Where to Sell Soy Candles?

You’ve decided to launch your soy candle making business and you’re rarin’ to go! But where to start? Where can you get your amazing soy candles out in the open where people can buy them?

Today I’m going to list different places to sell soy candles. I will go into more detail in another post about each of these, but for now this should give you a great idea where to start. Some may have an easier time starting with one place or another depending on where you live and what’s available to you. I’ll try to list from the easiest to ones that may take more work. ( I even list Etsy down lower on the list, simply because it takes more work for each candle you sell since you have to pack them and ship them and takes time for you to get noticed online.)

Places to Sell Soy Candles….

1. Yard Sale. I have set my candles out while having a yard sale before and actually sold a few! Plus it gets your name out there locally, and if you make sure they take a business card, they may want to order more down the road!
2. Home Parties. This one is probably the most cost effective and you can definitely make some good money here! The one home party I did, I didn’t get very many people, but I ended up selling quite a bit, so if you don’t mind talking in front of people for a few minutes, the candles can pretty much sell themselves. It’s a good idea to make  a good inventory of candles to take with you though so you can sell them on the spot.
3. In Store. You might be able to find a small shop that would display your candles. I did this for awhile at a Bi-Rite(plumbing supplies! lol) and it would have worked out better if it had been closer to home. I did get sales there though, and It didn’t take any money for me (except gas to drop off candles now and then) since my husband knew the store owners and they offered to display them in exchange for a couple candles here and there.
4. Craft Show/Bazaar. There are usually craft shows going on somewhere, especially around the holidays. Many times you can find ones that only cost around $10 for a table too!
5. Saturday Market. I’ve set up at our saturday market a few times and sold quite a bit there. It does take a little more work to set up and take down and you’ll need a pop up canopy, but the sales could be worth it! This does
6. Mall Space. I’ve never done this, and I think it’s probably kind of expensive, but if you live near a large mall, it may very well be worth it, so it would be a good idea to contact your local mall and see what the cost is and requirements for setting up. Christmas time would be a great time to try this.
7. Etsy. You can try Etsy, though I never had much luck selling there(I didn’t try too hard either since I had my own website), plus you have fees and stuff that make it hard to make much if you are wanting to price your candles reasonably since shipping is high for candles because of the weight.
8. Ebay. Selling your candles on Ebay isn’t the best way to go unless you have extra stock you just need to get rid of at a fairly low price.
9. Your Own Website.  To me, this was the best way to go. Most of my candle sales came from my own website. It does take time to set one up though, and some knowledge in search engine optimization so you can get seen when people search for soy candles. But once your site is established, it can pretty much start growing on it’s own once people find out about you and start coming back. A website takes the most work to set up and maintain, but it can also be the most consistent way to sell your soy candles. You could outsource some of your website work though, like paying for a custom design and search engine optimization. (I do web design and SEO, so that link goes to my own web development site)

So that’s all I’ve got for now! Please feel free to comment if you know where else to sell homemade soy candles.