Candlemart.com (Web Page Review)

Candlemart.com

Fayetteville

www.candlemart.com

The dot-com subsidiary of Hanna’s Candles Inc. in Fayetteville, Candlemart.com is a true click-and-mortar retailer of candles, aromatherapy merchandise and bath and body products.

The division and Web site started May 1, 1999, and the only major change it’s made in the last year is to add an interactive “decorate with candles” section. Those particular pages allow Internet surfers to click through various rooms in a house blueprint to see how candles may be used to decorate everything from porches to kitchens.

Brad Corbitt, Candlemart.com’s chief operations officer, said the site gets between 150,000 to 200,000 different visitors each month. He said the division, which began with Corbitt operating as a one-man show, has grown to eight people.

We had no trouble getting Corbitt on the phone, but our email inquiry through Candlemart.com’s “contact us” page was not returned. Corbitt said he could not disclose financial information regarding the site’s success, but did say the site now generates and average of 2,600 orders each month.

The site runs off a Dell server and is comprised of about 15 sections containing more than 1,200 items. The division ships within 48 hours and delivers anywhere in the world within five days from order.

One of our reviewers was so giddy about Candlemart.com, we were afraid she’d spontaneously combust. She thought it was easy to navigate and loved that the home page’s photos change with every reload.

She thought that was a good way for the company to feature different products and call attention to discount prices. A computer expert and graphic artist, the reviewer said the site is “clean looking” and has a lot of good photography.

Her only complaint was that it’s difficult to back out of the “decorate your home” section because it does not include a “home button.”

Another reviewer compared the descriptions of Candlemart.com’s products to excerpts from famous J. Peterman catalog, known for using fanciful descriptions of adventure to sell clothing. It was amusing to read about the exotic fragrances and the affect they have on customers. We saw phrases like “fruit fragrances reminiscent of Grandma’s home canning.”

This style makes the site fun and is a nice way to market the products.

There are pages on the site to purchase gift certificates, and there’s even a daily deal section where we found some products discounted as much as 85 percent. Probably the smartest feature, however, is a referral page called “tell a friend.”

There’s no faster way for word of mouth to spread these days than by email.