Solved: Candle Business Not Getting Orders, Need Advice

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! I had a look at your post about your candle business and I'm happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance based on what I've seen working with other eCommerce brands. It's tough starting out, especially in a popular niche like candles, but it's definitely not a lost cause. You just need to get a few fundamentals right before you spend any more money on ads.

I've taken a proper look through your website and the situation you've described. To be brutally honest, I think I can see why you're struggling to get those first orders. It's a really common problem for new stores, so please don't feel disheartened. A lot of this stuff isn't obvious until someone points it out. My thoughts below are pretty direct, but they're intended to be genuinely helpful and get you on the right track.

We'll need to look at your website first...

Before we even touch the ads, we have to talk about the shop itself. You can have the best ads in the world, running to the perfect audience, but if you send them to a website that doesn’t convince them to buy, you're essentially just burning money. Your website is your 24/7 salesperson, and right now, I think it's letting you down. Based on what I've seen running campaigns for dozens of eCommerce stores, from subscription boxes to apparel, the website is almost always the first place to fix.

My first impression is that the store feels a bit generic and doesn't build enough trust for a new visitor to feel comfortable pulling out their credit card. When you're a new, unknown brand, you have to work twice as hard to build that trust compared to an established name. People are naturally sceptical of new online stores, worried about quality, shipping times, or even if the business is legitimate.

Here's a few observations, point by point:

Product Photography & Visuals: Your product photos are okay, they show the candle. But they don't *sell* the candle. They're very basic product-on-a-white-background shots. For a product like a candle, which is all about mood, scent, and ambiance, you need to sell the experience. You should be using lifestyle images. Show the candle on a beautiful coffee table next to a book and a cup of tea. Show it lit in a cosy, dimly-lit room. Show it on a bathtub tray. You need to help the customer imagine your product in their own home. A video of the candle being poured, or just a short clip of the flame flickering, can also be massively effective. It makes the product feel more real and premium.

Product Descriptions: This is a huge missed opportunity on your site. I looked at the 'Midnight Lavender' candle, and the description is just "Scent: Lavender, Chamomile, Sandalwood". That tells me the ingredients, but it doesn't tell me a story. It doesn't sell me a feeling. You're not just selling scented wax; you're selling relaxation, calm, a luxury experience. The description should be evocative. Something like:

"Let the day's stress melt away. Our Midnight Lavender candle is your invitation to unwind. Imagine the calming scent of a wild lavender field at dusk, blended with the gentle, soothing notes of chamomile and a warm, earthy base of sandalwood. Hand-poured with natural soy wax, it's the perfect companion for a quiet evening, a relaxing bath, or simply a moment of peace for yourself. Light it and transform your space into a sanctuary of calm."

See the difference? One is a list of facts, the other is an experience. You need to do this for every single product. Tell people what feeling the scent will give them.

Lack of Trust Signals: This is probably the biggest factor holding you back. A visitor lands on your site from an ad. They don't know you. They are asking themselves "Can I trust these people?". Right now, your site doesn't give them many reasons to say yes. Here's what's missing:

• -> Reviews: There are no product reviews or customer testimonials anywhere. This is the single most powerful trust signal. Since you have no orders, you can't have real reviews yet. A short-term fix is to give some candles to friends and family (who aren't involved in the business) in exchange for their honest, detailed review and a photo of the candle in their home. Get those up on the product pages ASAP.
• -> About Us Page: Your 'About Us' story is a good start but it could be more prominent. People who buy from small, handcrafted businesses want to know the story behind it. They want to connect with the founders. Put a picture of you and your friend on that page. Make it more personal. Talk about your passion for candle making. This builds a human connection that separates you from massive, faceless corporations.
• -> Social Proof: You should link clearly to your social media profiles. If you get featured in a blog or a local magazine (even a small one), put "As featured in..." on your homepage. It adds immense credibility.
• -> Clear Contact & Policy Info: Make your contact information, shipping policy, and return policy incredibly easy to find. Having a physical address (even a P.O. Box) and a phone number can increase trust significantly.

Your homepage also feels a bit cluttered, and on my connection, it was a little slow to load, which can cause people to leave before they've even seen anything. You need to simplify the message. What is the one thing you want a new visitor to do? Probably to look at your best-selling candle. Make that front and centre.

I'd say your ads are probably struggling for a few reasons...

Now, let's talk about the ads. You mentioned you've run Facebook and Instagram ads but only got "a couple views". I'm going to assume you mean a couple of website clicks, not just ad impressions, because if you're only getting a handful of impressions then the budget is likely far too low or there's a technical issue.

If you're getting people to see the ad but very few are clicking (a low Click-Through Rate or CTR), it means your ad creative and copy aren't compelling enough. They're getting lost in the noise of the social media feed. If you're using the same basic product photos from your website in your ads, that's likely the problem. Ads need to be thumb-stopping. A short video, a vibrant lifestyle photo, or a carousel ad showing different scents and uses will almost always outperform a static image of a candle on a white background.

The other critical mistake I suspect you might be making is your campaign objective. Many new advertisers choose "Traffic" or "Engagement" because they're cheaper. This is a trap. You are telling Facebook's algorithm to find you people who are likely to click or comment, not people who are likely to buy. These are very different groups of people. You MUST optimise for "Conversions" (specifically, the "Purchase" event). It will be more expensive per click, but the quality of the traffic will be much, much higher. Your cost per click will go up, but you'll actually have a chance of making a sale.

Think of the customer journey and where people are dropping off. This is how I diagnose problems in ad accounts:

• -> Low CTR / High Cost Per Click (CPC): This is an ad problem. Your creative (the image/video) and your copy (the text) are not good enough. They aren't grabbing attention or creating desire.
• -> Decent CTR, but few "Add to Carts": This is a landing page/product page problem. People are interested enough to click the ad, but when they get to your site, something puts them off. It's usually the things I mentioned above: poor photos, weak descriptions, high price, or lack of trust.
• -> Lots of "Add to Carts" but no Purchases: This is a checkout/trust problem. People want to buy, but something stops them at the final hurdle. It could be unexpected shipping costs, a complicated checkout process, or a final pang of "am I sure I trust this site?".

Based on your situation ("no orders"), the breakdown is happening at every stage. But you have to fix them in order. First the website, then the ads.

You probably should rethink who you're targeting...

This is the other massive piece of the puzzle. Who are you showing your ads to? One of the most common and costly mistakes I see is targeting that is way too broad. Just targeting an interest like "Candles" or "Home Decor" on Facebook is not enough. You're competing with huge brands and reaching millions of people who have only a passing interest.

You need to get much more specific and think deeply about your ideal customer. Who is this person? What do they like? What other brands do they buy from? Where do they hang out online?

For a new store with no data, you'll be starting with "cold" audiences using detailed interest targeting. The goal here is to find pockets of people who are highly likely to be interested in your specific type of product. I always structure campaigns using a funnel approach: Top of Funnel (ToFu), Middle of Funnel (MoFu), and Bottom of Funnel (BoFu).

You're at the ToFu stage. Here's how I'd approach your initial audience testing. I'd create separate ad sets for different "themes" of interests so you can see which one works. Dont just lump them all together.

You would run small budgets to each of these themed ad sets (all with your new, improved video/lifestyle ads) and see which one delivers the cheapest "Add to Carts" or (hopefully) "Purchases". Once you find a winner, you can put more budget behind it.

Once you start getting traffic and sales (even just 100 website visitors is enough to start), you can move into the next stage: retargeting (MoFu/BoFu). This is where you show ads to people who have already visited your site but didn't buy. These audiences are gold because they're already familiar with your brand. You can show them a different ad, maybe with a small discount ("Still thinking about it? Here's 10% off to help you decide") to entice them back.

You'll need realistic expectations on cost...

This is the part nobody really likes to hear, but its probably the most important for saving you from disappointment. Paid advertising is not a magic switch; it's a process of buying data. You have to spend money to learn what works—which ads, which audiences, and which products resonate. You will almost certainly lose money at first. The goal is to lose it intelligently to gather the data you need to become profitable.

Let's do some very rough maths. This is based on averages I see across many eCommerce accounts in developed countries like the UK or US.

The cost per click (CPC) on Meta ads for an eCommerce brand can be anywhere from £0.50 to £1.50, or even higher. A typical eCommerce website conversion rate (the percentage of visitors who buy something) is between 1% and 3%. Let's be optimistic and say you can get your new, improved website to a 2% conversion rate.

Here’s the calculation: Cost Per Click (CPC) / Website Conversion Rate = Cost Per Purchase (CPA)

Let's plug in the numbers:

As you can see, you could easily be spending £25, £50, or even more to acquire a single customer. If your candles sell for £20, you're making a loss on that first purchase. This is why it's so important to fix your website conversion rate first. If you can get your conversion rate from 1% to 2%, you literally halve your cost to acquire a customer. This is also why having a good average order value (encouraging people to buy 2-3 candles instead of one) and customer lifetime value (getting them to come back and buy again) is so important for long-term success.

I'm not showing you these numbers to scare you, but to set your expectations. It takes budget and patience. I remember working on a campaign for a subscription box client where we hit a 1000% Return On Ad Spend using Meta Ads, and another time for a women's apparel store getting a 691% return using Meta and Pinterest Ads. But those results came after weeks of rigourous testing, optimising the website, and building out a full-funnel advertising strategy. It doesn't happen on day one.

This is the main advice I have for you:

Okay, that was a lot of information. To make it more manageable, I've broken it down into a prioritised action plan. This is what I would do if I were in your shoes, starting today.

As you can probably see, getting an eCommerce business off the ground with paid ads has a lot of moving parts. It's not just about making a nice product and running a few ads; it's about building a trustworthy brand, understanding the psychology of your customer, creating compelling advertising, and being disciplined with your data analysis.

Navigating all of this on your own can be time-consuming and expensive, especially when every pound spent on an underperforming ad is a pound you could have reinvested. This is often where getting professional help can make a huge difference. An experienced eye can spot these issues quickly, implement proven strategies, and help you get to profitability much faster, saving you from costly trial and error.

We do this day-in, day-out for our clients. If you'd like to have a more in-depth chat where we can go through your specific situation on a call, we offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation. It could be a good way for you to get some more tailored advice and see if professional support is the right next step for your business.

Either way, I really hope this detailed breakdown has been helpful and gives you a clear path forward. You've clearly got a passion for what you do, and with the right strategy, you can definitely make it work.

Regards,