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 12 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.

Launching new candles is a big part of running a successful candle business. What is the best way to manage these launches?

We really streamlined this process in the last year, which now allows us to crank our new scents and products much faster than ever before, using collaboration from our entire team. We attribute having a process and a procedure which allows us to launch new scents several times a month to our engaged and enthusiastic community of customers. This has attributed to our 2x revenue growth YTD 2023, even as the economy is in turmoil.

Welcome to Episode 24: The Steps to a Successful New Candle Launch

Timestamps:

00:40 From struggling to streamlining the process

1:30 Use Tech to help you

2:00 How do we know when and what to launch?

3:20 Our scent development is complex

4:40 Scent Testing

5:50 Variability in formulation timelines

6:40 Caution when mixing fragrances

7:30 Candle Burn Testing/Wick Testing

9:05 The step you can't skip!

9:50 Building the Bill of Materials (BOM)

10:15 Determining the prices

10:50 Buying raw materials for production

11:05 Marketing: label design, barcodes, product copy

11:40 Start teasing the product

11:50 Label printing & photography

12:20 Professional contractors a key to our success

13:20 Identify a launch date

14:00 You want your customers anticipating the launch

14:20 Klaviyo waiting list

15:15 Using footage from production on Social

15:20 Our launch timelines

Resources:

The Software We Use:    • The Software We U...  

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.