How it looks on a shelf

Candles are bought by people who cannot smell them through the lid, which puts unusual weight on how the thing looks.

Bought by eye and by nose

The eye decides whether they pick it up. The nose decides whether they buy it. Both have to be served, and makers often serve only the second.

Which means the vessel, the color and the label are doing the first half of the sale before the lid comes off.

What reads at two meters

Vessel shape and color, then the color of the wax, then the label as a block of tone.

The fragrance name is legible at arm's length and not before. Your brand name is read third.

So a range that varies by wax color and label color outsells a range with beautiful uniform branding, on a table, every time.

The tester problem

A candle cannot be sampled the way a soap can. The standard answer is an unlidded tester of each fragrance, which then loses its scent over a weekend and misrepresents the product.

Better: keep testers lidded and let the customer open them, and replace them on a schedule rather than when they seem weak. A tester that smells of nothing is worse than no tester, because it tells the customer your candles do not smell.

Some makers keep scent strips dipped from the oil, which is honest about being the oil rather than the candle and avoids the whole problem.

The display

Height and facing. Candles laid flat or crowded in a box show nothing; on a riser at eye level, lids facing forward, they show everything.

And leave space. A dense wall of candles reads as stock; six well-spaced ones read as a product.

References