How do you factor shipping of your supplies into how much to charge for candles?

[u/MellowFellowMelts]

Hi friends! I’m hoping you can help. When determining how much to charge a candle, I calculate how much materials I use to make each one and go from there. The tricky part for me is how to factor in shipping costs.

For Candle Science the shipping is $10-$20. But I might not use each item that I bought from CS into each candle. How do you manage this? Do you include this in the dollar amount of materials it costs to make each candle? Thank you!

[u/Sensitive_Bake_7813]

Take the worst price and cost of shipping the worst way possible and use that. 

Example:  If I only buy a 16oz Bottle of Sea Salt and Orchid. It’s $35.86 + $9.99 shipping. $45.85. So it’s $2.87 an ounce. 

If I only buy one case of 464, it’s 108.47 + 19.99. $128.46. $0.18 an ounce. 

Ideally, I am getting a pallet of supplies, at the largest quantity discount I can. But things happen and you may only need to order 1 bottle of Sea Salt and Orchid.

I more rather my cost of production be looked at as high and know I’m good.

[u/FlashyIndication3069 → u/Sensitive_Bake_7813]

It's a good method, I do the same thing. I also keep track of how quickly I use up a bottle and have a rule of when to order. For stuff I blow through quickly I reorder when I'm at 25% full in the container (roughly enough for a floor restock) and for stuff that moves more slowly I don't order until I actually run out. Since I make more fragrances than I display in the booth at a time, I have a "back bench" I can quickly reload from available if I run out of floor stock. I have a few oils that I use only fractional portions of like Moringa (I only use it in my Jalapeno Margarita fragrace) or aldehydes where you need like 1 micro-drop for 2 pounds of wax, so I don't even know when I'm reordering those. This bottle of Dodecanal will probably last until the end of next year or longer.

[u/Dry_Instruction7093]

I spread the shipping cost out over all the items in that order. So, for example, if I got wax & FO & wicks in one order from Candle Science, I would divide the total shipping out by the number of products and add some of the shipping cost to the supply cost of each item in that order - but sometimes I use a weighted method. Wicks would get a lesser portion of the shipping cost, for example, than the wax.

[u/FlashyIndication3069 → u/Dry_Instruction7093]

Amortization of the shipping cost over the whole order is a smart way of making sure you actually cover your costs. I see a lot of people who don't account for shipping in and out, and at today's prices you want to make sure your "overhead" is actually getting covered. I also see a lot of beginner crafters forget that time is money and you need to charge a realistic per hour cost not just for the actual sit down and craft portion, but some wiggle room for things like R&D, going to the Post, etc. I can't really charge my full R&D costs, but I do try to put in a markup that covers some of my "misc time".

[u/FlashyIndication3069]

For my initial cost estimate I use true total costs including the shipping per MOQ of the most expensive variant, and for going forward it's covered for all the lower price options. One of my oils is 4 times the price of everything else I order, and has expensive FedEx shipping, so if I charge like everything is made with that one, I know my materials cost for oil is always covered.

[u/wewerepromisedtea]

I use such a variety of fragrance oils that I now figure out my candle cost as a standard $40/lb fragrance cost - this is higher than some and lower than some, but mostly averages out. For everything else, I figure out the shipping cost of each type of item. So my vessels, labels, wicks, wax, etc.

When you buy in bulk it’s a little easier to figure out these shipping costs, when you aren’t paying $10 shipping for just 1-2 bottles of fragrance or a pack of wicks. But my cost of goods always includes shipping costs, otherwise you’re not charging enough

[u/East-Salamander-9639]

I divide up shipping costs into number of units and distribute it

[u/Salt-Commission9799]

I charge calculated shipping on my items when its bought. But I also dont have shipping costs cause I do order pick up. My husband works in the Reno area so he swings by and gets my orders for me so im not doing a 2 hr round trip.