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How Can You Sell & Profit This Way?


Quentin

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I agree geodon99 many of us are in the business of selling candles...so really we are  just discussing this particular business plan...Perhaps she knows something we don't know....and perhaps we could help her....who knows..but none of this is meant to bash or be mean spirited to this Etsy seller.

 

 

 

 

 

15 hours ago, Quentin said:

 

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10 hours ago, Lana said:

This person is probably going to notice increased traffic coming from here and while it may be a good learning experience for her to find this site, some of what is said here comes off mean-spirited. Maybe the direct links and identifying images should be removed? 

If I seemed mean-spirited, I assure you that was not my intention. I apologize if my posts came off that way. When I started this topic, I was merely trying to find out and learn if I was the one that didn't know what was going on and if I was making stupid mistakes in the way I was buying or pricing. My only intent was market research. I should have been more specific in my initial post. As we all know, a person's "tone" often doesn't come through well in text messages or emails. That's probably why they invented emoticons like this one :embarassed2:. If we were all sitting in the same room together, that probably wouldn't be a problem. I don't mean that as an excuse for myself. I often find myself reading between the lines of what others post, text and email. To be perfectly honest, I really don't understand what you mean when you say that, "This person is probably going to notice increased traffic coming from here". I don't THINK I'm stupid.:lol: I'm just not knowledgeable about what you are referring to. Please explain what that means and we can consider this another learning opportunity.:)

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On 12/24/2018 at 11:50 PM, geodon99 said:

I can't imagine she will exist very long since she is losing all of the money she spends on shipping plus what she's losing by spending more to create her candles than she is selling them for.

I flew past this part the first time I read it. Reading it again (12/26/18) I see that you have answered the question my initial post was meant to convey. I was concerned that perhaps I was buying my raw materials in either the wrong places or not buying at the right price. Now I am relieved.:yay: 

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1 hour ago, Sunday said:

 

I agree geodon99 many of us are in the business of selling candles...so really we are  just discussing this particular business plan...Perhaps she knows something we don't know....and perhaps we could help her....who knows..but none of this is meant to bash or be mean spirited to this Etsy seller.

 

 

 

 

 

That's right. It's the same type discussion I've experienced sitting at conference tables. It's just a little trickier in this type venue.

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It has been a VERY long time since I have had a site myself so I hope I get this explanation correct - When you have a website you can view in your website tools as noted above - that there was increased traffic to the site and  if people came to your site from a link on another site you can follow that back to the link they came thru

Edited by scrubzz
Cleaning up my explanation a bit
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1 hour ago, Jenni Wix said:

This is why I'm not selling until I'm good and ready.  I guess we're all learning.  

I agree, but sooner or later you'll just have to jump in, make mistakes and learn from them. You can learn lots from the people on this forum but you will also see many different opinions and option upon option. It became overwhelming to me, so I just started doing it. Then I came back and reviewed what people had said and those posts were a little clearer each time. Imagine if you went to medical school and you graduated at the top of your class. Then you get your first job as a doctor somewhere. You might get to follow the experienced doctor who hired you, for a few days or so. The day finally comes when you have to see your first patient by yourself. To make matters worse, the older doctor has taken off work for the day. That would be scary. If I were in that position, I would go home from work that day as a complete nervous wreck. Stop right there! It just dawned on me. Every new job I ever had was just like that. Look at it that way, Jen. If you wait until "you're good and ready", that day will never come. On the job training is where people learn the most. Just don't throw away your textbooks.;)

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  • 7 months later...

I wanted to bring this topic up again.

 

I see no site of Belinda on Etsy anymore.  The original link does not work.  Maybe she was just getting rid of old inventory.

 

BUT recently I found this person

https://www.etsy.com/shop/MoonStoneCandleShop

 

Always running a sale

$3 for a 4oz

$6 for an 8oz

$8.80 for a 16oz

 

Now those are tin size and not wax amount.

The 4oz looks like a 8oz tin pic.

 

a wood wick on a 4oz tin?  The metal base will take up half the candle.

 

7700+ sales.  1st review was October 2018.

 

 

This intrigues me on soo many different levels.

 

 

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Wow, that's a lot of sales in just one year on Etsy. Even their FB page appears to be a year old. Square POS, I'd guess. It allows for sales at markets, faires, and other in-person transactions to be synced with the Etsy account, so while website traffic might be low those numbers keep going up and up. That's my understanding, at least.

 

The 50% sale might to there to attract online traffic, the loss in profit being offset by profits from in-person sales. Promotion expenses. Unfortunately, I couldn't find their in-person prices.

 

Edit: While there are 1525 reviews from confirmed purchases on Etsy, a lot of them appear to be duplicates (I don't know what's going on there; that's... odd). It doesn't appear to be a reliable number for estimating number of sales.

Edited by Kerven
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When I first stared making candles, I was looking at SELLING my product but as time progressed and life took a toll on my time, I decided that I did not have the time or energy to devote to SELLING my product.  As of this date, I am not interested in selling but only in producing a quality product for myself and friends/family...I guess I am not the candle mogal that I once thought I'd be.

But I still produce a candle that I am extremely proud to put my name one...kwim?

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14 hours ago, Quentin said:

I think I know how they do it. They lose money on every transaction, but they make it up in volume.:whistling:

 

@Quentin There is profit there.  Depending on how you define profit.

 

 

For me it is a profit on the product and a decent hourly wage.    If I basically eliminate the hourly wage I could easily compete at a price point with him.  If I sell 7000 tins at a $2 profit.  $14k a year in profit.  BUT how many hours did I have to work for that $14k?  Did I work 500 ($28/hr) hours?  or 2000 ($7hr)  hours

 

 

 

 

Excersie....

 

7000 candles in a year is ~135 a week.

 

I can pour about 60 small tins in 2 hours.  (only 4 different scents though)  That is unboxing, wicking, pouring, triming, labeling and then storing on a shelf.

I can probably ship 15 an hour.  So to ship 60 of them it would be 4 hours.

So to make and ship 60 of them I am in 6 hours.  12 Hours a week I am at 120.  (52*120=6240 candle a year)

($2 profit x 6240 = $12,480)

12 hours a week for 52 weeks is 624 hours

 Works out to be $20 an hour.

 

Not too bad of a part time job.  Some people would be really happy with that.

 

I am not saying there isn't more time involved or more work involved.  There is plenty of room for arguing my numbers.  But "volume" can justify a slim profit margin.  I know I am leaving out order supplies and marketing, and maintaining etsy/website.  

 

 

 

 

 

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Yes tins are easy to make, and the seller wants to make profit by volume. But I hope the seller is getting super cheap supplies.

It’s one way of getting reviews, then adding more expensive products down the road.

Some people do cheapies as loss leaders to get you into store, whether Etsy  or Bath and Bodyworks.

I will say make sure you price so you can afford to have Sales, pay for your website or Etsy shop and promotion/advertising and can offer

free shipping.

 

Also that seller is selling lots of tarts which will rack up a high number of sales. They are super cheap.

 

There will always be the cheapest and highest products selling. Know your product, estimate costs etc and price. Of course know you’re market. It’s always a tricky combination.

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Another thought on how some people can sell things so cheaply.  Perhaps they are not handmade.    

 

Lies abound.  Some rack up sales by advertising their products as 100% natural.  I'm not here to debate the meaning of that term, but I'm sure we could all agree that most synthetic fragrances are not plucked from trees.  

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  • 1 month later...
On 12/24/2018 at 9:48 AM, TallTayl said:

Those 14 sales could be to friends, family or a sock puppet account to get the sales ball rolling.  Could be this is truly a hobby and the profit does not matter. 

 

Regardless, I see pricing issues everywhere, even here. None of my business. Sellers come and go every day.

 

A lot comes down to luck.  the more I focus on my own business the luckier I get. 

Legendary investor, Warren Buffett, said, “Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” It’s been a reminder to me that success, in almost all forms, takes time and nurturing.

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  • 1 year later...

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