Based in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, Richa Shukla was just 21 years old when she decided to follow the flame of her entrepreneurial spirit in the e-commerce landscape. While she was working with the Ministry of Communications, her domestic staff, Moni, faced a dire challenge when her husband left. A mother of three, she was also pregnant at the time.
Moni had potential, but without formal work experience, opportunities were hard to come by. Richa knew that she had to do something to help. She had just left her job to pursue a PhD in Life Sciences and knew that time was of the essence. Harnessing her specialization in aromatherapy, she decided to set up an e-commerce business of handcrafted candles right from the quiet room of her home in Bithoor.
Little did Richa know that her small social enterprise of candle making would light the path to the creation of a successful online brand, Scarlet Blinks. In the last three years, her business has become a lifeline for women seeking a dignified livelihood and fair wages in and around Kanpur.
Now 24 years old, Richa is going full steam ahead to expand her offerings, exporting her products out of India, and has even won the UNDP Youth Co:Lab (YCL-24) award for youth-led social and environmental entrepreneurship for creating tangible social change.
Women at the Heart: Building a Community Model
“The idea for this business came to me when I decided to help Moni didi. She had been working at our home as a domestic help for five years, but that was not enough for her to support her three daughters. I wanted her to get the opportunity to earn fair wages,” says Richa.
Richa had some prior experience in digital marketing and e-commerce and also had certifications in aromatherapy. Combining these two strengths, she decided to make luxury candles with the help of Moni didi and other marginalized women like her who were looking for a dignified livelihood.
“I knew that training these women in complicated aromatherapy formulations was not the right idea. The process needed to be something simple and easy to train. I taught Moni didi, and other women who heard about what I was doing, how to measure ingredients, check temperatures and prepare different batches of candles with fragrances. Today, all the women working with me know how to make candles with consistent quality,” Richa explains.
There are five women working with Richa today, each with her own story of grit and resilience. All of them come from marginalized communities, where opportunities are few. “My team of five handles everything from manufacturing to packing candles for shipping. Today, they have the opportunity to carve out a future on their own terms. Beyond our core team, we have a wider circle of impact. In the pottery villages around Bithoor, artisans handcraft traditional diyas, which have become part of our candle collections,” Richa adds proudly.
Further west, in the town of Kannauj, Richa collaborates with local aromatherapy distilleries to source pure essential oils. Over ten families now rely on their partnership with her, gaining steady support and a renewed sense of purpose.
Bootstraps and Big Wins: Crafting an E-Commerce Candle Business
“When I first started out, I knew we were building a luxury product – something I could proudly ask people to buy,” Richa says. “But back then, I had no network, no retail connections, and no distribution channels. There was just one five-star hotel in Kanpur and I decided to start there. I kept reaching out to them, and eventually after a meeting with their Managing Director, they became our first customer. After that, I expanded to e-commerce by onboarding on Flipkart in 2022.”
It wasn’t all smooth sailing from here on, as Richa was on a shoestring budget.
“I had a lack of resources for proper product photography,” she explains. “Since I couldn’t afford studio shoots, many of the initial listings went live with basic images. But I took it in stride and slowly started improving. Our sales have grown consistently over the years. During The Big Billion Days sale, orders keep on flowing from Flipkart. Our business has grown, so we now have a processing unit just a few kilometers away from my home.”
Support, Scale and Steady Momentum
Today, Richa’s journey has moved beyond candles – she’s diving deeper into wellness and innovation. With the support of initiatives like the ODOP program and Flipkart Samarth, she has found the right partners to scale and experiment.
“Now, we are also focusing on essential oils and are currently in R&D, exploring various use cases for our formulations,” Richa shares. “One exciting product in development is something I call NauseaPlast, a remedy for motion sickness and morning sickness.”
“I have received great support from the Government of Uttar Pradesh’s One District, One Product (ODOP) program, which recognized my business under the aromatherapy/candle category in my district. Over the past couple of months, we were facing challenges with shipping orders to the U.S. That’s when the ODOP team really came through. They identified the bottlenecks and helped us streamline the certification process, making it much smoother.”
“It was at an ODOP event in Lucknow that I was introduced to the Flipkart Samarth program. The program struck a deep chord with me because of the benefits it offered – access to market insights, support in handling day-to-day operations and more. Associating with Flipkart Samarth has also helped me a lot. Now I have customers all across India and I find it easy to work with Flipkart. I am excited to launch our essential oils collection on the platform next and see the response I get.”
For Richa, success isn’t just about her own journey – it’s about lighting the way for others. “I try to share my story with others and motivate them to pursue their dreams. I have been part of multiple entrepreneurship-focused workshops in schools and colleges where I have helped guide young entrepreneurs find their footing.”
