High Growth eCommerce Brand | Unique Eco-Friendly Candles | DTC Sales via Website & 195 Whole Foods Locations | Handmade in the USA | 7 Years in Business

Pending

Website Closers® presents an eCommerce Brand that blends fragrance with function in their hand-made candle products. This 7-year-old acquisition specializes in the production and sale of their proprietary eco-friendly, non-toxic candles, which are available in 9 different product styles and come in their own ceramic containers. Once a customer has finished with their candle, they can then repurpose the container by filling it with soil and plant the included seed-paper label to grow their own wildflowers.

These proprietary candles, which are made exclusively in the US, have flourished in a market that has grown increasingly more environmentally conscious. Customers are more aware than ever of their impact on the world around them, and of pressing issues such as climate change and deforestation. The brand’s core demographic consists of eco-friendly women between the ages of 25 and 45 who might not have a green thumb, but are still interested in the idea of reducing, reusing, and recycling their candle into a brand-new plant pot.

The brand has an Average Order Value (AOV) of $70, and as their candles make for thoughtful gifts, their sales consistently peak in the 60 days leading up to Christmas.

Business Broker Takeaways

1. Multiple Sales Channels. While Shopify is their main storefront, the brand’s products can also be found across Amazon, The Gromett, and Faire. Additionally, they have an active wholesale channel, with their products being currently available in 195 Whole Foods locations nationwide. The brand ships anywhere between 50 to 100 orders every day from their 7,500 square foot warehouse, and exclusively use FBA to handle their Amazon sales.

2. Remote Operations. Current ownership spends 20 to 40 hours a week combined on communicating with their production/studio team and customer service rep, creating Meta ads, improving their website, email marketing, and ordering materials and maintaining inboxes. A buyer could significantly reduce their workload by hiring a studio manager and working with a full-service marketing agency.The brand currently has 6 part-time employees working for them as well, one of which acts as a team lead and another that handles customer service. They also sub-contract a graphic designer, meta-ads buyer, email marketer, photographer, and Amazon distributor.

3. Strong Brand Recognition. The brand excels in their niche, with none of their competitors making the same claims about the non-toxicity of their products that this company has been able to. They have been on Good Morning America’s Deals & Steals program 6 times, and during the first couple years of their business, they worked diligently to promote themselves with influencer outreach and publication features for a stronger presence.They now run Meta Ads and have an affiliate program and a semi-automated outreach program for influencers, retailers and corporations through corporate gifting. They also have a normal email marketing platform for customer communication that makes use of their over 55,000 email subscribers. Their reputation and marketing have given them an average monthly visitor rate of nearly 40,000.

Scale Opportunities

Like the plants that customers can grow in their candle pots, this brand can, with proper TLC from the right buyer, come to blossom in brand new ways and meet their full potential. They could achieve this by continuing to release new products, and focusing on funding for their additional seasonal inventory needs to avoid running out of stock during peak seasons. Additionally, the brand could continue to pursue retail opportunities for increased revenue. They are currently in 195 Whole Foods locations and are working on a repeat order for Q4 with REI, proving that retail options could lead to significant continued growth.

Improving the company’s marketing campaign would be incredibly beneficial for their long-term growth. Their website is currently fully unoptimized, which they could improve by working with a CRO agency and by implementing SEO keywords. These strategies would not only improve their customer experience, but also bring their website higher up on Google organic search results.

The brand could also work with an agency for improved Meta ads, polish their Google and email advertising campaigns, and explore social media marketing. Social media sites like TikTok, Pinterest, and/or Podcast Ads all have great potential, and could attract a new wave of environmentalists and self-care enthusiasts to the brand.

Last but not least, the brand’s Amazon storefront is currently underutilized, being primarily used for liquidating out-of-season fragrances. They have, however, developed a relationship with a successful Amazon reseller who has agreed to operate their Amazon business. Given the strength of Amazon as a sales platform, they would likely benefit from continuing to invest more effort into their storefront there.

Conclusion

This acquisition would be an excellent fit for an experienced operator who knows how to optimize the systems already in place. They have appealed to customers across the nation by being scents-sitive to both their needs and the environment as a whole, and are set to scale with the right marketing and expansion tactics.