Hi, we’re Katie and Eric Roering; the founders of Fontana Candle Co. In 4 years we took our hobby of making candles in our basement, and selling them at craft shows and makers markets and we turned Fontana into a nationally recognized eCommerce brand. This year we are doing 7 figures of revenue and have 9 employees. So how did we do it?

Welcome to the candle couple podcast, where we will share the nitty gritty of scaling our e-commerce brand quickly. We are spilling the tea, so hopefully we can help you scale your brand quickly too.

When talking about success in eCommerce, we split eCommerce success into two branches:you must have both Product success and operations success. You must have an online ready product, as well as a marketing strategy across many different channels. The different marketing opportunities truly are endless- we could talk for hours about different marketing options to drive sales, and I will definitely talk about several of them more in depth in future episodes.

Last episode we discussed finding your niche, so you can truly understand your customer and their needs.

The next foundation for product success is having strong brand elements.

Customers have their expectations, and we think having a professional brand presence is a non-negotiable element to building a 6 or 7 figure brand.

Timestamps:

00:46 eCommerce Success: Product Success and Operations Success

1:27 Strong brand elements lead to product success

1:50 Customer Expectations

2:25 Your product conveys a message

4:01 Does branding get overlooked?

5:25 What would we do differently to our branding?

6:35 You can only go so far with DIY branding

7:15 The time cost of doing your own branding

7:50 What is your goal for your business?

8:40 Our journey to our branding

9:50 Making changes to your branding as your grow

10:45 The investment we made

12:00 Brand Guidelines: consistency is everything

13:30 Our branding opened big doors for us

14:57 Our designer is an independent contractor, but we work with her frequently

15:50 Different design elements for the segments of the candle industry

17:17 Professional Photography and videography

20:07 Professional Social Media Presence

20:38 Having a distinct brand voice

22:20 Protecting your brand elements with trademarks

24:30 Episode Summary

26.42 GS1 Barcodes are an investment but also a necessity

Resources:

*We are not on this platform to educate on the toxins in Fragrance. We do this daily with Fontana Candle Co. If you would like to learn more, please visit the articles in our Bee Well Blog: https://fontanacandlecompany.com/blogs/bee-well-blog or follow Fontana Candle Co. on instagram https://www.instagram.com/fontanacandlecompany/

Disclaimer:

Everything shared in our videos is from our own personal experience, and is intended for educational and informational purposes only. Always seek legal guidance from a business attorney and certified public accountant. Everyone is responsible for their own business structure and business practices, and we will not be held accountable.

Since we love the companies we talk about so much, we may have an affiliate relationship with them. If you make a purchase through the above links, we may earn a small affiliate commission. There is no additional cost to you.