Selling Essential Oils: How to Start a Lucrative Online Business from Home
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Learning how to sell essential oils online doesn't have to be tricky.
When most people think of selling essential oils, their minds jump to the well-known multi-level marketing companies out there.
But this article isn’t about selling essential oils through MLM, because there is a better way!
Today we're going to be sharing two different ways you can sell essential oils online. Neither of these methods involves any upfront costs, you won't need to make your own essential oils, and you won’t need to beg people to buy from you either.
Contents
Selling Essential Oils
The essential oil industry is big business, with more and more people reaching for essential oils to improve their health and wellbeing.
These versatile oils can also be used to make cleaning products, candles, beauty products, and much more.
The essential oils market in the U.S. grows each year, and it’s showing no signs of slowing down. In fact, the value of the U.S. essential oils market is expected to reach 7.3 billion by 2024.
Essential oils are more popular than ever, and there is no shortage of people out there waiting to buy them.
If you want a piece of that pie, there is no better time to get started with your essential oils business than now.
Selling Essential Oils Online
Whether you are an aromatherapy business looking for ways to increase revenue, or you're a mom with a passion for the product, selling essential oils online is a good business.
There are a number of ways to start an essential oil home business, but only two ways require no upfront costs: affiliate marketing and dropshipping.
Both of these methods have HUGE earning potential. However, one might suit you better than the other, as they each have their own advantages and disadvantages.
Our aim is to walk you through both methods so that you can decide which of these options would be best for you.
Selling Essential Oils Through Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is without a doubt one of the best ways to operate your essential oils company.
If you haven’t heard of this concept before, affiliate marketing is when you earn a commission for recommending a product from another company.
Here’s how it works:
- You find a company whose products you want to promote and sign up for their affiliate program
- Once you are signed up to an affiliate program you will have access to personalized tracking links
- You can place these affiliate links on your website or social media
- When someone clicks on one of your links and makes a purchase you earn a commission
- After a certain period (usually 30-60 days to allow for refunds) you will receive your commissions
It’s pretty straightforward, and there are a lot of benefits to the affiliate marketing business model.
Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of selling essential oils online with affiliate marketing:
The Pros and Cons of Affiliate Marketing
Every business has its pros and cons.
It’s a good idea to understand what's involved before you jump into a new business so you can make an informed decision.
Pros:
- No upfront costs for inventory
- Unlimited earning potential
- You can run your business from anywhere in the world
- You can promote an unlimited number of products
- Low start-up costs (just a few dollars a month for your website)
- No experience needed
- Passive income – you can be earning money while you sleep
- You don’t need to provide any customer service
Cons:
- You don't control commission rates
- Payout periods can be months after the sale
- You are sending customers away from your website
In this case, the pros definitely outweigh the cons.
Although you have little control over the product, the benefits of this business model are obvious. You don’t need to provide any customer service and you can run your business from anywhere in the world.
Those are some of the benefits of affiliate marketing, now let’s talk about how you can put it into practice.
Although you don’t technically need a website for affiliate marketing, if you want a solid business earning some serious money, it's the best thing you can do.
How to start an affiliate marketing website
You have probably seen adverts for website builders like Squarespace and Wix, which are good potential platforms.
However, if you really want to have full control of your website, with unlimited growth potential, then a WordPress blog is the way to go.
You can start a WordPress website by signing up for a hosting plan with Bluehost.
A new account with Bluehost costs just a few dollars per month, and you can install WordPress with just one click from the main dashboard. You will even get a free domain name!
Learn how to start a website selling essential oils by visiting our guide on how to start a money-making blog.
This guide will walk you through everything you need to know about getting a blog up and earning money.
HOW TO START A BLOG!Essential Oil Affiliate Programs
Once a website has been set up, it’s time to join some essential oil affiliate programs.
There is no limit to the number of affiliate programs you can join, but it makes sense to focus on the ones that have the highest commission rates.
Here are some of the best essential oil affiliate programs:
- Amazon associates – There are many essential oil brands sold on Amazon
- Rocky Mountain Oils – 9%+ commission
- Barefut – 20% for first-time purchases and 10% for subsequent purchases
- Amoils Healing Natural Oils – 20% commission
- Neal’s Yard Remedies – 8% commission
- Aurelia Essential Oils – 15% – 40% commission per sale
- Boom Boom Naturals – 10% commission
- Amrita – 10% commission
- Plant Therapy – 7.5% commission.
Other companies you can look into individually include Young Living, Aura Caci, Edens Garden, Now Essential Oils, Anada Apothecary, doTERRA Essential Oils, and Lisse Essential Oils. Many manufacturers also have oil blends and custom blends to choose from.
Once you have signed up for some affiliate programs, it’s time to get your links out there so people can start buying.
There are a few ways you can do this.
First of all you can create blog posts around specific keywords. For example, “lavender essential oil’”or ‘where to buy orange oil’ are two specific keywords for which people are searching.
You can find low competition keywords using a keyword research tool like Ahrefs.
If you’re not sure where to start, read our article on affiliate marketing for beginners to learn everything you need to know!
Before You Get Started
If you're going to use affiliate marketing for your business model, it's important to gain the trust of your readers and customers. With that in mind, remember to recommend brands and products that you have seen, used, and tested. Additionally, make sure you review the terms of the agreement and how they affect you.
Before you get started, do your research and evaluate the many options available. Ask yourself the following questions:
The product: How are the oils made? Is there enough variety for you to start small and grow your business? Do they offer oil blends or custom blends? Can I make my own blends?
The brand: Does the brand's mission align with your values? Does the brand seem professional? Are the products aesthetically pleasing?
The company's reputation: Have they been in the essential oils business for a long time? Is the company controversial in any way? Read the reviews and see what customers think about their products.
The support: What does the company do to support you in your affiliate marketing business? Do they provide training materials? What do current marketers with the company has to say about their experience?
Fees and costs: Is there a cost to starting to work with this company? Is there a minimum sales requirement? Don't forget to read all of the terms for selling and promoting.
Compensation: Will you be fairly compensated for your promotional efforts? Do you agree with the terms of the contract?
Selling essential oils online with dropshipping
If you haven’t heard of dropshipping before, you’re in for a treat!
Dropshipping allows you to build and grow your own ecommerce brand without ever having to touch or ship a product.
Here’s how it works:
- You list products for sale on your website
- A customer visits your site and makes a purchase from you
- You order the item from the wholesaler at a discounted price and have it shipped direct to the customer
That’s all there is to it!
The Pros and Cons of Dropshipping
As with affiliate marketing, there are pros and cons to dropshipping.
Pros:
- You are building your own brand
- No upfront investment for inventory
- Full control over pricing and the amount of profit you make on each sale
- No limits to the number of different products you sell
- Low risk – you only order a product once a customer has already paid
- High-profit margins
- You can retarget customers for repeat business
Cons:
- You will need to handle any customer service issues yourself
- You have no control over the quality of the product or its packaging
In this case, the downsides can be remedied by ensuring you find the right supplier.
Having a reliable supplier will minimize any customer service issues, and they may also be willing to include your branding on the packaging.
How to start a dropshipping website
When it comes to dropshipping essential oils, you will need to have an ecommerce website.
There are a couple of ways you can go about this:
- You can use a ready-made ecommerce platform like Shopify. This is the easiest option for beginners as a Shopify store is ready-made. It's possible to create a great-looking ecommerce store in a matter of hours. The downside is that Shopify is quite expensive with prices starting at $29/month.
- A second option is to build your own ecommerce website using a Bluehost hosted WordPress site and WooCommerce. This option is cheaper and will give you more flexibility when it comes to customizing your website.
There are courses that will walk you through what you need to know to start a successful dropshipping business.
Instant Ecommerce is one such option that will teach take you through the process step-by-step.
Essential oil dropshipping companies
It can be tricky trying to find good essential oil dropshipping companies, so we’ve done the hard work for you!
- Nature’s Cure-All – Offers to dropship as well as private labeling
- Aroma Easy – Private label and dropshipping
- Green Dropship
- Net2Malls Dropship
- Essential Oils US
- Awakening Spirit
- AW Gifts
Setting up a website and finding some great essential oil dropshipping companies to work with is just the beginning.
You will also need to get traffic to your website so you can start selling your products.
Driving traffic to your website
There are a few different ways to get traffic to your website, including:
- Social media
- SEO (organic traffic from Google)
- Paid traffic using Ads
Organic traffic is your best bet, as the people searching for your products on Google will be looking to buy.
You can grow your organic traffic by targeting low competition keywords and creating high-quality content (blog posts) around those keywords.
There are plenty of keyword research tools that you can use to make this easier for you.
Here’s a rundown of the best free and paid keyword research tools around.
If you’re not sure where to start when it comes to finding the right keywords to target, simply use the names of popular essential oils as your seed keywords.
Popular keywords include peppermint, tea tree, lavender, and even other ingredients such as carrier oil or fractionated coconut oil.
Private Labeling
Selling oils through private labeling is also a great option for your online business, or if you're just looking to make some extra money. However, keep in mind that not all essential oil producers are created equal.
If you're going to use a private labeling strategy, it's important to vet potential partners to ensure that you're selling oils with a company you trust. It's essential that you source your oils from a quality manufacturer. After all, your name is going to be on the final product. Below are a few aspects to consider when choosing a producer to work with.
Selection of Oils
Most likely, when you start your essential oil business, you'll begin with a small line of oils to test the market. As you grow, you'll be interested in expanding your offering.
Choose a manufacturer with a large selection of essential oil blends to choose from. If you're going to want to sell custom blends, keep this in mind too. Custom essential oil blends may be more expensive, but they can also help you differentiate yourself from the competition.
Certified Facilities
As you'll want to team up with a quality partner, it's important that the producer you work with has facilities that are industry-certified.
Once you know that your oils are being produced in line with the highest standards, you can rest assured that your customers are receiving a good quality product.
Specifically, look for International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and/or Good Manufacturing Practice certifications.
Top-Notch Customer Service
The quality of customer service can make or break your essential oils business. Just as the quality of your products is important, so too should be your commitment to serving your customer base.
The best way to understand a company's customer service is to try it out for yourself. Call their customer support numbers, ask questions, and ask for samples. Go online and read about other people's experiences with the company. Choose a company committed to providing stellar customer service.
Essential Oil Bottles
Essential oils are usually sold in small glass bottles. Glass is preferable to plastic because it won't leach other substances into your oil. If you can use tinted glass bottles, that's even better as it protects the oils from UV rays.
You'll most likely be using small 5 to 10 ml bottles for your essential oils. Depending on the types of oils you're going to sell, you may need a dabber, a roller bottle top, a diffuser, an eyedropper, or some other design.
Essential Oil Boxes
Most essential oil bottles are sold in small paper boxes. Coming up with a design for your product packaging is extremely important, so you should spend considerable time perfecting this with your target market in mind. The box will give you a great opportunity to highlight your brand.
When it comes to labeling your essential oils, make sure you choose an eye-catching design as there is a lot of competition in the essential oil market. When designing your labels, keep in mind of the following:
- Stand out by using custom label material. Don't be afraid to get creative. From black vellum the holographic designs, do something memorable that attracts and wows potential customers to help you generate sales.
- Choose a label for your product line that is both water- and oil-proof and make sure the material holds up well under different conditions. You want to make sure the bottle is always looking fresh and new.
- As essential oil bottles are small, the space you have to work with is quite limited. Stick to one graphic, your logo and your business name, and pick one font that's easy to read. Also, go easy on the number of words. Otherwise, the label might be hard to read and a turn off for shoppers in your online store.
How to Sell Essential Oils Online FAQs
Required expertise
Do I need to be an expert to sell essential oils online?
You don’t need to be an expert, but it does help to be passionate about the product if you plan on starting an essential oils business.
You will need to create high-quality content to help drive traffic to your website so you can sell multiple products. Your website should look authoritative to build trust with buyers.
If you don’t know much about essential oils you could learn about them by reading a book or researching online. Alternatively, you could hire a content writer to research and write for you.
DIY oils
Can I manufacture my own essential oils to sell online?
Technically yes, you can. However, making your own essential oils is a lot of work and would require a huge upfront investment for all the equipment required.
Keep in mind that many of the recipes online for “essential oils” actually teach you how to make infused oil. The latter are made by soaking herbs in oil so you can extract the active compounds. Essential oils, on the other hand, are steam distilled.
This means that you simmer the plants to produce steam and the steam travels through a tube, which is run through cold water. The liquid that forms as result of condensation is comprised of a water compound and an oil compound. The oil compound is the essential oil.
If you prefer this method, and are prepared to buy the necessary equipment and undertake the production costs, including essential oil packaging and essential oil bottles, then this is a potential business model to consider.
If you want to sell essential oils under your own brand name then you could choose a white-label supplier.
White labeling is where a supplier creates a product, and it is labeled and shipped with your company's branding.
This makes it appear as though you have made the product yourself, and is a great way to start your own essential oil company and create your own brand without the huge upfront investment.
Business costs
How much does it cost to start selling essential oils online?
If you choose to go with either dropshipping or affiliate marketing to sell essential oils online, upfront costs are very low.
You can start a website using WordPress and Bluehost for just a few dollars a month. Alternatively, use Shopify for dropshipping which is a little more expensive and starts at $29/month.
Multi-Level Marketing Vs. Affiliate Marketing
The main difference between multi-level marketing (MLMs) and affiliate marketing is that affiliate marketing is generally done exclusively online on your own website (see more in our breakdown of Multiple Income Funnel).
With affiliate marketing, you can sell an unlimited amount of products by as many different brands as you wish to work with.
MLM companies require you to become a ‘wellness advocate’ and sell products created by one brand.
As well as selling the products directly to customers, you are usually encouraged to make money by recruiting people underneath you (known as a downline).
There are also usually some upfront costs with MLMs, such as purchasing a starter kit.
Selling Essential Oils From Home
Selling essential oils online can be a great way to make extra money.
Whether you’re looking for a side hustle or something you can turn into a full-time career, affiliate marketing and dropshipping are both great business models for your essential oil business that have the potential to make some serious money.
When deciding between them, consider how much time you have to put into the business.
Affiliate marketing is a great option for anyone who wants a ‘hands off’ business.
If you don’t add any new content to your website for a week or two, you can still be making money from the content you have already created.
That being said, this isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme either, and you will need to put time and effort into your website, and your essential oil business, if you want to make decent money.
With dropshipping, you will need to consider the fact that you will have to provide customer service.
Whether you choose to provide customer service by phone, email or live chat is up to you, but you will need to be available at least a few days a week to deal with any problems, making this business model slightly less ‘hands off’.
We hope this article has been helpful in teaching you how to sell essential oils online.
If you’re still looking for ways to make money online with no upfront investment, check out our recent article on how to make money online without paying anything!
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