How to build lasting wholesale relationships for your candle or soap business Ideas to nurture first-time wholesale orders into loyal, long-term partnerships.

You’ve done the hard work of getting your candles or soaps into retail stores—well done! But landing those wholesale accounts is just the beginning of the wholesale journey. Building strong connections with retail partners is the key to the longevity and success of your wholesale business.

In this article, we explore strategies to turn first-time buyers into long-term stockists. These approaches will help you create authentic partnerships that benefit both your business and your wholesale customers.

Serving your wholesale customers with care and attention isn’t just about being personable—it’s also a smart way to do business. When you invest time into nurturing these relationships, you’re likely to see:

• Steadier revenue through consistent reorders
• Natural sales growth as some shops order in larger quantities over time
• Increased brand exposure as your products reach new shoppers

Another reason to focus on deepening these relationships? Consider the investment of time and energy you made to land this business! From creating a line sheet to finding potential retailers and pitching your candles to them, you put in a lot of work. Maintaining these relationships is crucial for maximizing your return on this investment.

With these many benefits in mind, let's look at three strategies for long-term wholesale success: proactive communication, retailer support, and asking for feedback.

Consistent, thoughtful communication forms the foundation of any strong relationship, including those made in business. 

The key is being proactive: reach out to your stockists rather than waiting to hear from them and think of yourself as a partner in their success, not just a supplier waiting for orders. 

This means going beyond simply responding to emails—it’s about creating meaningful touchpoints throughout your partnership. Here are three ways to do that:

The moment a retailer receives their first order from you, this is your chance to set the tone for the partnership. In addition to making sure the order is well packaged to arrive safely, tuck a handwritten thank-you note into the box that:

• Shares your excitement about partnering with them
• Briefly mentions a couple of specific reasons you think your products will resonate with their customers
• Reiterates your commitment to answering any questions and providing support

This sort of personal touch helps establish a positive connection and shows that you value their business. 

The next step in proactive communication with retailers is to have a follow-up plan. These post-sale touch points demonstrate your genuine interest in serving your wholesale customers and helping them succeed. 

Whether an email or direct message, connecting at these intervals is helpful to retailers and allows you to both stand out and stay ahead of potential customer service issues:

• One day after the order is delivered: Ensure that all the products in the order arrived safely. If not, now’s the time to promptly take care of replacements or a partial refund.
• One month after the order was placed: Reach out to see how the products are selling. For retailers with online stores, you may even be able to check stock levels through their website. If inventory is running low, you look like a star for paying attention and reaching out at just the right time!
• Three months after the first order: If the shop hasn’t yet placed a reorder, touch base to learn more about what’s happening. A conversation will help you understand if there are barriers to reordering or potentially reignite interest in your products.    

Maintaining a dedicated email list for wholesale contacts makes staying in touch with them simple and easy. 

Include shops that presently work with you, as well as shops who’ve ordered in the past, and those that have expressed interest in carrying your goods on this list. Always get permission to to add retailers to this email list. You can invite them to join the email list when pitching them or when they place their first order.

Wholesale email marketing can happen less frequently than direct-to-consumer marketing. Reaching out once every one to three months is usually enough to keep your brand top of mind with them, especially if you’re also touching base directly.

Effective content for these emails includes:

• Announcements about upcoming seasonal collections
• Behind-the-scenes looks at your production process they can share with their customers
• Tips for merchandising and displaying your products effectively
• Success stories from other retailers (shared with their permission, of course)
• Wholesale-exclusive promotions
• Important reorder deadlines for seasonal items

On top of regular touch points with retailers, providing them with product information and educational support increases the possibility of your candles or soaps selling well in their stores—and keeps the reorders flowing in! 

Here are three ways to empower your retailers and have greater success with your scented creations.

Shelf talkers are postcard-sized signs displayed with your products in stores. Usually 4”x6” or 5”x7” in size, they briefly highlight various aspects of your brand and products such as:

• Benefits like candle burn times
• Answers to frequently asked questions
• Key ingredients or unique formulations
• Your brand story
• Charitable giving 

While they feature eye-catching product photography, these are more than pretty signs. They function like silent salespeople to help create connections with, and educate, browsing shoppers. 

Include them with wholesale orders and as you make new ones, be sure to send them to stockists as a courtesy.

We created the shelf talkers above in Canva and printed them in partnership with Avery WePrint. Save 10% on professionally printed labels, postcards, and more with AveryWePrint! 

Knowledgeable, enthusiastic shop staff are excellent brand ambassadors that can dramatically increase sales of your products. However, most shops carry multiple dozens, if not hundreds, of product lines. This poses a challenge for store employees to be familiar with all the goods on the shelves. 

Providing resources about your line will help stores be more effective advocates that result in sales. Ideas include:

• Enclosing a “cheat sheet” that highlights product benefits, features, and key selling points  
• Offering hands-on, in-person training sessions for local shops
• Creating video, or holding virtual, trainings for out-of-area retailers
• Sharing product descriptions and photos for retailers to use on their ecommerce sites and social media

Who doesn’t enjoy getting something for free? Rest assured, your retailers do! Sharing products “on the house” goes a long way to build both goodwill and support sales. 

Like with any promotions, though, you want to be strategic. Giving away too much product will quickly add up, so you want to think through the most effective ways to employ this idea. Two approaches to consider:

• Free testers with qualifying orders. This could be standard for first orders, available for reorders over a certain amount, or both. Testers are tools that help stores show off the scents and, in the case of candles, allow customers to experience their hot throw before purchase.
• Samples of new fragrances or products. When launching new scents, products, or seasonal collections, sending samples to your retailers is highly beneficial. Not only can they preview the products, which helps them make their buying decisions more confidently, this type of attention also makes them feel valued and positions you as a proactive, thoughtful partner.

The final strategy for creating lasting wholesale relationships is asking for feedback from the shops you work with. A willingness to hear the good, the not-so-good, and everything in between is validating to your wholesale customers and builds trust. 

Additionally, your retail partners are an invaluable source of customer, market, and product insights! Because they interact directly with the end customers daily, shops uniquely understand preferences and can even spot emerging trends first.

You will naturally get some feedback from your shops by using the proactive communication ideas outlined above. But if you want more specific feedback, consider layering in an annual wholesale customer survey.

Surveys are an opportunity to gather more detailed and structured information from customers. They’re useful for understanding larger trends and are helpful in identifying patterns or topics that you should pay attention to. 

Through surveys, you might ask about:

• Current products and their sales performance
• Ideas for new products and scents
• Marketing material usefulness
• Packaging effectiveness and appeal
• Ordering process satisfaction
• Shipping and delivery experiences
• Customer requests
• Suggested improvements

Free and affordable survey tools include SurveyMonkey, Typeform, and Jotform. They provide data visualizations to help you understand answer trends and help you identify areas that need attention.

Building strong wholesale relationships takes time and intention, but the effort you invest will pay dividends in long-term business sustainability and growth. 

Start by choosing one approach from this article and implementing it. Once that’s integrated into your workflow, gradually add more elements until you have a comprehensive nurturing plan in place.

To help you decide on which strategy to begin with, consider these questions:

• What communication schedule would best serve your retailers while remaining manageable for you, or your team if you have one?
• What additional support materials might help your products sell better in stores?
• How can you make feedback collection a natural part of your wholesale process as it currently is?
• What systems do you need to put in place to consistently execute these strategies?

Successful wholesale relationships are more than merely transactions—they’re true partnerships. When you actively support your stockists, you create a foundation for mutual growth and prosperity. The resources you put into nurturing these relationships will often result in strong sales, more stable revenue, and opportunities for expansion as your retail partners grow alongside your business.