- A candle reorder cycle is burn time divided by how often someone lights it, so the same candle can last three weeks or three months.
- Seasonal scents are your best news, and the people who bought last year's fall or holiday scent are the first people to tell when it returns.
- Gift buyers and self-buyers need different emails, because the person who bought a candle as a gift isn't the one running out of it.
- Limited scents that sell out are a reason to build a back in stock flow, and the restock email is often the biggest send of the month.
Why is candle email marketing different?
Candles are a consumable, but an uneven one. Some customers light one every evening. Others save it for weekends or guests. Many own several and rotate them by mood or season.
Scent is also hard to sell online. Nobody can smell your product through a screen, so your emails have to do the describing. And a big share of candles get bought as gifts, which means the buyer and the user are often different people.
How do you time reorder emails by burn time?
Start with the burn time on your label, then estimate how often a typical customer lights it. Here's the math, labeled as an example:
- Say your 8 oz candle lists about 40 to 50 hours of burn time.
- Burned 2 hours a night, every night, it's gone in about three weeks.
- Burned 2 hours a night on weekends only, it lasts closer to three months.
Here's how I'd set it up:
- Send the first reminder around the time a nightly burner runs out, then a second around the weekend burner's window. Customers in between get one of the two at about the right time.
- Make it about the scent. "Your Cedar & Smoke is probably getting low" beats "time to reorder."
- Count quantity and size. Three candles in one order, or a large three-wick, push the timing out.
- Switch to real data fast. Once you have a few months of orders, pull the median days between first and second order for each size and move the first email about a week ahead of it.
The reorder reminder isn't one of the 8 core flows I install for every brand, but for a product that runs out, I'd add it on top of them. In the 4 consumable brands I pooled, reorder reminder flows earned about $2.23 per person, roughly 28x the best campaign. More in my replenishment email timing guide.
How should you handle seasonal scents?
Seasonal scents are the most natural campaign a candle brand has. They're real news, and in my pooled data from 7 brands, news beat brand voice in subject lines.
Here's how I'd run the season:
- Tag scent on every order. Know who bought last fall's pumpkin scent and who only buys fresh and clean.
- Tell last year's buyers first. When a seasonal scent returns, the people who bought it last year get the email before the full list. "It's back" is one of the easiest emails you'll ever write.
- Use a waitlist before launch. Collect signups for the returning scent and send them the launch first.
- Be honest about last call. If a seasonal scent is leaving until next year, say so plainly and give a real date. Don't invent scarcity.
Plan these around the rest of your calendar. My ecommerce holiday email calendar lays out the dates.
How should candle brands email gift buyers?
Gifting changes who reads your emails. If someone bought three candles to give away in December, a "running low?" email in January makes no sense to them.
Here's how I'd handle it:
- Flag likely gift orders. A gift message, gift wrap, or a shipping address that's different from the billing address are good signs. Tag the order on their profile.
- Keep gift buyers out of the reorder flow. Send them a thank you and, later, a reminder before the next gifting moment instead.
- Use last year's gift order. Someone who bought gifts last December is a strong candidate for an early gift guide this year.
- Reach the person who got the gift. They aren't on your list yet. A card in the box with a simple signup offer is the most direct way to turn a gift into a new customer.
For the holiday push itself, Black Friday 2026 is Friday, Nov 27 and Cyber Monday is Nov 30. My BFCM email strategy covers how to plan it.
Why build a back in stock flow for limited scents?
When a scent people love sells out, demand doesn't go away. It waits. A back in stock flow, which I'd add on top of the core 8 for any brand with limited runs, catches everyone who asked to be told.
I don't have candle-specific numbers for this. The closest data I have is from a snack brand doing about $650K a month, where back-in-stock emails earned about 1.7x the brand's average per person ($0.26 vs $0.15). Different category, so treat it as a hint. But when something sells out, the restock email is your biggest send of the month. The setup is in my guide to Klaviyo back in stock emails.
Which flows should a candle brand build first?
My Flow System has 8 core flows: welcome series, abandoned checkout, abandoned cart, browse abandonment, collection abandonment, site abandonment, post purchase thank you and customer winback, each with separate paths for customers and people who haven't bought yet. Every one carries an offer: people who haven't bought get the same offer as your welcome series, and customers get a slightly better one, a buy-more offer or a subscription. For candles, here's where I'd put extra care:
- Browse abandonment and abandoned cart. Describe the scent in plain words: top notes, what it smells like, what room it suits. Offer a sampler or mini set for people who can't decide. In cart and checkout, the first email has no offer, the offer comes in through the sequence, and the final reminder carries it before it expires with the last email. People who haven't bought yet get the same offer as your welcome series, never a bigger one; customers get a slightly better offer or a buy-more offer, like a second candle. Customers who order in large quantities usually stay out of these automations.
- Welcome series. In my pooled data, welcome email #1 earned about $4.50 per person and emails #2 to #5 about $0.10 each. Email #1 carries most of the money, which is why the offer goes in it. In my 6-email, 7-day welcome, day 2 guides the best first purchase, which for candles means helping people pick a first scent.
- Post purchase thank you. It splits by order count, with 6 emails for a first order. Candle care, like trimming the wick and letting the first burn go long enough, fits the product usage email and helps the candle burn well and last.
- Reorder reminder and back in stock, on top of the core 8.
- Customer winback, 5 emails from day 45 to day 60 with the offer at email 4, and the season's new scents as the reason to come back.
What should a candle brand measure?
Judge emails by clicks and revenue, not opens. Apple Mail inflates opens.
- Days between orders, by candle size, for self-buyers only.
- Share of last year's seasonal buyers who buy the returning scent.
- Gift orders vs self orders, and how many gift recipients join your list.
- Revenue per recipient on back in stock emails vs your average campaign.
For the bigger picture, see my repeat purchase email strategy.
Where these numbers come from
The per-person numbers come from a pooled look at 4 consumable brands, 2,897 campaigns and $17.7M in email revenue; the subject line finding from 7 brands and 2,821 campaigns. None of them is a candle brand, and it's a small sample, so treat it as directional. The 1.7x back in stock figure is from one snack brand.
FAQ
When should a candle brand send the first reorder email?
Around when a nightly burner would run out, based on burn time on the label. Then tighten it with your own data on days between orders for each size.
Should gift buyers get reorder reminders?
No. They didn't use the candle. Send them a thank you and a reminder before the next gifting moment instead.
Founder of Bardown Digital, a Chicago-based Klaviyo email and retention agency for Shopify brands. He's worked with brands doing $500K to $100M a year, with $100M+ in email-attributed revenue across them.