Organic Bath/Body Care & Beeswax Candles

[NewEdit617]

Yes, it's time for some shameless self-promotion. ;-)

For years I've been interested in natural health, making nearly all of my own food, avoiding plastic containers, etc. I started making organic lip balms, soaps, fluoride-free toothpaste, and lead-free-wick candles for myself because it was impossible to find these things commercially. This expanded to selling the items on eBay, and now I've launched a website to have more direct control of the operations. I'm happy to sell to other Objectivists, and accept common forms of payment as well as silver. http://www.aurum-naturals.com

[Imogen]

I checked out your stuff. It looks great.

I wonder, though, about your prices; I could buy your stuff at your prices and then sell it for double-- here, anyway. For instance, your 6" beeswax candles sell here for $12-$14. Anything larger is proportionately higher priced. And I would expect to pay $8-$9 for those lip balms.

I live in the far north though, and I know that most Americans would have heart attacks from sticker shock up here, but even still, you could definitely sell higher. I used to make all my own stuff, but have in the last two years, been buying it because I want to spend my time doing other things. I pay $13 for a 350ml bottle of shampoo, $7 for a bar of soap, and other similar prices for other items. Your prices are what I would pay for nasty, noxious chemical-laden so-called body-care products and paraffin, synthetically scented candles.

I only buy completely natural, organic, no-synthetics products, after a bout with breast tumours in 1998. I have had no recurrence.

Maybe you should market to Canada: you'd make a much higher profit here, if your current prices reflect the American market's prices for similar products.

ETA: It would be really nice to have much larger images of your products on your website, too. Viewers would be able to see the textures of the open products and the packaging, which are both high selling-points for your products and also important to you, as expressed in your narrative.

Edited November 29, 2010 by Imogen

[NewEdit617]

Imogen,

Thank you so much for your input!

From 2001-2005 I went to university in Ontario and didn't notice that prices were particularly any higher than they are here in Michigan. Maybe things have changed? Commercial beeswax candles are usually priced more than what I sell mine for, but compared to other homemade candles on eBay and Etsy, mine are average to slightly above-average priced. It's nice to hear that you think I could ask more for them.

I do ship to Canada and will start some marketing efforts there-- thanks for the suggestion.

[softwareNerd]

I'm not qualified to comment on the products, but I agree with Imogen that you need to let some nice photos do the talking on your web site.

[RussK]

I had lunch with someone the other day, and she brought up the topic of organic hair products, specifically shampoo. Even though I sarcastically rolled my eyes at the beginning of the conversation, while she was telling me about a new product, she asked me if I knew where to get "essential oils" for the hair. I'll be sure to send her your URL.

[claire]

Not just photos - I could barely read the script. Everything needs to be larger.

[Imogen]

Imogen,

Thank you so much for your input!

From 2001-2005 I went to university in Ontario and didn't notice that prices were particularly any higher than they are here in Michigan. Maybe things have changed? Commercial beeswax candles are usually priced more than what I sell mine for, but compared to other homemade candles on eBay and Etsy, mine are average to slightly above-average priced. It's nice to hear that you think I could ask more for them.

I do ship to Canada and will start some marketing efforts there-- thanks for the suggestion.

Etsy is a strange beast. I have often wondered why some people bother to sell there at all, given that they couldn't be accounting for both materials and their time with such low prices. Certainly they have every right to do this, but it is a matter of time before they cannot continue; likely when their spouses stop supporting their crafting.

I would never use Etsy for market analysis. There has been some mainstream criticism of Etsy's crowd being made up of mostly middle-class housewives who are not doing anything but paying for more materials to do more crafting. Not a good business plan, in my opinion.

There are a lot more people doing real business through Etsy, now though. Here's one. I don't know anything about ebay other than that I avoid it because it's a pain in the a$$.

Then again, I'm giving my perspective as a consumer and not a retail business owner/operator, so I'm certainly not qualified to give anything other than my opinion.

Oh, and by Canadian standards, Ontario is "south", given that it contains the southernmost part of the country. I'm between the 61st and 62nd parallel, roughly inline with Anchorage, Alaska. There's only one road in, through treacherous mountain passes, so we pay dearly for anything coming up here. Despite that, the province from which most products like yours are sold, is British Columbia (lots of back-to-the-land-ers with hipster attitudes, lol), and the prices I pay are for products from there.

Ontario's a mixed bag, but there, and here also, people are willing to pay for good quality and assurance of it. Your target consumer is already prepared to pay more than drugstore prices, so I think you can charge significantly more.

If you snazz it up to give everything an exclusive boutique flair, which would cost minimally more for you, you could go really far, I think. I know that any of my friends, myself included, would be suspicious of your products being as clean and healthy as you've described, just because the prices seem way too low for what you've offered.