e911 Posted December 20, 2015 Share Posted December 20, 2015 Does anyone sell online? If so, what platform do you use? I've tried getting Magento (an e-commerce platform) configured but its proving to be challenging. Looking for an alternative at this point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallTayl Posted December 20, 2015 Share Posted December 20, 2015 I use Zen Cart for retail and Joomla for information only sites. Though Joomla has several cart extensions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Fields Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 We use Shopify. Very easy to build your site and works well for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thinkr Posted December 24, 2015 Share Posted December 24, 2015 Shopify. Simple to setup and keep updated. Don't nee to know html but if you do you can enhance quite a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e911 Posted December 24, 2015 Author Share Posted December 24, 2015 How do you guys handle shipping? I kinda hate over charging people for shipping but to get real time shipping prices, you have to buy shopify's expensive plan :-/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justajesuschick Posted December 24, 2015 Share Posted December 24, 2015 How do you guys handle shipping? I kinda hate over charging people for shipping but to get real time shipping prices, you have to buy shopify's expensive plan :-/ Real time shipping does not work for me. For example, the attached picture shows a 3 pound, 2 ounce package from my city to another. Real time shipping would charge them $13.37 because USPS has no idea the shape of my items (only weight and to and from zip codes). I can easily ship 3 pounds, 2 ounces in a Regional Rate A box which would cost the customer $8.26. Big difference.Rather, I set my shipping up by weight taking into account the sizes of the boxes I use. Most of my items ship in Regional Rate A and B boxes. Next most popular is Medium and Large Flat Rate boxes. It is pretty rare that a plain Priority Mail box is a better rate. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e911 Posted December 24, 2015 Author Share Posted December 24, 2015 Have you had any problems with the USPS Karen? I get pretty good rates through FedEx and they are guaranteed delivery dates. I've personally had problems with personal items getting left at my home and come home to find them missing. So frustrating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justajesuschick Posted December 24, 2015 Share Posted December 24, 2015 Have you had any problems with the USPS Karen? I get pretty good rates through FedEx and they are guaranteed delivery dates. I've personally had problems with personal items getting left at my home and come home to find them missing. So frustrating. No. If you are established with a carrier, you would not need USPS. Maybe I do not understand but how would it matter the carrier if someone takes a package from a porch?Since I ship Priority Mail, there is tracking information. My site automatically sends tracking (and a BUNCH of other great emails) email when I generate the mailing label.I set my site up myself, engaged a developer for a couple of things I wanted just so (I work in digital in my corporate job so I knew what I wanted and knew it could easily be done but I do not code) and added a few apps to make it all simple for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e911 Posted December 24, 2015 Author Share Posted December 24, 2015 Sorry, fingers couldn't keep up with the thought in my mind! Hate when the fingers get slow. I've had problems with USPS where it says Signature required and they end up leaving the packages on the porch anyways, then the packages end up missing. Or they go missing while in transit to their destination and the headache of getting an insurance claim with them is such a pain. What e-commerce platform are you using Karen? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thinkr Posted December 25, 2015 Share Posted December 25, 2015 I don't really bother with real time shipping for retail. I charge $6 flat rate no matter where it's going and send it USPS priority. Sometimes it costs me less and sometimes more. People are used to this flat rate shipping option these days. She think about some of your recent online purchases. Don't over think. $6 does the job and if you're setting the price of your candles correctly you should have some buffer in price anyway. For my wholesale customers I still send USPS priority but I did a lot of math based on weight and the size of my box that I use. I also include the cost of the box. Shopify can actually do live rates but, like you, I didn't feel like paying for that feature. You can add an infinite amount of shipping options based on weight so just enter (as an example) 0lbs - 10lbs: $5 | 10.01lbs - 20lbs: $10 | etc...I actually have this broken down by smaller increments and have entered 42 shipping options this way (up to 210lbs) but the wholesale customer only sees the one that applies to them. As an added helpful bit I entered some html code at checkout to show them their order weight and remind them what the most cost efficient shipping weights are. I should say I have a wholesale and retail website separate from one another. It helps organize things and very helpful when I export all the sale from Shopify to Quickbooks online so I don't have to do much double entry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e911 Posted December 27, 2015 Author Share Posted December 27, 2015 So I've settled onto an e-commerce platform, but now I'm presented with an oddity. I was going to have just the scent, then go into the product and you pick your jar type and size then the price would update accordingly, but if I do that, it messes with the auto-calculation of the profit margin. If I break it out into jar sizes that means each product is going to have three entries. How do you guys handle this? One scent, all sizes, or all sizes listed individually? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallTayl Posted December 27, 2015 Share Posted December 27, 2015 This is the constant problem i have. Not because of autocalc of margins, but the auto calcs of shipping weights.... What do your favorite candle sites use? kringle? Yankee? I generally like to search by scent, but others like to choose by form... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justajesuschick Posted December 27, 2015 Share Posted December 27, 2015 For Melt Cups, I list each individually so that I can include scent description in the listing, This was a customer driven choice even though I have my scent list on the site.For shapes, I use scent as the variant. Format first.I added an app that manages as many scents as I want (including multiple scents per format) to list in drop down for the shaped product. This way, each item has a specific weight assigned and my invoice/pick slip is super clear about what they ordered-shape, size, scent, etc. Could you not list say, 8 ounce candle as one listing, 16 ounce as another and so on? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e911 Posted December 27, 2015 Author Share Posted December 27, 2015 So I can list the 8oz as one, 16 oz as another, etc. but then I'd have to build the drop down's for all of the scents. If I go the other way, I have to create all the scents, then create the drop downs. But if I go with the scents then size as my order, the software loses the ability to auto-calc the profit margin for the profit.. I can track it in a spreadsheet I suppose but boy that report would have been handy.. TallTayl, yankee is generally the site I've been using to compare things to. it seems Scent seems to be the easiest way that people search :-/ but it fubar's reporting ha! Guess I cant have my cake and eat it too lol 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justajesuschick Posted December 27, 2015 Share Posted December 27, 2015 Depending on your platform choice, my site allows me to duplicate listings and an app I added allows me to duplicate drop downs. SUPER easy. So for single scent products, I use the same scent drop down (94 scents that I had to enter just once) and associate that with any listing. Same with more complex drop downs. I do have to add in new scents, of course, as they are added to the line. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e911 Posted December 27, 2015 Author Share Posted December 27, 2015 I've decided that it would clutter up things too much to break it out by jar size. So I'm going to leave it as scent, and just figure up the profit margin calculation on Excel. It's just too messy to try and do it another way. After talking with a few local friends that own retail stores, they warned it would turn off customers if it was too cluttered. Thankfully the e-commerce system has a bulk import so it made it easy to upload all of my scents. Now it's just to build in the sizes/prices. Fairly easy. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justajesuschick Posted December 27, 2015 Share Posted December 27, 2015 There are 2 schools of thinking. One that says too few items is unappealing, the other says the same about too many. You have to do what is best for you and your customers.Many online scented wax customers really enjoy looking thorough pages and scent lists, plotting orders and making lists. Depends on your target consumer. Presumably, you already have a customer base. Perhaps also a Facebook page, group or both. You could also ask them. I get my best advice from those who buy my product. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justajesuschick Posted December 27, 2015 Share Posted December 27, 2015 I forgot to ask-do you have a huge scent list? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e911 Posted December 27, 2015 Author Share Posted December 27, 2015 Yes I do. For the most part I'm using Peak and Lonestar for my scents. Between the two I should have a fairly diverse selection available for folks to choose. I've talked with my local customer base and they said they like the ability to have a large selection to try so they "don't run out of new things to try". Based upon the good reviews about Lonestar's scents, I felt they would be a good supplier. I've used Peak since I've started and have only had a few duds from them so I feel confident in their quality. I've not ordered from Lonestar yet but if what I've read holds true, they should be about the same as Peak's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justajesuschick Posted December 27, 2015 Share Posted December 27, 2015 Most who are in the Facebook/online scented wax community do expect larger scent lists than one might offer in a retail store or local or wholesale sales. My list is 94 scents and that is considered smaller. Many online sellers offer 200-300+ scents.I wish I could use just 2 suppliers! I currently buy oils from 12 suppliers. I found I needed to do that as not all scents called by the same name are even close to the scent name or each other.Sounds like you are well on your way! Scent testing (assuming your wax blend testing is complete), securing insurance, registering with your state, county and city and completing your website full steam ahead! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e911 Posted December 27, 2015 Author Share Posted December 27, 2015 Right now, I have 190 scents, 380 products between wax melts and candles. Hope that's enough :-/ I've settled on soy wax since its natural (never could get paraffin to work right for me.), still shopping the insurance thing (haven't found an alternate carrier besides Capital Indemnity at 550$/year, hoping there's a different one out there), already registered as an LLC with the state and that paperwork is in hand, have my retail merchants license (have to collect sales tax on Indiana sales), got my accountant primed for the new venture so she's expecting a mess with my taxes ha!, now it's just trying to get my online site in order as I won't have a retail space, just an online store. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallTayl Posted December 27, 2015 Share Posted December 27, 2015 Right now, I have 190 scents, 380 products between wax melts and candles. Hope that's enough :-/ I've settled on soy wax since its natural (never could get paraffin to work right for me.), still shopping the insurance thing (haven't found an alternate carrier besides Capital Indemnity at 550$/year, hoping there's a different one out there), already registered as an LLC with the state and that paperwork is in hand, have my retail merchants license (have to collect sales tax on Indiana sales), got my accountant primed for the new venture so she's expecting a mess with my taxes ha!, now it's just trying to get my online site in order as I won't have a retail space, just an online store.Wow! Yu've been busy! Can't wait to see how it all comes together. So excited for you!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e911 Posted December 27, 2015 Author Share Posted December 27, 2015 Thanks. It's been a few years in the making. I've always made a few wax melts each year for friends and family as gifts and I've constantly been told, you should make some candles they would be better. Got tired of hearing it, so I decided to open a business since several want to buy them throughout the year. Obviously I have a full time career that funds this adventure so I don't plan on leaving that any time soon, but hey, if it takes off and I can earn a little extra cash, why not right? Do what you love as they always say. I love my career and I love candles... soooo... Here we are. One thing I don't have though at the moment, are "product pictures" since obviously I haven't made 380 different things, so I am hoping it doesn't detract from people purchasing, because I'll grab pictures then 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallTayl Posted December 27, 2015 Share Posted December 27, 2015 Thanks. It's been a few years in the making. <snip>One thing I don't have though at the moment, are "product pictures" since obviously I haven't made 380 different things, so I am hoping it doesn't detract from people purchasing, because I'll grab pictures then I often shy away from photoless listings when others are fully photographed. I don't really know why. You could always start day 1 with a shorter list of products with all the photos, then add a few at a time until the catalog is "full". The benefit here is you always have "new things" when people visit your site.depending on the colors of the finished product, you could make one then photograph it with different labels and props to make sure the listings have pics. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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