When people ask how we grew from a kitchen table operation into a candle brand with 160 plus wholesale accounts, they usually expect a secret. The truth is that a big chunk of those accounts came from putting our candles in front of store owners who were already shopping for products to stock, and the easiest way to do that at scale is a wholesale marketplace like Faire. If you have ever wondered how to start a candle business that actually gets into stores, this is one of the fastest paths I know.

I am Sabastian, co-founder of Garsnett Beacon Candle Co. in Holland, Michigan. We started during the pandemic pouring candles at home, and wholesale is what changed everything for us. A marketplace is not a replacement for real relationships with local shops. It is a tool. But it is a very good tool, and if you use it right it can bring buyers to you while you sleep.

What Faire actually is (and why store owners love it)

Faire is an online marketplace where independent retailers go to discover and order products from makers like us. Boutique owners, gift shops, coffee shops, and salons browse Faire the same way a regular shopper browses a website, except they are buying at wholesale prices to resell in their stores.

The reason retailers love it comes down to two things: net 60 terms and free returns on opening orders. A shop can order your candles and then wait 60 days to settle their bill. For a small store owner watching cash flow, that removes the risk of trying a brand they have never carried before. And here is the part that matters for you: you still get paid on your normal schedule. Faire carries the risk, not you.

Getting your candle brand set up the right way

Setting up a shop on Faire is free and easy. But easy to set up does not mean easy to do well. Here is the order I would follow:

Nail your photography first. Buyers scroll fast, so your listing photos are the whole game. A clean white background shot, a styled lifestyle shot, and a size reference shot for each product is the minimum. If your photos look like a hobby, buyers assume your candles are a hobby. Get your wholesale pricing locked in before you list a single thing. Your wholesale price is typically half of your retail price, and your cost of goods needs to sit comfortably under that wholesale number with room to breathe. Do not guess at this. Run the actual math so you are not accidentally selling at a loss the first time a big order comes in. Set a real minimum order. Somewhere in the 100 to 150 dollar range is common for candles, high enough that an order is worth the packing and shipping time. Too low and you are drowning in tiny orders that eat your day. Write descriptions that sell. Tell the buyer how the candle burns, the fragrance notes, and why their customers will reorder. A store owner is deciding whether their shoppers will buy this, so help them picture it selling.

Before you set any of those prices, do the numbers cold. I lean on our candle pricing calculators for exactly this, because a wholesale price that feels fine in your head can quietly wipe out your margin once shipping and Faire's cut come off the top.

The fees, in plain numbers

Nothing free is truly free, so let me give it to you straight. Faire takes a commission on orders. For a brand new customer that Faire brings to you, it is usually around 25 percent on that first order, then 15 percent on their reorders. For a customer you brought to Faire yourself, using your own referral link, there is no commission at all. That last part is the piece most new makers miss.

Here is how we think about it. If a store finds us on Faire and we never would have reached them otherwise, that 25 percent is basically a finder's fee for a customer who might reorder for years. That is a good trade. But every local shop we pitch in person, and every account we already have, we send to Faire through our own link so those orders stay commission free while the shop still gets the net 60 terms they love.

How we drive our own traffic to it

The makers who win on Faire do not just list and wait. They treat it like a storefront and drive their own buyers to it. When we walk into a local boutique to pitch, I do not ask them to set up a whole new vendor account and mail a paper check. I tell them we are on Faire, hand them our link, and let them order with terms they already trust.

We also mention it any time a retailer reaches out through our Garsnett Beacon store asking about wholesale. Instead of building a custom invoice, we point them to Faire. It makes us look bigger and more established than we were in those early days, and it just makes ordering painless for them.

If you want the full picture of how we approach wholesale beyond the marketplace, including how to pitch stores directly, I put everything into our Wholesale 101 guide. Faire is one channel. Real relationships are the other, and the two feed each other.

A few honest warnings

Faire is not magic. I have seen makers pour hours into a shop and get crickets, usually because their photos were weak, their prices left the retailer no margin, or their catalog was three lonely candles with no cohesive brand. A store owner is imagining your line sitting on their shelf, so give them a lineup that looks like a real brand.

Watch your production capacity too. A few active stores can turn into repeat orders faster than you expect, and there is nothing worse than winning accounts and then blowing the reorder because you could not keep up. If you are still building out your setup, our supply checklist will help you stock up so you are not scrambling.

Should you start today?

If your product is dialed in, your burn tests are solid, and your branding looks professional, then yes, I would set up a Faire shop this week. Even if you get zero orders in month one, having it live means the next time you pitch a store, you have a professional ordering system ready to go.

Wholesale is the reason our little kitchen table brand turned into something with real stores carrying it and multiple brick and mortar locations of our own. A marketplace like Faire lowered the barrier to getting that first yes from a shop owner. If you are figuring out how to start a candle business that grows past friends and family, this is a lever worth pulling. Want the full step by step on building the whole thing? Start with our 10 step guide to starting a candle business, and come hang out with thousands of other makers in our free Facebook group where we talk shop every day.