Beaches Candle Co., Neptune Beach, Jacksonville
Industry
Retail, Artisan Home Goods
Location
Neptune Beach, Jacksonville FL
Engagement
E-Commerce Build + SEO Strategy
Maya Tran started making soy candles in her Neptune Beach apartment in 2020. By 2024, Beaches Candle Co. had grown from a side project into a real business, she had a production studio, two employees, and sold out every weekend at the Jacksonville Beach Farmers Market, the Riverside Arts Market, and local boutiques like Harbor + Pine and Salt Life Collective.
The problem: her entire revenue stream was dependent on in-person sales. When it rained on market day, revenue dropped 80%. When a boutique didn't reorder on time, there was no backup channel. And Instagram followers, she had over 11,000, kept asking the same question: "Do you have a website where I can order?"
Maya had tried building a Shopify store herself. Twice. Both attempts stalled because the product photography didn't look professional, the shipping calculations were wrong for candle weights, and she had no idea how to drive traffic once the store was live. Her Instagram following was engaged and loyal, but she didn't know how to convert social attention into e-commerce transactions at scale.
She came to us with a simple goal: build an online store that captures the brand she'd built in person, the coastal Jacksonville aesthetic, the hand-poured quality, the community connection, and turn it into a revenue channel that could eventually exceed her in-person sales. The constraint: she had a $12K budget and needed revenue within 90 days.
The key insight was that Beaches Candle Co. didn't need a generic Shopify template, they needed a digital storefront that captured the same warmth and authenticity that made customers stop at Maya's market booth. Every decision was filtered through that lens.
We organized a professional product photography session on Neptune Beach at golden hour, with lifestyle shots of candles in beach cottages, on coffee tables overlooking the Intracoastal, and at backyard gatherings. We also created 360-degree product views showing the hand-poured wax texture and custom-printed labels. Each of the 24 SKUs got 6-8 images, a scent description written by a copywriter, and two lifestyle mockups. The visual system was designed to make every candle feel like a small piece of Jacksonville beach life.
We built a custom Shopify theme (not a purchased template) designed around candle shopping behavior: large, immersive product images, scent family browsing (Coastal, Citrus, Woodsy, Seasonal), a "Build Your Gift Set" tool that increased average order value by 40%, and a subscription option for the "Candle of the Month Club." The checkout was optimized for mobile (where 72% of traffic came from), with Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Afterpay integration. We also built a "Jacksonville Only" collection for local delivery with same-day options.
Most artisan brands ignore SEO entirely, leaving massive organic opportunities on the table. We optimized every product page with schema markup (Product, AggregateRating, Offer), created collection landing pages targeting "soy candles Jacksonville," "beach scented candles," and "handmade candles Florida," and built a blog with candle care guides, scent pairing recipes, and seasonal gift guides that drove informational traffic. We also submitted the product feed to Google Shopping for free organic listings.
Maya's Instagram following was her biggest asset but also her biggest missed opportunity. We restructured her Instagram bio link with a custom Linktree alternative showing featured products, set up Instagram Shopping with tagged products in every post, created a post-purchase sharing incentive ($5 off for a story tag), and designed email capture through a "First Order 15% Off" popup timed to appear after 30 seconds of browsing. Within 60 days, we'd built an email list of 2,400 subscribers from the Instagram bridge alone.
Candle businesses live and die by repeat purchases. We built a 5-email welcome series, a post-purchase sequence (burn tips, refill reminders timed to average candle lifespan), a "restock alert" for favorite scents, and a seasonal launch preview for VIP customers. The email flows alone were responsible for 31% of total online revenue by month 4, with an average revenue-per-email of $1.82, exceptional for a DTC brand.
The store launched 6 weeks after kickoff. By month 6, online revenue had surpassed all in-person sales combined:
Monthly Online Revenue
$0 $47,200↑ By month 6
Conversion Rate
N/A (no store) 3.2%↑ 2x industry average
Average Order Value
$28 (single candle) $68 (gift sets + upsells)↑ 143% higher AOV
Repeat Purchase Rate
Unmeasured (in-person) 42%↑ High retention
Email Subscribers
0 4,800↑ Owned marketing channel
Revenue From Organic Search
$0 $11,400/mo↑ 24% of total revenue
I was pouring candles in my kitchen and selling them at farmers markets. Now I have a production studio, five employees, and customers in 38 states. Jacksonville SEO Company didn't just build me a website, they built me a business. The "Build Your Gift Set" tool alone accounts for 35% of our online revenue. I never would have thought of that.
The most satisfying result: Maya hired three additional employees within four months of launch, moved into a larger production studio in Atlantic Beach, and launched a wholesale program that now supplies 15 boutiques across the Southeast, all sourced from the brand credibility that the e-commerce store created. The total ROI on the initial $12K investment exceeded 2,000% in the first year.
Whether you're selling at farmers markets or from a retail location, we'll build you an online store that captures your brand and converts at scale.
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