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Thanks, guys. I might go that route. I don't want to pay more than I am already paying to process cards in my shop. I had looked at the SSL through godaddy and it seemed reasonable.

That is what I am wondering. I still want to use Paypal, but have a credit card also. Give them the option to do either. I think I saw something about collecting the info on the web, then processing it. I can do that. I am not sure what kind of cart I have now. I am with DIYestore, I switched about a year ago. I can ask on there too. I also wondered about SSL certificate, and what that entailed. Currently, I don't have one. Thanks

I know this has been covered, but I am not getting a clear idea of what to do. I have a retail shop, do shows, and have a web site with a shopping cart. I have a credit card machine at the shop, and a manual one that I can use at shows and call them in later. I only have paypal on my web site. Over the last few months, credit card sales in my shop have went way up. Mostly people using debit cards. My machine is old and can only use credit cards, but people seem to be okay with that. Question: The merchant services I have currently can do web credit cards, but it is seperate. I pay a seperate monthly fee. Does anyone know of one that does it all, for one monthly fee? The guy at my company said no, there wouldn't be. I thought I would ask on here. Thanks

I only use Sultry Angel, but this one is super, super strong. I use about half of what I do others in candles and body products. If you go too strong, it will not smell the same and loses some of it layers. I use it in a 223 and Ez Soy blend. This is my all time most popular scent, in bath and body anyway. People love it.

I have sold product by consignment for several years. My least favorite way to sell, (for the reasons listed previously), but it is a way to cheaply get product out there. One thing I would suggest is to stay on top of it. I have tended to let it slip in the past, and that has caused some problems. Same with wholesale, if we don't stay on top of it, business slips. 20% is not bad, for a commission. But then there will be a day of your time. But you can check out your display, switch out product not selling. Rearrange, keep the display attractive. What kind of traffic does the place have? That is another consideration. It sounds like it is close to home, so that is another good thing. I say go for it, what do you have to lose? I am always trying new things to promote my product, to keep it in front of people. Some things work, some don't. So I back out and go a different direction. Mostly I have several different things going at once. People's memories are very short. And yes, times are really hard. I have run a sale this last week, that in November did very well, I have had sporatic response. I am going to run it this week as well. With big retail fighting with big bucks for people's dollars, I have to compete. I figure my price at 4 times my cost. Then I have some room to offer sales, or pay consignment, or do wholesale. The approach I take is how to lower my cost so that the 4 times stay reasonable. That is really tricky, with all kinds of rising costs. Good luck.

We do the punch card also, on all of our products. Actually, several people do use them, and get free products. But then we have a store front, so that might help. But many people do what others said, they forget them, and we usually don't mention it if they don't bring it up. We have a sign posted to remind us to punch their cards. Don't know how useful of a promotion it is. I think the ones that buy would anyway. I had thought about the candle of the month, good to know it hasn't worked very well. How about birthday clubs, does anyone do that?

I really appreciate this thread and the courage of the original poster. Made me think of several things. The bad service that we have come to put up with, Walmart, etc. There is no way I would ever do business with this lady, after reading all this. Now I have had some suppliers make mistakes, one occasion or two I have had someone not make it up as I would have liked, or not been over joyed about making it good. In my own business I have not been overjoyed to make something right that I thought was not our fault. But I have dealt with the public a long time. You make it right, and with as much graciousness as you can muster at the time. Bad day or not, if you want to compete in a ruthless market. My biggest edge over big competitors is my customer service, I have to if I want to survive. To be able to do this, I have to have suppliers that hold by the same standards. If my raw materials slip, then my product is affected. I think the best leverage we have to turn around this wave of bad service is withhold our money. Singly, but better yet, collectively. A couple of months ago I had a part time employee ship an order. This is an employee that has worked for me for years. I received an email from the customer that the bottle had leaked, I believe it was lotion. I had never known this employee to not tighten and tape all bottles. The customer said she lost a couple of ounces. I apologized profusely, and sent her a whole new bottle and threw in a sun catcher that cost me $.50 to make. She only wanted replaced what was lost, but I exceeded her expectations. I have a customer for life. She has shared this experience with others. It became a win-win deal. How would that have went if I argued with her, took the route this Kathy did?

I buy majority of scents from BCN. I get orders in about 3 days. When I have a problem, they correct it within a day. I also really appreciate Flicker and her help. I use a soy blend, and I love the throw from most scents I have tried. But, I do get scents from others. I do Bath and Body, and many of their scents aren't body safe. I was buying At Wix End, but their prices jumped up way too much. I had been buying for 5 years, they pretty much lost me. Except for their Warm Vanilla Sugar. We have a large account and that is the only scent they want and we dare not switch suppliers. We also get Sultry Angel from Candle Cocoon. Incredible scent. I started replacing At Wix End scents with ones from Nature's Garden. Still not sure what I think about them. I debated about Peaks, but they are pretty limited on choices and I hate ordering from so many suppliers. I do agree about the web site at BCN. Wish they would update it. I suggest trying samples, and decide for yourself. Everyone is so different, so much depends on where you live, what wax, what wick. The atmosphere. Tricky business, scents.

You guys are awesome! Didn't think of any of those things, just sat and stared at my frayed ties. (Although I find myself sitting and staring frequently lately, wondering what to do next.) I don't know what I would do without these boards. Whenever I get interviewed, someone always asks where I learned to make all my product. I never hesitate to tell them the internet, message boards. (I don't tell them exactly where, I had to find out myself). I remember years ago going to the library and checking out craft books, trying to get them read, make notes, then have to take them back.

I have used 4794 for years. I blend a soy blend with it, because I wanted a wax for my melts that was a little softer, but not too soft. Works very good, scent throw is awesome. ' When I was using straight 4794, no one cared if there were ripples. I use my container wax for tealights, not the 4794.

I bought some material, thought I would cut it up and tie around a mason jar. It ravils like crazy. Any suggestions? I don't want to spend much time on it. And I already bought some material, quite a bit. I don't have it here, but thinking it was gingham, does that sound right? I am so not in to sewing.

We just did a small show over the weekend. We weren't going to do it, got in at the last minute, with a very, very small booth. But a large show that is normally in our town was cancelled due to lack of vendors. About 5 years ago I couldn't get in to it, it was so huge. Now folded up. Not a good sign. We did all right at the small show, about what we did last year. Kept busy the whole time. Only sold two candles, but then there were lots of candle booths. And it was a beautiful day, too warm for candle sales here. Sold mostly melts, bath and body products and air fresheners. We have a shop also, and it was very slow last week. We are in a very small town that was hit by the flood this spring, so have some extra challenges. And then the economy on top of everything else. As baby boomers with our money tied up in 401s, pretty scary. We aren't spending like normal until we see how things settle. Our retiree medical jumped up 4 times for next year, 3 times the year before. Not sure where that is going to end up at. Lots of factors playing for people right now. We have signed up for a holiday market at a mall in a larger city that will run every Saturday until Christmas. We are going to give it a try, but then we have to hire somone to run the shop while we do it. Catch 22, who knows what is best. We are after regular customers, and the shows are cheaper then advertising, and we get product and pamphlets in lots of peoples hands. We keep saying the customers we have are the best in the world, we just need more of them. There was also a couple that had about 4 booths linked beside us selling stuff like Kirklands, 1/2 off. They did well, but I saw an older couple across from them sitting there with their beautiful hand made wooden crafts just sitting all day. They were reasonably priced, but couldn't compete with 1/2 off China made stuff. Big mistake on part of oraganizers to get vendors. I hope someone complains. We are pretty optimistic. Our county is doing a county wide promotion to shop local, so hoping that helps. Everybody is going to be competing for Christmas dollars, big time. We need to play on people's emotions, to get an edge. Good luck to all.

Yes, I order the plug in warmers from Levine. I did find a wholesale place that still had a few of what I am looking for, for a higher price. http://www.vistawholesale.com/ They must have bought up a bunch from OBI, and are reselling them as wholesale. I got some of the ones I was looking for. Hopefully I can get them sold at Christmas. Thanks for all the help.

Thanks, I was hoping some with sayings on them, like I had before. I can get the plain colors at OBI. Thanks anyway. Anyone else? The ones I had bought before were very popular with my customers. Figures anything I can sell, I can't keep getting.

I bought a bunch of the OBI warmers, with a thick ceramic bowl on a warming plate. I went to order more from OBI, and they have discontinued most of the really cool ones. Anyone know of anyone else that carries a comparable 2 in 1 warmer?

We have made these for about 5 years. We use the cupcake liners, use wood chips and small pine cones. We melt down and pour left over wax over them. I stick left over wick pieces in them. We love them for our fireplace. We sell a bag of 3 for a dollar. Pretty cheap, but other than the bag, cupcake liners and tag, using left over stuff. If we had to add something else, we couldn't sell them that cheap.

Just one more thing. I use card stock in the lid of the clamshell, and the only time I get some kind of discoloration is if I pour them too hot. Pouring too hot causes some problems. I have had some citrus discolor after a few months.

I love the clamshells. I also make tarts in little souffle cups, snap the lid on and put round label on those. I started with tarts in bags, then went to shrink wrapping them like Yankee. Way too much work and people didn't seem to care around here. So started using the cups, they usually hold up pretty good. I put them in a big hat box, and people sort through them. The clamshells were a harder sell. But I sell more and more of them. I love the ease of displaying them. When we bought the building for the store, they had old eyeglass displays. My husband converted the display to hold the clamshells. They are in alphabetical order, each peg holds 3 clamshells. There are four spinning colums, with a row of pegs on four sides of each spinning column. So we can easily display a whole bunch of clamshells. We also have been selling a lot of the plug in warmers from Levines, and those squares of the clamshells work great in those. I used to use 4794 for the tarts and clamshells, but switched to a blend of different waxes for a softer wax. The plug in warmers seem to need a softer wax. I love tarts. I never use a candle, unles I am testing. They are so quick. The secretary at the high school uses a warmer in the reception area. I furnish her with different melts. People are delighted with the different scents, are always trying to guess what they are. A great marketing tool.

Thanks for the link. Great site, and very much cheaper than I had been buying them.

Mistletoe is back in stock. Just got an email yesterday. Spiced Cranberry, it is so awesome. I also use Happy Holidays, North woods Christmas, (big seller all year round, I rename it North Woods), I also use Yuletide. Sugar Plum and Jingleberry. I love the Sugar Plum, but that one doesn't do as well.

Yes, I have had some problems. Just today, as a matter of fact. They must be having some problems. Not the first time that I have had problems, either.

I also sell to a Bed and Breakfast. Some of the best connections I have made have been through them. The Bed and Breakfast doesn't sell all that much, but the people that stay there are from all over. I had made them melt and pour soaps in that tray last mentioned, then score the soaps and cut them, wrap them in regular paper, with a picture of the Inn on them, plus my info on the back. I talked them in to our cold process, that we had cut in to small bars and then put bands on them. They emailed me yesterday and didn't like them as well. So we are going back to the melt and pour. No difference to me, but I was hoping to sell some bars of cold process. We also have foaming soaps in the rooms, with their label on them. They also carry foaming body wash, if someone doesn't want the bar of soap.

Bitter creek North Harvest for candles, Candle Cocoon Sultry Angel for bath and body products. Cinnamon Buns does very well, too, in the fall.

I hardily agree. We have always been very happy with Columbus Food, and we adore our UPS guy. I never thought about giving him a bar of soap. Good idea! And when I was first starting out in making bulk, I had called Columbus Food, got Mike and he spent better than half an hour ont he phone giving me pointers. A couple that helped out tremendously.

Now that is interesting. My husband started helping me a couple of years ago. When we do booths, he can outsell me 10 to 1. We do this scent game. When I try to do it, they look at me like I have two heads. When he waltzes up to them, gives them a grin and asks if they want to play a game, they jump at it. Giggle and carry on all during the game, and almost always end up buying something from him. If I can get them to do it, they grumble and can't seem to get away quick enough. He had a radio station watching him at one of the county fairs and did an interview with him live about his selling techniques. They teased him that he sold better when I wasn't there. Its true. I don't care, we always say that we make a good pair, I am the creater of our products, he is the salesman. Same way in the store, he can sell to just about anyone. Even guys, because he gives them hints on gifts that will please their wives. I have had several women tell me how lucky I am to have a husband so romantic, but actually he isn't like that at all, just good at trying to make a sale! When we go shopping, he is awful.