Where to Buy Candles Wholesale

How to choose the right candle vendor

You found it!

You finally found a webpage that is actually going to help you determine where to buy candles wholesale instead of just showing you a list of 20 different vendors with no way to distinguish between them. 

Does it matter which vendor you choose? Don’t they all offer the same thing?

In short – Yes, it does matter, and No, they don’t offer the same thing.

Don’t worry, it’s easy to understand once you have the basics. I’ll walk you through it but, as a heads up, I like to tell this story by starting at the end. Before you ask, yes, I am a big Christopher Nolan fan, sue me.

OK let’s dive in, starting at the end. Because at the end of the day, you want to maximize profit.

Where to buy candles wholesale

Maximizing Profit

You are a business owner. Maximizing profit is the name of the game.  If you want to out-compete your rival retail stores you need to maximize profit better than they can.  This allows you to survive as a business, to offer a decent wage to your employees, and ultimately provide a good life for your family. But you already know this.

So where do candles come in?

Candles are an excellent way to accomplish this goal but with so many vendors out there, where should you begin?  I am sure your knee jerk reaction is to choose a product that maximizes revenue and minimizes cost.  I agree, but let’s make sure we both agree on what “minimize cost” means.

“Minimize cost” means buying the cheapest candles, right?

Well no. Minimizing cost of goods sold (COGS) is an excellent strategy for many products where the cheap versions are “good enough”, but candles are like hotel rooms.

If you pay for a dirt-cheap room, you are going to get a dirt-cheap experience.

If you receive a dirt-cheap experience, you are much less likely to go back.

 

Wait, how do you minimize cost if you aren’t minimizing cost?

To answer this, we need to take a step back and look at your business expenses wholistically. You have many other expenses beyond COGS that can be minimized by stocking the right candle products in your store.

However, to properly explain how you can minimize your business expenses by stocking candles, I first need to address the other half of the equation – Maximizing Top Line Revenue.

[Stick with me. I will save you from months of disappointment watching your candles frost over from old age and start posting cringey things on Facebook.]

Maximizing Revenue

As a retail store owner that is looking for a wholesale candle vendor, you want to continually ask yourself,

“Is this vendor’s candle going to maximize top line revenue compared to other vendors?”.

Unlike the pop market (that’s “soda market” for you non-Midwesterners) which is basically a duopoly controlled by Coca-Cola and Pepsi, the wholesale candle market is highly competitive with thousands of players vying to carve out a share of the market. Use this to your advantage! Choose a candle vendor that offers a differentiated product that resonates with your target customer. 

How does this maximize your top line revenue?

Maximizing revenue requires that you sell high volume at a reasonable price. If your price is too high, you won’t achieve the volume. If your price is too low, the volume may be there, but you are leaving money on the table! 

So how do you achieve high volume without leaving money on the table?

To achieve high volume, it is critical to ensure your customers are coming back to your store, repurchasing their favorite candles, and telling their friends about how much they love them.  Candles are a perfect product for accomplishing this objective for two reasons.

#1. Candles are consumed as they are used.

Unlike a hammer or a hairbrush, you can’t reuse them for years on end. This means that when the candle is completely consumed, customers must repurchase.

HOW THIS BENEFITS STORE OWNERS:

When repurchasing a candle, customers are most likely to go back to the place where they originally purchased the item, which means more visits to your store. 

Increasing visit frequency will result in more opportunities to sell additional items through cross-selling, upselling, product placement, and store experience strategies. Visit our Bulk candles page to learn more about how you can leverage your store experience to extend the average duration of your visits and thereby maximize your top line revenue.

OK, a few extra visits is great, but how do I grow at scale?

This brings me to the second reason.

#2. Once your customer finds their favorite fragrance, they can’t wait to wave it in front of their friends’ noses and say “Isn’t that the most delicious thing you have ever smelled?!”

Admit it. You’ve done it. I’ve done it. We all do it.

HOW THIS BENEFITS STORE OWNERS:

This extremely common behavior is one of the most effective ways of generating word-of-mouth marketing. We all know that word-of-mouth is the holy grail of marketing and if you can harness it, you will minimize your marketing costs and your customer acquisition cost. Minimizing COGS of one single product doesn’t seem so important anymore, does it?

Whew! Now we are cookin’ with gas! Now we know how to maximize top line revenue and how to maximize profit. They both depend on using word-of-mouth marketing to increase visits to your store.

So… how do you generate word-of-mouth using candles?

Word-of-Mouth

To maximize word-of-mouth (so that you can maximize revenue so that you can maximize profit), it is critical to choose the right candle (i.e. the right candle vendor). I know, I know – choosing the cheapest candle would have been so much easier. But you run a business, so we know you don’t do things the easy way. You do things the right way.

The most impactful factors to consider when choosing a candle that will maximize word-of-mouth are:

#1. Aesthetic – the product needs to look appealing

#2. Fragrance – the product needs to smell appealing

Are there other factors? Yes, but 95% of your success depends on these two factors. The candle product you choose needs to have both or it will fail.

So what does “appealing” look and smell like?

Appealing Aesthetic

Let’s get this out of the way – go look in the mirror. Whew! *Wolf Whistle* You look incredible! My jaw literally dropped. If only someone could make a candle that looks like that!

Oh yea, we were talking about candles.

Whether or not a candle looks appealing is highly dependent on your target customer.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, remember?  Knowing what your customers will find beautiful can be tricky business but hey, you know me, I am here to help.

Although I don’t know your customers (personally), I do know candle customers. Lucky for us, the market data indicates that there is a high probability that these two customer segments overlap. 

Does your store offer high-end, quality products and/or fall into one of the following categories?

  • Boutiques
  • Country stores
  • Souvenir shops
  • Flower shops
  • Home goods stores
  • Gift shops
  • Department stores
  • Specialty shops
  • Franchises

If so, you are likely attracting a middle to upper-middle class customer who wants high-end products at a reasonable price. They like a bargain, but they are also willing to pay more for quality.  

Sound familiar?

Great. We have our overlap. We can be confident that a sizable portion of your customers are candle customers and most of them are looking for a candle that looks elegant.

This is not the crowd that is looking for silly novelty candles sporting a profanity-laden label. You might sell a handful of those, but you won’t reach the volume required to maximize your top line revenue.  

So what does an Elegant Candle look like?

Elegant Candles:

  • Have a clean, neat, and tidy appearance
  • Display a simple, sleek, contemporary design (less is more)
  • Are made from high-quality, long-lasting materials (i.e. unlikely to break, scratch, or expire)
  • Contain hints of luxury or details that represent expensive materials such as gold, silver, shiny or sparkly materials

(for sparkly, think diamond, not craft glitter)

The table below provides a more detailed description of what an elegant candle looks like and what it does not look like.

Table describing characteristics of elegant candles and non-elegant candles.

If you are saying “Whoa! That’s a lot of information! I don’t have the time to analyze each vendor to that level of detail.”

I hear you. You’re in luck. Wisconsin Wicks offers a solution that will save you the hassle.  All of our products are designed for elegance.  This means they possess traits listed in the left column only.

 

After all, Our target customer is your target customer.

 

That’s what makes us such good friends. And friends help each other out.

 

Browse our elegantly simple Classic Candles or our luxurious Gold Top Candles to avoid the headache.

Appealing Fragrance

Now that you know what makes a candle look appealing, let’s talk about what makes a candle smell appealing. Good news! Compared to looks, people are more likely to agree on what smells good. This means that, if you choose the right fragrance, it is going to resonate with a larger segment of the market.

How do you choose the right fragrance?

There are 3 ways to accomplish this. 

#1. Smell for yourself

Some people have a golden schnoz.  They smell something and immediately know if others will love it or hate it.  Women are more likely than men to be blessed with a chic beak and younger folks are more likely than older folks to retain this superpower. 

Does that sound like you?

If so, congratulations! This is going to be easy for you. If not, don’t fret. There are two other tried and true methods for choosing a winner.

#2. Know your notes

Don’t freak out! You were not supposed to be taking notes. This is not high school. The days of struggling to fit in as high school teens are over (now you just fit in those high school jeans, BOOYAH!). The notes I’m talking about are fragrance notes.

 

What are fragrance notes?

Let’s use a metaphor. What makes you, you?  Is it your hair color? Your car? Your jeans? Of course not!

It’s your personality (which, in your case, is an absolute ray of sunshine).

The unique combination of different fragrance notes is what makes a fragrance, a fragrance.  We will call this combination a fragrance note profile (or just “profile” for short). Profiles are unique. They’re one-of-a-kind. It’s the personality that a particular scent brings to the world.

 

And much like personalities, profiles span the spectrum.

Some are beautiful, lovely, pleasant profiles that you could see yourself dating.  Others are dull, boring, or awkward profiles that you ghosted weeks ago (why do they keep texting?). Then there are the offensive and downright frightening profiles that make you cross the street when you see them coming.

 

I know what you’re asking. Is there are profile out there for me? How will I know?

Unlike the mysteries of your misunderstood (but undeniably beautiful) heart, choosing the right profile for your target customer is a straightforward process. It’s all about knowing which top, middle, and bottom notes will have your customers going Gaga and which ones will end in a Bad Romance.

 

If you don’t have a prized snoot and you don’t want to inspect fragrance profiles, fear not.  The final method for choosing the perfect fragrance also happens to be the most effective and attainable.

#3. Test the market

Testing the market is the most effective way of uncovering what your customers want. There are two ways store owners can easily test the market.  You can ask your customers directly or you can stock a particular candle fragrance and monitor how it sells.  

The downside?  It’s time consuming. Now before you say, “Well gee, I don’t have a gifted sniffer, a degree in fragrance-ology, or the time to test the market!” – I know.

We’re friends, remember? And friends have each other’s backs.

Over here at Wisconsin Wicks, we utilize all three methods to make sure the homework is already done for you (just like in high school).  During our product development process, all fragrances must pass the first two tests (Chic beak approval and optimal profile), before being subjected to market testing.  Scents must pass market testing before they are released. 

 

But how do you know they will appeal to your customers?

 

Because Our target customer is Your target customer

Summary

Pick a wholesale candle vendor that is going to help you grow your business. This vendor must offer:

  1. An aesthetic that will appeal to your target customer
  2. A fragrance that will appeal to your target customer

Ensuring these two criteria are met will generate word-of-mouth, which will maximize both your top line and your bottom line.

If you don’t have time for the research, we at Wisconsin Wicks have a shortcut for you.

If you like the research part and you have the time, knock yourself out! I am in the business of helping local businesses baby, so take what you learned here and go get that bread!

Toodles.