Online shopping find: Ambrosia Luxury Scented Candles

I love having gorgeous scents wafting through my home – from gorgeous candles to some of my favourite essential oil blends in a vapouriser. This week’s online shopping find profile features a store that you just wish the internet could offer smell as well as sight. Ambrosia Luxury Scented Candles is home to many of your favourite luxury international and Australian candle brands.

 

Store

Ambrosia Luxury Scented Candles

Who

Rachel Zerner

What do you sell in your store?

Ambrosia Candles stocks a gorgeous selection of luxury scented candles sourced from boutique candle makers in Australia and home fragrance specialists from around the world. The Ambrosia Candles collection includes a hand picked range of high quality, generously fragranced candles from popular brands including ECOYA, MOR, Gascoigne & King, Floriosa, L’ASCARI, Aquiesse, Votivo, Floris London and Jonathan Ward London.

Products included in the Ambrosia Candles collection are assessed upon a number of qualities. We carefully evaluate each addition to our range based on attributes including the quality of product, type of wax used, level of fragrance throw, product presentation, brand reputation and country of origin.

How did the idea for your store come about?

My husband, Adam, and I knew we wanted to start an online store of some kind. With my background in online marketing and my husband’s skills building and designing websites it was just a matter of coming up with an idea that we were passionate about.

I have been obsessed with candles for many years and after countless weekends of dragging Adam all around Sydney from candle shop, to homeware store, to perfumeries on the hunt for unique candles, we realised that candles certainly fulfilled our criteria of a product that we were passionate about.

We researched the idea further and found a gap in the online space for a candle store specialising in many of the high end, quality candles that we found in boutiques and upmarket homeware stores around Sydney.

What’s is your career background?

I have a number of years experience marketing across different industries, from telecommunications and prepaid payments, through to online restaurant guides and even carparking.

Adam, my husband, is a user experience architect with a background in web development. In his career, Adam has worked on websites for major brands including St George, Westpac, Vogue, Taste.com.au and CSIRO.

Who is your key customer?

Our primary customer is quite often female, aged approx 25 – 55 who tend to have a higher disposable income. We are also finding that men are beginning to take quite an interest in scented candles!

How do you make it easy for your online customers to buy from you?

We recognise that purchasing a scented product online is no easy task so we have implemented a number of features on our website to help make the process of buying home fragrance products online as simple as possible.

We describe every scent as in depth as possible, detailing each essential oil used in the production of the fragrance. The packaging and presentation of candles are described thoroughly through both product descriptions and images, so customers can be sure the candle will fit the décor of their home.

Each scented candle is categorised by fragrance type as classified by internationally renowned fragrance expert, Michael Edwards. If customers typically love a fresh, vibrant citrus aroma, they can search for candles from the same fragrance family and make a selection from scented candles with similar fragrance notes.

All candles have been tried and tested by Ambrosia Candles staff. We have reviewed each and every fragrance and picked out our own personal favourites to help our customers with their decision making process.

We also encourage our visitors and customers to contribute reviews and share recommendations with other candle lovers. We frequently profile specific products and brands on our Facebook and Twitter pages to give customers insight to the brand’s philosophies and inspirations for their fragrances.

Our website is also so easy to use and navigate. We were recently announced as a National Winner in the 2011 Australian Web Awards. Our website took out the title for best eCommerce website in Australia.

Do you sell in person or in a physical store as well?

Currently we sell online only. We deliver all around Australia for a flat rate of only $5 – plus shipping is free for orders over $100. From time to time, we also participate in markets around Sydney, giving customers the opportunity to sample some of the candles first hand.

List your current most popular products?

Our most popular locally made brand is Gascoigne & King. The Gascoigne & King Paddington candle, named after the trendy Sydney suburb, has mass appeal with notes of tulips and tuberose.

From international candle makers, the Golden Amber candle by Aquiesse is not only our favourite of the whole collection but also our customer’s. This is the one candle that as soon as our customers receive their orders, many are back online straight away ordering a second!

ECOYA is a popular brand that most of our customers are very familiar with and all their fragrances are equally as sought after.

What’s next for your online store?

In 2012 we have a number of new luxury scented candle lines we are planning to introduce to our online collection. These will include a range of unique local artisian candles, as well as some well know luxury brands from overseas.

Styling You’s top 3 picks

1. Ecoya Lemongrass and Ginger Metro Jar $37.95 | 2. MOR BellaDonna candle $34.95 (on sale) | 3. Floriosa Fleur di Cassis $49.95

Do you love candles? What’s your favourite candle brand? Favourite scent?

*I was gifted the Floriosa candle above in accordance with my Disclosure Policy.

For more places where Styling You readers like to shop, check out the Styling You Shopping Directory