How many fragrances do you carry in your lines at one time?

[xverion]

We have started with 12 ourselves but was wondering how many you started with and how many do you have now?

[Crafty1_AJ]

I currently stock roughly 50 paraffin scents and 30 soy scents. HTH

[mystical_angel1219]

I started with six scents.

Now, I am in total denial of how many scents I really do have and sell.

Let's just say- it's in the triple digits. It's totally out of control.

However, I am seriously scaling back in the future. I have weighed the pros and cons. In fact- someone posted a reference to 2 different booths in a mall. This was an actual test study. One had a bazillion choices. The other had maybe 12. The vendor with a bazillion choices had much more traffic in their booth. The vendor with the 12 scents did something like 4X the sales. These booths were right next to each other.

I often think less is more these days. Think about it- if a person had 100 scents so to speak and the person next to them had 12. You'd think the person with the 100 scents would be rockin' in the sales. Not the case according to this study. I do not base my theory solely on this study. But I firmly believe if you have a unique, well made product and some creative marketing, you can do good numbers in sales with less hassle and inventory.

I will tell you this from experience. Don't try and please everyone with scent selection. They say 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customer base. Something to consider.

[Candle Man]

You also need to do a poll in your area of what type of scents your customers like.

For example in my area I can not sell any type of Bakery scents any time of the year. My customers say food scents make them hungry and they are on a diet.

I have found over the years what sells in my area and I don't even sample scents that would not sell for me.

If you decide to sell outside of your area or state then that is a whole other list you would need. I have a store 30 miles from me, that carries my candles, and they can't sell Sweet Pea and I sell a ton of it.

So you need to make a list of different type of scents and have customers check off which types they like. Remember there are many different scents in each type. That way it will give you an idea of what type of scents appeal most to your customers.

Scent types like...

Spring

Summer

Fall

Winter

Fruits & Berries

Citrus

Baking, Food & Drink

Coffee

Floral

Spice

Earthy / Woodsy

Perfume / Cologne dupes

Tropical

Ocean

Fresh & Clean

Fall Holiday

Christmas Holiday

Also Dupes like Yankee, Bath & Body Works, Victoria's Secret etc. that is if you wish or are carring these.

This is just a list I came up with, you may want to add or change it to fit your needs.

HTH - Candle Man

[katy]

I started out with 10 and now i am up to 110. I love adding new scents.

[charity4candles]

I started w/ 10 quickly rose up to over 100 and decided to scale back and keep it around 40. I agree w/ candle man... Whatever sells in your area would be the best to go by. I can't sell anything but bakery/food scents here. For some reason, the floral and perfume dupes do not sell at all. I made a costly mistake by going all out and thinking more was better. I quickly found out that less is more.

[bella soy]

Im still testing scents and im not even selling yet. but i do know that i sont want to carry anymore than 10 scents per catagory. For instance, i plan to do a bakery, spa, clean home, and fruit line. so Im making sure that I dont go over ten for each catagory. If you think about it thats still 40 scents.

Im having a hard time addind scents because I cant get half of what i test to burn good enough....lol...

[mrscranker]

We carry aproximately 65 different scents, however each spring we take an inventory of what has been selling and put on sale what is not selling and get rid of it - by marking it down to wholesale prices Then we can test and try new scents -- it seems like our little store does well with this process and our customers like it when we say --- we got a new scent for you to try....We have about 25 different scents that is our staple scents we could not get rid of -- and it's a pretty good mix - with florals - bakery - spicy - fruty.

Terry

[Tess]

I started with 4 scents. I now carry over 65 and counting. I started my biz about 4 years ago.

[Fire and Ice]

I carry 60 scents year round but if I add something to the list, then something else has to come off. I'm not going above 60 scents. And I started off with 15 scents when I debuted at a local show. But I also do strictly soy candles. I've been making soy candles for 5 years now.

Fire:cool2:

[Breanna]

Right now I have about 50 scents to offer,,On my site I let them know if there is a scent not listed I can get it,,I have had to do this only once so far!!!,,,I believe in having a wide variety and I am ADDICTED to FO,,LOL

[Kaybee23]

Okay, so where is Trish? She is a FOHO for sure, LOL! I bet she won't tell us how many FO's she has.

[mystical_angel1219]

Okay, so where is Trish? She is a FOHO for sure, LOL! I bet she won't tell us how many FO's she has.

You got that right- and the Queen Fo Ho is Scented. :rolleyes2

I am guessing she has over 250 scents- conservatively.

Mind you I love her, but she is a true Fo Ho. LMAO!!!

[The_Dallas_Texas_Dean]

I offer 11 fragrances in one line, and will be offering 12 fragrances in a completely different line. 2 lines, 2 markets.

I am closly monitoring sales and reorders. Before a fragrance is added to the line, the one with the least amount of sales will be dropped.

With 11 fragrances, in my opinion, there is a candle for everyone that wants to purchase a candle in this market. I put a LOT of thought into my choices, and so far, everyone seems pleased. In retrospect, I would only change two of the fragrances. I would NOT offer Warm Vanilla Sugar or Red Clover Tea....BUT, we will see how they sell. It is all new to me.

[xverion]

Just wanted to thank everyone for all the input! Keep it coming, you've given me somethings to think about!

[Janette]

I keep my selection to 16-18 scents. If I add a new one I usually drop an old one. Inventory just gets to crazy with too many scents. Also, all my stock is made beforehand, so 60 or 100 scents would mean I would have to keep too many candles on hand.

Janette

[Crafty1_AJ]

I agree that too many choices can frustrate and overwhelm. Yet too few choices doesn't feel right either. I've been to sites where my head is swimming because there are so many and it makes me indecisive so I don't choose anything. On the other hand, I've been to sites where there are maybe only 4-6 choices, and I don't care for ANY of them.

My solution is to offer a moderate number of scent selections in each of the basic categories (florals, fresh & cleans, herbals, earthy/spicy, bakery, fruity), but to keep customers from feeling overwhelmed, I break down the fragrance selections into categories. That way, if someone hates florals, they can just skip that whole category. Or if they only like fruity, they can zero in on those 8-10 choices. Seems to simplify and to help not overwhelm. I do this on both my website and on my show/market displays. I have one riser that only has my floral candles, for example. Another for the fruity, another for bakery, etc.

This seems to be the best of both worlds for me.

[comfortscents]

I probably have about 200 scents..I don't even bother sending out a scent list because it just confuses the buyers..it's hard to explain scents like snakebite, pink bombshell..so believe it or not..my customers usually ask me to pick for them..mainly that applies in the soap category and for candles I just make what I like and send them to retailers..as someone said earlier one scent may be a bomb at one retailer's and a sell out at anothers. I retail in very diverse locations..I just got an order for 100 soaps and 100 candles all in bakery scents for a kitchie bakery that is opening..I even retail at a dog groomers who can't keep my floral candles in stock for over a week. I find that if I like something a lot and recommend it to a buyer they usually fall in love with the scent and order it over and over again. That happens to me all the time with dogwood..I always send out freebies with my ebay auctions which then convert into new sales of whatever freebie scent I sent...never underestimate the power of a freebie..lol

[judyvega]

I just barely started selling, and only six scents right now. We'll see how it goes and progress from there...

[Juliette]

I started with 8 scents almost 9 years ago and now have 40. It is so tempting to try all the new scents but it would be way too much for me to maintain at this point if I added a lot more. Someday I will add more but doubt I will go over 50 or 60.

[Crafty1_AJ]

Someday I will add more but doubt I will go over 50 or 60.

That's about my upper limit too. LOL I do occasionally offer a new one, but I drop one that's a slow seller as well. Or my supplier may discontinue something, which sorta drops a scent FOR me. heh heh

[Nanasnecessities]

I have over 400 in tarts, I have them in alpha.

I have markers on the outside telling what group it is.

(perfume, bbw, yank, etc) People love to come in and sniff. They think I always have something new. I don't but some get their names changed.

I must be doing something right cause I sell a ton.

I do not carry such a large amount in candles. Many scents don't throw as well in candles. I carry enough to have a large selection though. They are also in alpha order.

For my rep wholeslaers I carry 30 choices and three seasonals. Noway am I going to try to have that many on hand for those guys.

For my regular wholesales they pick them and I stock them for them.

I have a tart list, candle list and soap list.

different mins on each of course.

It does seem to be true that some sell florals (not flower shops for me though, figure that out...) some sell bakery and some like racey. They can all be in the same area, but with different customer bases. I have a herbal natural scent line for the nurseries and ony a few of them sell at the nurseries. But they sell like crazy elsewhere. My wholsalers usually already know what scents are going to sell in their customer base so I go with that.

Every now and then I get a request, but usually can accomadate with a close scent and a name change. especially the racy, they really like them.

[whiffandsniff]

I have about 100 oils and a million sample oils. There are a few that I'm removing once the oil runs out because they just didn't sell well.

[dcroome2005]

I have almost 200 but I am scaling down big time. I did notice like some others say that when you offer them too many choices- it overwhelms them. I don't know how many sales I probably lost due to "too many choices" I rememeber at one time, I had 6 different Vanilla's they could choose from. Ridiculous on my part. I have to get rid of a lot of them just to keep me sane! Not all of them sell ( probably a lot to do with 1. I don't push that scent and 2. the name) but I am working on getting better. I dropped like 15 scents just in the past 2 weeks so I am feeling better. I would like to get down to 50 if I could! I am just so afraid that I won't have a scent that someone wants!

Christina

[charity4candles]

I just always make a note that if there is a scent they want and don't see it on my list, that I can get it for them. Me personally, I would rather have more to choose from, but not everyone are addicts like us. lol