Preparing for Candle Season
Consumer trends continue to focus on home decor and enhancing personal spaces for everyday living. Candles in particular give people an opportunity to add character and depth to their home environment, with the added benefit of being able to easily switch between scents as desired.
Fun Fact: There are 10 million smell receptors in the average person’s nose. Everyone smells things slightly differently, which means how a person perceives a fragrance will be unique to that individual.
Retailers must pay great attention to the candle category to capture their share of this $3 billion annual business. As a consumable product, shoppers will return to your store for their favorite fragrances regularly, giving you a chance to snag add-on sales of other goods regularly.
In addition to personal use in the home, candles are an ideal gift for many situations, creating endless opportunities for sales.
Candles Make Ideal Gifts for:
Holidays
Housewarming gifts
Hostess / dinner party gift
Thank you gift
Birthday gift
Candle Sales Surge as Weather Cools
Half (50%) of all retail candle sales occur in the 4th quarter. This is a critical time for your store to be merchandised with appropriate fragrances and enough inventory.
July and August are key months to plan and order stock to meet this demand. Plan each segment of the season separately – Fall, Holiday, and Everyday. Consider a large order to arrive in late August with enough product to mass out and fill your candle department. Follow this with multiple orders of varied ship dates throughout the season to ensure inventory continues to roll in and keep your assortment fully stocked with top selling fragrances.
To match your consumer’s seasonal buying preferences and to maximize profits, our experts recommend a merchandising plan with this time-tested fragrance flow:
Fall Fragrances
August through early October - Apple, pumpkin, cinnamon, and maple based scents.
Holiday Fragrances
Beginning in mid-October - Balsam, spruce, spices, other holiday scents. Blend fragrances with a traditional red, white, and green color palette.
Everyday Fragrances
Important year-round, and right up to Christmas Eve for gifting.
Key Takeaways for Candle Success
Order early so you have plenty of inventory on hand for the fall season kickoff, with additional supplemental orders scheduled throughout the season and into the holidays. Keep everyday fragrance displays well stocked year-round for gifting. Create additional displays around your store to feature the unique fall and holiday fragrances throughout the 4th quarter. Attention to detail and inventory will train shoppers to trust you as a resource for all their gifting and home fragrance needs.