Ella B. Candles Reduces Errors, Slashes the Grunt Work, and Boosts Efficiency with B2B Wave

What’s the smell of success? Well, there are 8 billion correct answers to this seemingly simple question, each tailored to every person’s unique needs and desires. And that’s exactly the promise that Ella B. Candles, a custom candle wholesaler, delivers every day.

It all began in North Carolina in 2011 when Julie Tassy, a personalized gift shop owner, noticed a frequent request from customers: they wanted ready-to-purchase items they could buy on the spot. One day, while shopping at a local market, Julie saw a woman pouring soy-wax candles —which sparked the idea to start manufacturing candles to meet her customers’ needs. Soon after, Julie and her husband, Christopher, began crafting personalized candles inspired by neighborhoods and cities, with Charlotte, their hometown, as their initial inspiration.

With time-consuming ordering processes, many customers across the U.S., and a vast catalog with highly personalized products, Ella B. Candles faced the challenge of streamlining its operations. Today, with B2B Wave’s eCommerce platform, the company simplifies order management, cuts manual tasks, and bolsters its growth.

Challenge

In its early days, Ella B. Candles relied on a traditional ordering process through email and phone. While personal, this system was time-consuming and left room for ambiguity and errors. As Christopher Tassy, Founder of Ella B. Candles, recalls, “For years, that’s what we used to do. We used to respond to emails, and then someone might send us all the order details with the names, the bottom lines, the bow colors, and everything, but no quantities.”

This system required constant oversight, delayed order fulfillment, and diverted focus from other key business aspects. “There was a lot of back and forth,” Tassy notes. Ultimately, it became unsustainable.

As orders and customers increased, the team began searching for a solution that would allow customers to place orders online.

But, identifying the correct solution was not a walk in the park. Managing a massive catalog of over 60,000 SKUs also posed a huge challenge: many tools the team explored were too limited. “We couldn’t find an eCommerce platform that would support having all these thousands of products that all use the same basic SKUs, which is kind of unique to us,” says Madeline Lemieux, Creative and Marketing Director.

Finding the right B2B eCommerce platform became critical to streamlining operations, reducing manual workload, and delivering the personalized service customers expected.

Solution

Ella B. Candles needed a platform that could handle its complex catalog, multiple product variants, and personalization options while streamlining its ordering process. That’s when Lemieux discovered B2B Wave.

After signing up for a trial, it stood out by offering the ability to manage products with shared SKUs, customizable variants, and seamless reordering capabilities. “Having the variants for every product and the sizes, I can’t convey that enough: That was something we couldn’t find any other application that could support,” Lemieux emphasizes.

The ability to import entire catalogs using spreadsheets was another major draw. “When I found out you could just import whole catalogs at a time, that changed everything for us,” says Lemieux. Automating image imports was equally transformative. Previously a manual, time-consuming process, it became “pretty seamless,” as Shane Eubank, Automation Engineer, shares.

While many customers enthusiastically embraced the new platform, some older buyers were initially hesitant. “The people who had issues were those reluctant to change or who were technologically challenged in general,” Eubank explains. “Some people are just afraid of it,” Tassy adds.

So, the team focused on educating buyers on how to use the B2B portal. Once customers adapted, they found it highly beneficial. “It doesn’t take very long if someone just takes the time to overcome the fear of using the technology because it is straightforward and it’s pretty simple to use. It’s very visual,” Tassy discloses.

Ultimately, customers appreciated the ability to place orders, reorder quickly, and track their history without having to place a call or fire an email. “The people that complained, they’re greatly outnumbered by people that I think enjoyed it and benefited from being able to see their order history and just place orders when it’s convenient for them, not have to call during business hours,” Lemieux underlines.

In addition to transforming the ordering process, Ella B. Candles worked closely with B2B Wave to develop a custom Build-A-Candle functionality. This innovative tool simplified the user experience for customers, allowing them to create any candle without navigating through multiple product categories or sizes. Centralizing all the options into one intuitive feature made the process less intimidating for customers - especially those less comfortable with technology. At the same time, it reduced errors by minimizing the chances of selecting mismatched bows, fragrances, or labels—a win for both customers and the team. “It saves time because customers only need to use one product to create any candle type. At the same time, it decreases the chance of a customer making a mistake, saving time from our end,” Eubank explains.

With their custom B2B eCommerce platform, Ella B. Candles successfully streamlined operations, strengthened customer satisfaction, and shifted focus to growth and innovation.

Results

With B2B Wave, Ella B. Candles unlocked unprecedented operational efficiency and growth.

Order fulfillment, once a time-consuming and error-prone process, improved significantly. “The labor it took and the time it took to fulfill an order has significantly decreased,” says Tassy. “We now have a tool that helps us be more efficient. And efficiency does have a dollar value,” he continues. While the team receives an average of 200 orders every month, the platform’s intuitive interface and automated processes allowed them to reduce manual work, freeing up time to concentrate on expanding their market presence.

Perhaps the most exciting shift came in marketing. Previously, tracking the effectiveness of social media campaigns was a painstaking task. With B2B Wave’s built-in analytics, the team could easily create campaign collections and analyze their performance in real-time. “For the first time ever, we can really see how our campaigns are doing,” Lemieux shares. This visibility allowed them to refine strategies, run targeted campaigns, and cater more effectively to their customers, turning insights into action.

Customer satisfaction also saw a noticeable boost, as their B2B portal acts as the company’s most reliable “salesperson.” Today, more than 1,300 customers place their orders through the company’s B2B platform. Personalized catalogs and a seamless ordering system simplified the buyer experience. “Now, we have less conversations about stores and going back and forth and people getting upset with us because they didn’t give us all their information,” Tassy says. At the same time, these improvements also alleviated inventory management headaches, creating harmony between customer needs and internal processes.

When asked to sum up their experience with B2B Wave in three words, the team shared: Flexible, responsive, and reliable. “When there’s a problem, we know that it’s going to get fixed and it’s not going to be just sat on, but someone is going to be working on the solution,” Eubank notes.

As for the future? Smooth sailing is in the cards for Ella B. Candles. “The ship is turning in the right direction now,” Tassy declares. “And we wouldn’t be able to turn in this direction if it wasn’t for something like B2B Wave.”

But it’s more than just a shift in operations. It’s a shift in mindset. Ella B. Candles didn’t just streamline operations; it unleashed a new wave of growth, efficiency, creativity, and satisfaction for their team and customers.

Maybe that’s the true smell of success.

Take your Wholesale Business Online with B2B Wave

Ella B. Candles aced order management with our simple B2B eCommerce platform. Check out what B2B Wave can do for you, and request a demo with our expert team today.