a strong brand and sell an amazing product.
To generate a real profit when selling candles online, you’ll need to receive lots of traffic to your online store. So it's important to understand what's involved in setting up your store, selling candles and making sure your business attracts people who are actually looking for products like yours.
This tutorial will show you how to sell candles online, whether you sell your own products or you sell someone else's.
As stated earlier, Shopify is the gold standard and an amazing solution for anyone who wants to start selling online without having to build a blog or standard website. And it's a great online platform for selling candles online.
Making Your Candle Business Legal
As a business owner, it's important to be sure to file for the proper federal, state and local licenses and permits to operate legally.
A business license ensures you are legitimately doing business in a particular locale. And each locale is different. Before you get too far into the process of starting your candle business, keep in mind that every new business must apply for a business license.
And, don't be fooled, your corporation or LLC may need more than one license, or permit, to fully operate at the state level.
Forming a business can seem overly complicated and full of red tape and legal ease. However, when you work with the professionals at Bizee be assured that you've filed the right paperwork for your particular needs.
Bizee has helped 1,000,000+ entrepreneurs open their limited liability company, (LLC) for as little as $0 + State Fees. They also provide services like company name verification, free first year registered agent, preparation and filing of articles, free business tax consultation, lifetime customer support and more.
Based in Houston, TX and founded in 2004, they have a 4.7 rating on Trustpilot based on over - 18,000 reviews.
The Candle Industry
Roughly 70% of households in the United States currently use candles, which opens up a diverse market of consumers to sell to.
Candles are used for a wide range of purposes that will help you find your target audience. Topics like relaxation, home decor, or celebrations like birthdays and weddings - will allow you to differentiate your brand and carve out your niche.
Candles also make a great gift idea for any occasion, and they provide endless possibilities for marketing your candle store for a range of special events, lifestyles and trends.
Download Your Free Candle Business Cheatsheet
This PDF is packed with information you can use to start and grow a thriving candle business. Click the button below to download your copy.
Interesting Candle Facts:
- Candle use in the US: Candles are used in 7 out of 10 US households.
- Candle buyers: More than 95% of candles are purchased by women.
- Candle buyers by age: The biggest buyers of candles are under 25 or over 55.
- Candle market growth: The candle market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.33% from 2024 to 2029.
- Candle market factors: The most important factors affecting candle sales are scent, color, cost, and shape.
- Candle market revenue: The candle market revenue is projected to reach $6.32 billion worldwide in 2024.
We've broken down the basic steps you'll need to launch your candle store. In addition to the steps outlined below, you'll need a platform to sell your candles. We have a free, step by step video tutorial will walk you through setting up a Shopify store for your business.
Choose Your Target Audience
Starting a candle business offers a range of niche areas for a beginning business owner to explore, allowing them to stand out in a competitive market.
Here are some niche ideas:
1. Eco-Friendly and Sustainable Candles
- Focus: Organic, vegan, or sustainable materials like soy wax, coconut wax, or beeswax, and eco-friendly packaging.
- Audience: Environmentally conscious consumers who prioritize sustainability in their purchases.
- Angle: Highlight ethical sourcing and eco-friendly practices.
2. Personalized Candles
- Focus: Custom candles with personal names, messages, or specific scents tailored to individual preferences.
- Audience: Gift buyers, weddings, and special events planners.
-Angle: Emphasize the unique, one-of-a-kind nature of your product as a thoughtful, customizable gift.
3. Aromatherapy and Wellness Candles
- Focus: Essential oils and natural scents designed to promote relaxation, mental clarity, or healing.
- Audience: Health-conscious consumers, yoga practitioners, or individuals looking to enhance their self-care routines.
- Angle: Market as a product for stress relief, better sleep, or enhanced focus.
4. Luxury or High-End Candles
- Focus: Premium ingredients, elegant designs, and high-quality scents that target luxury markets.
- Audience: High-income individuals, interior designers, and those seeking upscale home décor.
- Angle: Position as a luxurious home accessory or gift item, perfect for elevating home ambiance.
5. Seasonal or Holiday-Themed Candles
- Focus: Candles with seasonal scents and designs, like pumpkin spice for fall, peppermint for Christmas, or floral for spring.
- Audience: Holiday shoppers, home decorators, and those who love seasonal décor.
- Angle: Create limited-edition collections for each season, catering to the holiday market.
6. Spiritual or Meditation Candles
- Focus: Candles used for meditation, prayer, or spiritual practices, often incorporating crystals or symbolic designs.
- Audience: Spiritual practitioners, yogis, and individuals interested in mindfulness and meditation.
-Angle: Market the candles as tools to enhance meditation sessions, chakra balancing, or spiritual rituals.
7. Candles for Specific Events (e.g., Weddings, Baby Showers)
- Focus: Candles created for specific life events like weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, or baby showers.
- Audience: Event planners, brides, and individuals planning special celebrations.
- Angle: Offer custom or themed candles that add a personal touch to memorable events.
8. Artisanal or Hand-Painted Candles
- Focus: Handcrafted candles with intricate designs, hand-painting, or unique, artistic elements.
- Audience: Art lovers, home decorators, or anyone looking for something visually striking.
- Angle: Position as functional art that also adds beauty and creativity to any space.
9. Candles with Unique Shapes or Containers
- Focus: Candles in creative shapes (e.g., geometric, fruit-shaped) or in unusual containers like vintage teacups or handmade ceramic bowls.
- Audience: Home décor enthusiasts, collectors, and those seeking quirky, unique home accessories.
-Angle: Stand out by offering unusual designs that serve as both candles and decorative items.
10. Candles for Pet Lovers
- Focus: Pet-safe candles or candles designed to neutralize pet odors with non-toxic ingredients.
- Audience: Pet owners looking for home fragrance solutions that are safe for their animals.
- Angle: Highlight the pet-safe nature of the ingredients and market to pet owners looking for practical yet decorative items.
Each of these niches will allow you to appeal to a specific audience and create a unique brand identity.
If you can align your products with your personal passions, the connection with the niche market becomes even stronger.
Create Your Online Candle Store
Start by naming your shop and creating a brand identity (you might use a brand board like the one shown on the right), that includes your logo.
Shopify has a free logo maker and business name generator that you can use to accomplish both of these tasks.
Once you have a name and logo, select a theme for your store. Shopify has a number of themes that will be a perfect fit for your candle shop.
Here are a few Shopify themes to consider for your candle store. While any theme will work for your business, the Whisk theme (below) shows off candle mock ups and gives you a great starting point.
Showing all 8 results
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Impact Shopify Theme
$380.00 Buy product -
Multi Shopify Theme
$350.00 Buy product -
Whisk Shopify Theme
$300.00 Buy product -
Drop Shopify Theme
$180.00 Buy product -
Expanse Shopify Theme
$380.00 Buy product -
Venue Shopify Theme
$360.00 Buy product -
Symmetry Shopify Theme
$380.00 Buy product -
Empire Shopify Theme
$340.00 Buy product
Finding a Quality Source for Your Candles
You have several options for making or finding quality sources of candles to sell in your shop. You can make your own candles using homemade recipes and fragrances or you can find a print on demand partner that will make the candles for you.
Use a Print on Demand Service. Print-on-demand services like Printify, give you the option to white-label (add your branding) to existing products with your own designs. This is a good option for anyone looking sell an existing wholesale product, rather than creating their own product from scratch.
If you're interested in starting a print on demand store, check out our tutorial that has all the information you need to get started.
Affiliate Programs. Here is a list of affiliate programs for candle shops. If you don't have your own candles, these companies will pay a commission for every sale you send them.
Affiliate Programs for Candle Shops:
Make Your Own Candles. You can also opt to make your own candles. Candles are relatively easy to make and can be cooked up in any home kitchen, so selling candles is a great first step into entrepreneurship.
Here are the steps required to make your own candles:
You can purchase candle-making supplies from your local crafts store, online retailers or other sources.
If you're a Prime member, you can order supplies from Amazon and have them delivered the next day. We've included links to Amazon in the supplies list below.
To make candles from scratch, you’ll need:
Once you’ve got your supplies, you’re ready to move on to making your candles:
- Start by washing your candle jars to remove any dust or residue from the glass.
- Place the wick and anchor at the bottom of the jar and add a touch of hot wax to secure the anchor in place. Set the jar aside.
- Now, it’s time to melt the soy wax. Place your soy wax into a pot filled with water and boil the mixture at medium heat until the wax melts.
- Once the wax is melted, place a few drops of your fragrance to create your perfect scent. You can also mix in color blocks to tinker with the color of the candle. Feel free to get creative with your scents and colors but remember to keep them on brand. A multi-colored tutti-frutti candle is a great idea for a children’s birthday party, but might not so much if your niche is aromatherapy candles. Stir the fragrance and color blocks until they’ve melted and are evenly spread.
- While the mixture is still liquid, pour the wax into your jar while ensuring that the wick stays in the center. Do this slowly to avoid spilling the mixture over the side of your jar.
- Sit the candles aside to harden. You’ll start to notice the wax harden quickly at the top - but you’ll want to give it about 12-15 hours to harden fully.
- When the candles have hardened - trim your wicks (if necessary) and brand the candle with a label. The label can be a simple sticker with your logo or it’s recommended you add additional info about your products somewhere on the product or packaging- it’s up to you. You’re now ready to sell candles online.
Choose the kinds of candles you want to sell, the fragrances and colors you will have available when you launch your store.
It's important to pick a niche, and learn as much about our target audience to make sure you're selling the right products and fragrances to the right people.
Set goals for your product launch, in terms of how much you want to make during your first week, month or 6 months.
Once you know how much you want to make, determine how many products you'll need to sell to reach your goals. Our goal planning and income tutorials will help to guide you through your initial planning stages.
Set up your product pages
Once you know your target audience, the products you're going to sell and your income goals, you're ready to create product pages.
A product page is a marketing landing page for your product that provides details to convince shoppers to add it to their cart. You'll need a product page for each candle you offer in your store.
Your product page should include options like colors, sizes, specifications, features, costs, guarantees and assurances.
When creating product pages, it's important to keyword optimize your descriptions and images for SEO.
Building a list. As you sell your candles, you will also want to build an email list of happy customers that will give you a review or testimonial that you can post in your shop. You'll want to promote products, helpful tips and even training resources to potential customers to encourage shoppers to join your list. You can layer on incentives, like discounts or freebies.
Use your list to send notifications when you add new products or have a sale, for example and keep in touch with your customers on a regular basis to keep them engaged with your business.
How to build an email list to make marketing easily
Pricing your candles. Once you have your candle brand established, do some competitive research to explore current pricing structures within your market.
Then, gather all costs associated with making and selling your products to calculate profit margins.
In doing this, you’ll be able to determine how many candles you should sell to generate a profit after expenses.
As you establish short term and long term goals for your products, you can use this information as a starting point subject to change whenever you see fit.
Product Photos. Quality product photos and descriptions help convert customers. If you create your own candles, it's important to take great looking product photos of all the angles of your product.
Keep in mind that when buying products online, potential customers won't have a way to touch or feel the product. So your photographs, descriptions and mock ups will do the heavy lifting to convince potential customers to buy.
Use product mock ups, and props and seasonal decorations to make your product photosmore appealing to your ideal customers.
People enjoy seeing how your products will look in their homes or work environment, so be sure to create photos that reflect a seasonal, event or holiday vibe.
Don't forget about props and seasonal decorations you can add to product photos that will make your products stand out.
To create a product page on Shopify:
- Log in to your Shopify account
- Go to Products
- Click Add product
- Enter the product's title, description, and images
- Set the product's price, discounts, and promotions
- Choose the product's type and collection
- Add relevant tags and keywords
- Set the product's shipping and fulfillment options
- Click Save
Select your apps and sales channels
Visit the Shopify App Store to find tools for running your online candle store. Here are 24 free apps to get you started.
If you’re just getting started with a new store or looking to enhance your existing site, then this list is for you.
- Shopify Email
- ReConvert Upsell and Cross Sell
- Peek! ‑ Better Replay & Survey
- ESC ‑ Size Charts & Size Guide
- Jebbit
- PayWhirl
- Tip Quik
- Promo.com
- Easyship
- Pre-Order Alpha
- Change Commerce
- Shopify Local Delivery
- Easy Digital Products
- TikTok
- Stocky
- Printful
- Gameball
- Secommapp
- PixPix
- Smart SEO
Pick your payment gateway
Choose from multiple payment gateways to get paid reliably through Shopify's secure checkout.
In a nutshell, payment gateways work when the customer initiates payment on your website (usually on a checkout page).
The customer enters their payment details into the payment gateway. This step can take many forms, including manually entering their details or using a mobile wallet like Shop Pay, Google Pay, or Apple Pay.
The payment gateway encrypts the data your customer has entered so hackers can't intercept it.
The gateway securely forwards this information to the payment processor or acquiring bank, who then sends an authorization request to the customer’s card network, such as Visa, Mastercard, or American Express. Then, the card network routes it to the customer’s issuing bank.
The issuing bank approves or rejects the request and sends this response back to the payment gateway. You'll see this in your ecommerce platform for either outcome.
If the payment is approved, the payment processor facilitates the movement of money from the customer’s account to your merchant account.
If it’s denied, the payment gateway shows the reason why. Insufficient funds, fraud risks, and invalid cards are common reasons for denial.
The 6 top payment gateway providers
- Shopify Payments
- Stripe
- PayPal
- Adyen
- Authorize.net
- WorldPay
Shopify has their own payment gateway called Shopify Payments that allows ecommerce merchants to process online and in-person payments through a single platform.
Shopify Payments complies with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) to protect your customer’s data.
Shopify’s payment gateway is compatible with a variety of sales channels, so you can take payments through Facebook, Instagram, and Google.
In addition, current Shopify merchants can take advantage of lower payment fees for transactions completed through Shopify Payments, leaving more money in your pocket.
Start Selling Candles online!
Market your candles through social media, email and other marketing channels. It’s never been easier to promote your products on social media with the help of free marketing features like Instagram Shops and Tiktok trends.
If you’re promoting your brand for the first time, think about what makes your business unique from others, and explore engaging ways to promote your products.
You can use features like Instagram Stories or Reels to show a behind the scenes look at your products, and get creative with your posts in order to tell your unique brand story.
As you continue growing your social media following, think about new ways to engage your audience with stunning candle imagery and wellness content.
You can try hosting candle giveaways, collaborating with other brands within the wellness space, or work with influencers to gain further reach.
No Technical Skills Required
Build a Shopify Store
With a step by step video tutorial that will have you selling in no time.