From kitchen table business to £2.46m annual turnover: How Facebook Groups fuelled Sassy Shop Wax’s growth
Breakout success Sassy Shop Wax found its customers online and built loyalty through authentic connection
Keely's tips for building a loyal community
- Find out where your audience is and meet them there
Your audience might be hanging out in vintage clothes stores or on a different social media platform. It’s up to you to find them or they won’t know what you’re selling. We’re lucky that we’ve now converted our audience to our dedicated space. Even now, if I see someone has a wax burner in their window I’ll put a leaflet through their door, which other people might not be prepared to do.
- Know your customer inside out
Ask your customers about themselves, find out what’s important to them and you’ll start to grow a genuine community. We’ll get in touch personally if we know a loyal customer is having a tough time. Find out what they want to see from your brand. If a lot of customers missed out on a fragrance then we’ll make sure we restock it swiftly, responding to demand.
- Give more than you take from your community
One of the reasons that people come back for more is that we make sure we give more than we take – it’s the guiding philosophy of Sassy [Shop] Wax. So, for example, I wasn’t afraid to throw a 50 per cent off sale when England lost the Euro 2020 football final to help lift everyone’s spirits.
When Keely Parsons launched Sassy Shop Wax on Instagram in 2017, she was confident that her wax melts – spheres of wax that release scent when heated – would be an immediate hit.
But when her posts didn’t immediately gain traction and the orders didn’t flood in, she began to question her strategy.
It was only through trial and error that Parsons came to realise that her audience was on another platform entirely – Facebook Groups – and it was then that her business took off. She discovered that wax melt enthusiasts had already formed their own group on Facebook and by joining them where they were – sharing their passion, advertising and offering giveaways – she was able to build her customer base. In time, she started her own Sassy Shop Wax community.
“It’s been really important to build solid relationships with customers who are loyal,” she explains of Facebook Groups.
Today, Sassy Shop Wax employs more than 20 staff and its 25-year-old founder oversees a multimillion-pound business in Bristol. The brand’s Facebook community now boasts a membership of 16,500 people.
A burning desire for business
Parsons came up with the idea for Sassy Shop Wax when she left home at 18 and wanted to make her new space her own. She started making melts on her kitchen table in an attempt to create a wax melt that smelt like her favourite bath bomb. At the time she was heavily pregnant with her first son, Luca, who is now three.
“The first year was extremely hard,” she remembers. “But making wax melts was a creative outlet and I just loved it. I’d spend a couple of hours a day making products alone while my mum looked after my son and then would put them on my website once a month. They’d sell out in 15 minutes. At that point, my mum would help me package products and my partner would help me ship them out.”
Within nine months, she was able to start hiring staff – and today there’s no need to enlist her mother to help her package and send products; the Royal Mail truck collects the business’s orders, which number in the tens of thousands every month.
Harnessing a Facebook community
Facebook Groups have been a key driver of growth for Sassy Shop Wax. Parsons found a responsive audience who would share their opinions and be honest about both her products and themselves. Through a mix of advertising, giveaways and creating genuine connections with wax melts enthusiasts, Parsons’ business started to thrive.
The Sassy Shop Wax Facebook Group is predominantly people sharing pictures of their melts, but members will also share when they are having a tough time as they frequently use Sassy Shop Wax melts to help create a relaxing environment or to provide escapism. “It’s a proper community with people sending support if they hear that a member is struggling,” Parsons says.
“I’ve always been open and honest, and let people in on my personal life: when I’m working 10 hours a day on Sassy [Shop] Wax, then who better to talk to than people who love my business?” she continues. “I notice that we all have the same struggles: people want to feel like they belong and want to be heard. I put myself out there and share my struggles with anxiety.”
Today, a community manager maintains those relationships and will often contact someone personally if she hears that they are having a hard time. “Our philosophy is always to give more than we take – and we do give away a lot of melts,” says Parsons.
“Our philosophy is always to give more than we take – and we do give away a lot of melts.”
Encouraging customer feedback
As well as creating a sense of community, the Sassy Shop Wax page also acts as an informal consumer insights group.
“We’re customer-led, so we ask people what flavours they want to see being sold before restocking twice a week,” Parsons says. “Customers feel heard and we can provide them with what they want. It’s a lean way of working for a startup; to be told within seconds what people would like to see is so powerful.”
Facebook Groups have been a key driver of growth for Sassy Shop Wax. Parsons found a responsive audience who would share their opinions and be honest about both her products and themselves. Through a mix of advertising, giveaways and creating genuine connections with wax melts enthusiasts, Parsons’ business started to thrive.
The Sassy Shop Wax page is predominantly people sharing pictures of their melts, but members will also share when they are having a tough time as they frequently use Sassy Shop Wax melts to help create a relaxing environment or to provide escapism. “It’s a proper community with people sending support if they hear that a member is struggling,” Parsons says.
“I’ve always been open and honest, and let people in on my personal life: when I’m working 10 hours a day on Sassy [Shop] Wax, then who better to talk to than people who love my business?” she continues. “I notice that we all have the same struggles: people want to feel like they belong and want to be heard. I put myself out there and share my struggles with anxiety.”
Today, a community manager maintains those relationships and will often contact someone personally if she hears that they are having a hard time. “Our philosophy is always to give more than we take – and we do give away a lot of melts,” says Parsons.
Encouraging customer feedback
As well as creating a sense of community, the Sassy Shop Wax page also acts as an informal consumer insights group.
“We’re customer-led, so we ask people what flavours they want to see being sold before restocking twice a week,” Parsons says. “Customers feel heard and we can provide them with what they want. It’s a lean way of working for a startup; to be told within seconds what people would like to see is so powerful.”
Learning to lead
At just 25, Keely has learnt a huge amount about creating a company culture. “I feel a lot of pressure,” she admits. “We are a startup. It takes energy, passion, flexibility and tough skin to keep up, to hire the right people. I’m everyone’s sounding board, and if I come in and I’m looking worried or down, people pick up on it.”
She’s learnt how to lead a team, and spends 40 per cent of her time focused on people. “Leadership isn’t management. Creating an environment where people are genuinely happy, not a micromanagement culture, is key to success,” she says. And she’s learnt that it’s important to have a clear vision for the company: in her case, to create the world’s leading wax melts brand. [TO HERE]
Finding stockists
While running a rapidly expanding business has its challenges, Parsons finds the upsides to be hugely rewarding.
The brand was picked up by fashion retailer Pretty Little Things in January 2021, which Keely describes as “incredible”.
“Going onto my favourite clothes website and seeing something I created on there is a dream come true,” she says. “And they’ve been a key part of our wholesale business growth.” This led to clothing brand Boohoo, owned by the same parent company, approaching Sassy Shop Wax in May 2021 and stocking their melts, which Parsons says has helped them reach hundreds of new customers each month.
However, she says it’s the Sassy Shop Wax community that really motivates her.
“The best thing is building up the community and having people tell us what a difference it has made to our lives. Everyone deserves to experience that if they want to have it.”
Making Sassy Shop Wax accessible
“We’d like Sassy to be accessible to and inclusive of everyone, so it gives people a chance to spread out their order costs, even if they can’t treat themselves very often,” Parsons says.
She believes it provides an option for customers who might feel that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford the products in these uncertain times. “Every day someone will tag me letting me know how Sassy [Shop] Wax has helped them, or been a place where they’ve been able to find friends,” she says.
Keely's tips for building a loyal community
- Find out where your audience is and meet them there
Your audience might be hanging out in vintage clothes stores or on a different social media platform. It’s up to you to find them or they won’t know what you’re selling. We’re lucky that we’ve now converted our audience to our dedicated space. Even now, if I see someone has a wax burner in their window I’ll put a leaflet through their door, which other people might not be prepared to do.
- Know your customer inside out
Ask your customers about themselves, find out what’s important to them and you’ll start to grow a genuine community. We’ll get in touch personally if we know a loyal customer is having a tough time. Find out what they want to see from your brand. If a lot of customers missed out on a fragrance then we’ll make sure we restock it swiftly, responding to demand.
- Give more than you take from your community
One of the reasons that people come back for more is that we make sure we give more than we take – it’s the guiding philosophy of Sassy [Shop] Wax. So, for example, I wasn’t afraid to throw a 50 per cent off sale when England lost the Euro 2020 football final to help lift everyone’s spirits.
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