Markup on candles!

[Mnhorsemom]

What do you consider a reasonable markup from a retailer? I sold some candles to a gift shop in town (my first wholesale account). I sold my 8oz square masons with the nice heavy zinc lids (soy) for $6 and my 10oz apoths with the metal lids with handles for $9 (I know that sounds hi for wholesale but because of where I live shipping of supplies to me it OUTRAGEOUS so it makes my cost a bit hi) Anyway, I stopped in the shop today and they have my 8oz marked at $14.95 and the 10oz at $20 Does that sound normal or not. I'm afraid that at those prices my candles won't sell.

[friendlyMOM]

For retail I sell at 3x the cost and my wholesale I sell for 2x, sometimes if its a small wholesale account I go a little more but not much, HTH

[judyvega]

What do you consider a reasonable markup from a retailer? I sold some candles to a gift shop in town (my first wholesale account). I sold my 8oz square masons with the nice heavy zinc lids (soy) for $6 and my 10oz apoths with the metal lids with handles for $9 (I know that sounds hi for wholesale but because of where I live shipping of supplies to me it OUTRAGEOUS so it makes my cost a bit hi) Anyway, I stopped in the shop today and they have my 8oz marked at $14.95 and the 10oz at $20 Does that sound normal or not. I'm afraid that at those prices my candles won't sell.

What type of customer do they get? Upper class who can afford it, or middle of the road, or.....? That seems high to me, but it depends on if their base customers are willing to pay it, I guess.

[cindym]

If they don't sell them they may lower the price. Probably just testing the maket.

[Georgia]

If they don't sell them they may lower the price. Probably just testing the maket.

True...it's easier to lower the price than to raise it. Personally, I don't think it's too high, but it does depend on your customers.

[northkountry]

That sounds high for my area but where you live they may be able to get that for them.

[sudsnwicks]

Maybe this shop runs specials often e.g. buy 2 get 1 free candles or a storewide 25% off. By starting with a higher price, they could have these sales without losing money.

[Candle Man]

WOW!!! an 8oz for $14.95 all I can get for them here is $6 and that's roughly 2.6% over my cost.

Now I do have another 8oz in a much more expensive container and I have to price it at $12.

Just where do you live that you have to pay such high sipping? Are there not any suppliers close to you that carry anything you like to use?

I just ordered 50LB's of supplies the other day and the shipping was only $13 and some change. When I went to order 50LB's of wax from Candlewic the shipping was going to be 60% of the total cost, that is just OUTRAGOUS. I normally don't pay any more than 20% in shipping, even from CA to AR.

[BruceCarvesWax]

WOW!!! an 8oz for $14.95 all I can get for them here is $6 and that's roughly 2.6% over my cost.

</p> Really?? Did you want to say 2.6 times your cost? If your 6.00 retail is only 2.6% over your cost.... we need to have a talk! LOL Bruce

[topofmurrayhill]

Really?? Did you want to say 2.6 times your cost? If your 6.00 retail is only 2.6% over your cost.... we need to have a talk! LOL Bruce

Seriously. And Bruce means "talk" like Tony Soprano means "talk" - LOL!

[sudsnwicks]

WOW!!! an 8oz for $14.95 all I can get for them here is $6 and that's roughly 2.6% over my cost.

There seems to be a wide variation in price for 8 oz jars. I've seen them as low as $4.50 and as high as $12.95 (a store in my area - well sort of anyway as they're 1.5 hrs away). And now there's the $14.95.

[Mnhorsemom]

I live in west central Minnesota, and no there are not any places to by supplies locally. The closest place is the place that I buy my soy wax from and it's almost 2 hours away. I can't get jars or any of my soaping oil locally. I ordered 50# each of palm and pko the other day from Columbus foods and it cost me $37 for the shipping and the was the least expensive priced oils I could find. I usually get my jars from candles and supplies and they are half a country away so shipping from them is high too. Oh well, what can person do :rolleyes2

[Trish]

One thing to keep in mind is retail stores tend to double their cost. So if you sold to them for $9, I could see them charging $18. Was there shipping involved? If so, that would explain the couple of extra dollars, but I still think those retail prices are too high, jmo...

[LynnS]

Gee all I can get is $5.00 for a 8 ounce jj.If they got the 8 ounce for $6.00 they could sell it for $9.00 and make a profit.I really don't think they will sell.Check back in about a week and see how it is going.The most I see on internet for 8 ounce is $8.00 to $9.00.

LynnS

[Janette]

The prices may seem high, but there are many retailers marking up beyond double the wholesale price. Higher end stores often mark up 2.2 times the wholesale price. It will be interesting to see how well they sell for that price. Let us know what happens. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Janette

[Candle Man]

</p> Really?? Did you want to say 2.6 times your cost? If your 6.00 retail is only 2.6% over your cost.... we need to have a talk! LOL Bruce

I think I got my % wrong. An 8oz JJ (which holds 6-6.5 oz's of wax) cost me $1.75 to make and I sell retail for $6.00 and I offer them 3 for $15.

I have looked into buying wax & jars by the pallet but that only saved me .10 per candle. The shipping by the pallet is so high I don't get enough savings to buy by the pallet.

In my area I can't always get 4X's my cost for retail on all of my products. Now some items I can get up to 10x's my cost, but that is rare.