how many products do you offer?

[Craftedinthewoods]

How many Fragrances do you have for sale at any given time?

How many different styles or sizes of candles do you offer?

[barncat]

45+ fragrances...um styles and sizes...oh geez 15+ maybe in addition to non candle items. Quickbooks says i have around 1500 skus...ugh..i offer to much crap!

[NaturallyTru]

I am restarting my business and have 16 regular scents and 4 fall/winter lined up. When I did it before, I had usually 25-26. I noticed at craft shows people had trouble with too many scent choices (don't we all?). I actually watched a couple people walk away because they couldn't decide. I am still looking for a spice and coffee type to bump my selection up to 18. Then I'll just concentrate on them until money rolls in to buy more samples to test (have a list going already...lol).

Trudi

[LuminousBoutique]

I used to do over 30 fragrances, but only 15 of those consistently sell, and in group testing I found people are overwhelmed by more than 10-15. So this season when all is said and done I will have 15-20 but not all will be available year round or in all products.

I am only pouring my 8oz masons this year for shows. They sell the best and perform the best IMO of my line so I am discontinuing my 7oz tumblers for now aside from one store that carries them. I will also keep doing tealights, because they are an impulse buy for people and make me a bit of scrap.

In B&B and Soap I make 15 different CP soaps regularly and 4-5 "new" ones every year and some "seasonal" soaps.. those I will confinue making, I only buy FO's that work in B&B and Candles so whatever I have for one I have for the other.

I also make lipgloss (not balm... a liquid gloss in a roller), healing balms, mustache balm/wax (more of a joke than anything but it sells, lol), bath bombs and bath cupcakes, lotion bars, perfume oils in rollerballs, so on and so forth.. Sometimes I get bored with certain things and decide not to sell them that year... really depends on my mood.

[adillenal]

I don't do candles but I make and sell bar soap, liquid soap, and various lotions all year. In the fall I add solid perfumes, whipped shea butter, lipbalm, facial soaps, children's glycerin soaps, talc free body powder etc. I need to cut down on the number of different soap scents I carry due to people getting overwhelmed with too many to choose from.

[Desertrose]

Fragrances....I think we have around 60 in the cupboard at home here but at any given time we do not OFFER all 60. (We're in the middle of a fragrance cull right now.)

For our wholesale customers we offer around 30 different scents.

Products... we do jar candles in several different containers, palm and soy.

Palm pillars, palm tart melts (mini and normal size), votives - a limited selection, two different types of bakery melts.

We used to do tea lights but we've scrapped those now co's neither of us can stand to pour them.

At our market stand we also sell hand made candle mats, and a selection of rusty tin ware/candle accessories.

I find that for an "interesting" looking market stand it's good to have plenty of variation. That's what I'm attracted to personally anyway.

I've never seen (or at least not been aware of) anyone not buy anything because they can't decide. On the contrary we've had customers who have ended up buying several items because they can't choose.

We've got the whole country look going on though which is condusive to the whole "cluttered" look, so I guess it works for our stall.

However, for our wholesalers they just want jar candles and melts predominantly.

Two different kettles of fish really.

[Candybee]

For candles I do 15-20 scents. A couple of years ago I decided to cap my number of scents to no more than 20 at any time. I agree with others I see people having trouble choosing with any more.

For the past year or two I scaled down my candle sizes because people weren't spending money on larger candles like 16 oz. But last season people starting asking me for larger sizes so I think I will add a large size again this year.

I also sell M&P soap, goat milk lotion, and lip balm. These sell really well so I will stick with them. I sell a ton of soap every year so I offer 12 scents that I put in trays and 4-5 additional scents in gift boxed soaps that I put on risers.

I tried adding in massage cream last year but its not catching on so I am dropping that.

[Vicky_CO]

After I just finish making my catalog I decided way to many. I would like to scale back to 10 products with specialty items for each season or holiday maybe next year. I really need to clean out my scent list but I am a FO junkie so it hard to do that.

Now for shows that is differant I take on size container(up to 30 scents), melts(in up to 50 scents), pillars(20 scents) and a few unscented items.

[van_yulay]

I used to 11 years ago, have 48-60 scents. Crazy.. Everyone wanted this scent, and then that scent. It got over whelming. Now I carry 21 scents

I took 4-5 scents of each category, Fruity, Flowery, Neutral, or Musky. Now everyone sells great and no left over product hanging around.

[asheebeans]

Believe it or not I used to carry well over 100 fragrances. That was pure insanity! It seemed like people kept ordering the same fragrances, no matter how many I carried. I've whittled it down quite a bit and plan on whittling down even further. Eventually I am getting out of candles altogether. I am still going to cut my B&B products too, until I find more time to produce them. Plain CP soaps are my bread & butter anymore anyway!

[adirondack]

Right now I have a little under 100 but I only carry tarts. So this is why I carry alot of tarts. I also do air fresheners in any of the scents I offer.

[Craftedinthewoods]

Thanks for your replies. I offer 20 - 22 scents in 2 sizes... An 8 oz. mason jar & a 4 oz. travel tin. I've been thinking about adding another jar type, but I think I'll stick with what I have. They sell well and there's no reason for me to get into more, more more when I'm seeing you all seem to say " less is more" .

Whew! That takes the pressure off. I'll give myself permission to not work as hard as I did last year developing all my candles! Now I can enjoy the repeat sales! :smiley2:

[Common Scents]

I am in the process of reopening after moving to a new state. I only offering one product for now - 9 oz hex jar candles. I'll add tarts in the next few months but to keep costs down for now I stuck to just the jars. As far as scents to start with I'm only gonna have 20, 15 year round scents, and 5 seasonal scents. But I will work my way up to 30 with 20 year round and 10 seasonal. I only change the seasonals twice a year - a spring & summer round and a fall & winter round. I constantly monitor the year rounds to see what's moving & what's not and make changes if I need to. I don't do bath & body so I'm a wax only operation. After I add tarts I plan to add aroma bead sachets too but will only offer 10 or so scents in those. Hope that helps!

[CandlePup]

Currently to our friends (and word of mouth apparently), we offer a few varieties of candles. Generally tarts, floaters, votives and mini pillars (2x3.5), but what we lack in overall product we make up for in fragrances. As of current we offer about 45-60.

I know there are a few that we don't carry, again like someone stated, such as Wild Cherry (or really Cherry anything around here) unless my partner is making the candles (the scent to me smells like cough syrup).

[flowerbaby]

What is a CP soap? I am new to this. Thanks, E

[Love2Scent]

OK, call me insane but we have 245 in our regular line available in a crap load of products. Then we have seasonal ones that we rotate based on the time of year. We really have gotten too big (in respect to our fragrance choices) but every time we cut one someone comes looking for it. Guess we are just suckers for punishment

[Mottster]

We roll with the 3 T's.

Tarts

Tureen (8oz)

Tealights

With 30 scents available.

Works well for us..

[Nanasnecessities]

I carry about 250 scents. I am mostly tarts so it is not that big of a deal. I was up to over 300, but we got rid of some that are very much alike. I do the 8 oz masons and a 16 wickless for the canlde warmer people. I am also a country store and people seem to like a lot of choices and very cluttered look. We tried cutting back more, but people have their favorites...

[LuminousBoutique]

Man I can not imagine having over 200+ scents. It has to be a regional thing because no matter how many times I ask people, and no matter how much feedback I get from shows, it always comes down to 15-30 scents that people consistently request/mention/purchase... and all I ever hear from customers is that they distain "too much" choice because its overwhelming.

Sometimes we get the oddball request but I cant justify adding it to the line just because one person liked it. Like lemon verbena... my best friend and husband loved it, but I hated it. So I poured them anyway, thinking it doesnt matter what I like... and not a single one sold. But all my top sellers sold out. So... idk. I think its best to just stick to what you know and feel comfortable with. Then again I am the anti clutter, I am SO OCD and I am really about keeping it simple.. so more than anything it could be that I am nuts, and I found something that works and dont want to get out of it, lol.

[sojomy]

Wow, 200+ scents?!? And I thought my mom site was carrying too many with a little over 50! She lives close to a candle supply store, so she can usually get them anytime she needs them, but they usually wanna sell them to her by the gallon. Fortunately she has some will power to resist!

But the last time I went to her house I saw dressers full of them, so I keep telling her to put all of her leftovers on her site! Eventually someone will want 4oz of this random scent or 2oz of that one.

[LuminousBoutique]

I keep telling her to put all of her leftovers on her site! Eventually someone will want 4oz of this random scent or 2oz of that one.

She can put them in the classifieds, on here too.

[sojomy]

She can put them in the classifieds, on here too.

Excellent, thank you, I'll let her know. She has tons of odds and ends that she could probably offer in one big lot. I expect she will be registering on this site soon.

[blwoods]

Resurrecting this old post:

Wow-- where to begin...

Ok

Clamshell Tarts--- 60 fragrances

Incense-- 40 fragrances

4oz and 10oz candles-- 25-30 fragrances (best sellers from the tarts)

CP Soap-- 20 fragrances

Lip Balm-- 10-15 fragrances

Solid Perfume-- 10-15 fragrances

Bath Salts-- 15-20 fragrances

Bath Bombs-- 15-20 fragrances

Bubble Bars-- 15-20 fragrances

Bath Melts-- 5-10 fragrances

Massage Bars-- 3-6 fragrances

Sugar Scrub-- 5-10 fragrances

Body Butter-- 5-10 fragrances

Mineral Cosmetics--- I offer 15 different foundation shades, 10 lipstick shades, 8 blushers, about 40-50 eyeshadows at any given time, and anywhere from 5-10 eyeliner colors. This doesn't include Veil, Bronzer, and Concealer.

This is what is made in house-- I did not include what I have contracted out (facial line, lotions, shampoos/conditioners).

[Catlover]

I agree with Luminous about the less is more thing...and I'm in TN, where the "country" look rules. :smiley2: Personally, I have a harder time focusing on products when there is a lot of clutter. But, to each his/her own.

I have about 34 fragrances (including seasonal/holiday scents) offered in just two simple candle sizes, and I still have people who claim to be overwhelmed with the choices. :undecided I'm always tempted to try a new fo, and I will, but I'm going to stick to the same rule about clothes: if you get something new, throw something out!

[Kitn]

I have 30 different CP soap , maybe 6 are unscented. I think it is to much and once some have sold out , I won't bring them back. As so may have said, it is overwhelming for some people.