Pricing a candle for Etsy: one candle, worked all the way through
Most pricing advice for candles is a rule of thumb: double the cost for wholesale, double again for retail. That is a fine sanity check, but it skips the step that surprises new Etsy sellers: fees grow with the price, and shipping can quietly wipe out the margin. So instead of rules, here is one candle priced from start to finish. Swap in your own numbers in the cost and price calculator.
The candle
An 8 fl oz tumbler, filled to about 7 oz of finished candle, at 8% fragrance. That splits into 6.48 oz of wax and 0.52 oz of oil.
Materials
| Item | Price paid | Cost per candle |
|---|---|---|
| Soy wax | $3.20 / lb | $1.30 |
| Fragrance oil | $2.00 / oz | $1.04 |
| Jar and lid | $1.75 | |
| Wick and sticker | $0.12 | |
| Labels | $0.25 | |
| Box and tissue | $0.60 | |
| Materials | $5.06 |
Notice the jar costs more than the wax. That is common, and it is why pricing from “wax and oil” alone goes wrong.
Labor and overhead
Six minutes per candle covers pouring, cleanup, labeling and packing when you batch. At $20 an hour, that is $2.00. Overhead covers things that are not in any one candle: test candles, thermometers, pitchers, a share of rent or insurance. Say $0.40 per candle.
True cost: $7.45 (the wax and oil lines are rounded; the calculator keeps the decimals).
Etsy’s fees
In the US, Etsy charges a $0.20 listing fee, a 6.5% transaction fee on the item price plus any shipping you charge, and payment processing of 3% plus $0.25. So every sale costs $0.45 plus 9.5% of what the buyer pays.
If you want a 50% margin, meaning half the price is profit after cost and fees, the price has to cover all three at once:
price = (cost + $0.45) ÷ (1 − 0.095 − 0.50) = $7.90 ÷ 0.405 = $19.51
So about $19.50 is the floor for a 50% margin. The old rule of thumb, four times cost, says about $30. The truth for most sellers is somewhere between, depending on the market.
At $24
Say you price it at $24 with shipping charged separately at what it costs you. Fees on the item are $0.45 + 9.5% of $24 = $2.73. Profit is $24 − $7.45 − $2.73 = $13.82, a 58% margin. That is a healthy candle.
The shipping trap
Now offer free shipping on the same $24 candle. A packed 8 oz tumbler often weighs 1 to 1.5 lb with the glass, box and filler, and postage for that can be several dollars. Every dollar of postage comes straight out of the $13.82. Use the shipping weight calculator to find your real packed weight and postage tier before you decide.
What to take from this
Write down every cost once, including your time. Price for a margin after fees, not before. And check your price against both the formula and what similar candles sell for. If the formula says you need more than the market pays, the fix is usually in the jar, the packaging or the minutes, not in a cheaper wax.