Summer Sales: How well do you guys do?

[Absyrtus]

How well do you guys do in the summer? Christmas boosts any retail operation, but with candles, it seems as though there is even more fall/winter incentive. Is it harder in the summer to stay around? What about you guys in the south?

[southernscents]

This was my 1st year of selling. I live in KY. It was really slow this summer. It is hot and humid. I don't burn as many candles in the summer as I do in fall/winter. It is just the thought of the heat for many I believe. We have 2 shows this month and I hope everyone is ready for shopping. I did make a basket to take to show my regular customers Friday and someone bought it. They all loved it. Have orders for 4 more, woohoo!!!

In the summer lots of people take vacations, kids are out of school (some have to pay daycare), and work on their yards. I feel that I am going to have a good Holdiay season. Hope you do to.

[RobinInOR]

Branched out into products that are easier to sell in the warmer months.

[sudsnwicks]

Not very well. Summer sales are slow due to people being away on vacation and what not. I see it as my opportunity to take a vacation too! I didn't sell a lot of candles but B&B sales were okay as people needed something to combat the dry heat we have here.

[cindym]

My sales tripled this spring and summer, but this is only my second year, also added a lot to the line including soap so that helped. I am dead on straight out now and will be probably til Christmas, a little restocking for my retailers after Christmas and then slows right down. I have also branced out into a lot of other scents for summer and spring and they are still selling now. Go figure. This is the time of year to make you money so be relentless in production, I delivered 60 candles to one of my accounts yesterday and she wants 60 more. The retailers are thinking with the price of gas there will be more local shopping.

[Fire and Ice]

The sales this summer were much lower due to very hot weather and the fact that I dropped out of a large show due to it being too hot to sell my soy candles! Hope the fall and winter sales will be much better.

[sharyl55]

Guess it depends how hot it is for you in the summer. It was brutal here and folks just weren't that interested in buying candles. I did OK on air freshener type products. And several hurricanes were bought for hostess gifts.

[Absyrtus]

Bummer

Carpe Diem

[mountainmadness]

I expanded my line this summer and was accepted at our local Farmer's Market. I did 10x the amount that I did last summer. Working every Sat. took some time getting used to with also working a regular work week but it was worth it. I used my profits for a down payment on a new house and have enough left over for the couch that I want.

[KristinesShower]

This was my first year being retail and during those really hot months we kept our A/C blasting and got tons of foot traffic, but didn't make as much as I thought we would.

It did help that we added some things that were especially for the warm months like our aloe vera whips. We really marketed that to sunburned or tanned people & sold alot of those.

I am not too familiar with what is a good day in retail, but we were lucky to make just around $50 - $200.00 each day.

[gottabt]

Summer sales were almost non-existant. I did sell some things to friends and on my site but nothing to get excited about. I used the time to revamp my stock and get my marketing together. I am lucky because I know that my main customer is opening in November so I was busy pouring. I can not do shows during the summer and even the October one in 2 weeks could be a little too warm. It really depends on your area as to how sales go. Jan, Feb and March were still good for me - the summer starts early here.