Today, on any given morning in Montrose, Colorado, locals gather at a sunlit café to sip coffee and watch artisans dip beeswax candles through a glass wall. This bustling community hub—a $4.2 million business employing 40 people in a town of 30,000—represents the transformative power of a decision made 25 years ago, when Amazon first invited independent sellers into its store.
When Jon Kornbluh started making beeswax candles in his 10-by-10-foot cabin in Colorado, he wasn’t thinking about building a community cornerstone. He was just trying to solve a problem.
“I was living in this woodsy cabin and getting headaches from kerosene lanterns,” said Kornbluh. “I started making beeswax candles and instantly sold them to my community of friends and the health food store. I loved the craft. I loved the commerce.”
Through the 1990s, fueled by Kornbluh’s passion and commitment, Bluecorn Beeswax evolved from a local craft to a growing business. But traveling to trade shows in New York, San Francisco, and Atlanta wasn’t the future Kornbluh envisioned.
“I wanted to be with my family enjoying the mountains of Southern Colorado and focusing on quality of life,” he explained. “So, I pulled back from B2B and instead focused on direct-to-consumer. And then, we had this idea to try Amazon.”
For Kornbluh, Amazon represented something revolutionary, he watched as it evolved from its earliest days. “When Amazon first opened their store to small businesses like ours, it was pretty rudimentary,” he recalled. “Just a simple page where you could list your products. But I decided to take a chance, and as Amazon grew, so did we. The concept that we could reach customers nationwide from our rural location was a game changer.”
Between 2006 and 2010, as Amazon’s search capabilities grew more sophisticated, Bluecorn Beeswax found themselves perfectly positioned. “We were producing what was essentially a generic product—beeswax candles,” Kornbluh explained. “When customers typed ‘beeswax candles’ into Amazon’s search bar, they found us. We were one of the first, and our commitment to quality kept us at the top. The reviews and repeat purchases just reinforced our position.”
In those early days, Kornbluh realized he had tapped into something powerful: a way for small businesses to compete nationally based on the quality of their product. As their success grew, he looked for ways to scale their fulfillment operations to match their increasing sales.
Then, with one phone call, everything changed.
“Amazon called and asked if we knew about Fulfillment by Amazon,” Kornbluh remembered. “This guy converted one of our products to FBA in real time. We printed packing labels, shipped that product to a warehouse, all within 30 minutes—and overnight it changed our direct-to-consumer sales world.”
The impact was immediate and dramatic. “We saw our sales spike 4x in a month,” Kornbluh said. “And that was just one test product. We started converting products as fast as we possibly could to FBA. 4x, 6x, 10x. All of a sudden, we had this Amazon momentum working for us.”
The growth transformed their business.
Within 18 months of adopting FBA, their workforce doubled from 9 to 18 employees. Revenue grew steadily through the 2010s as Bluecorn adopted each new Amazon innovation. “We went from a 4,300-square-foot facility that could barely contain our inventory to needing a space three times that size,” Kornbluh said. “Each year brought new
tools from Amazon—advanced advertising capabilities, enhanced analytics, improved fulfillment options—and each one helped us compete more effectively from our rural location.”
By 2019, Bluecorn had become a significant employer in their community, but it was during the pandemic that the true value of their Amazon partnership became clear.
“When our manufacturing shut down in spring 2020 due to COVID-19, we couldn’t make candles for six weeks,” Kornbluh recalled. “But we had three months’ worth of inventory already stocked at Amazon. Rather than having our sales in the gutter, they doubled and tripled. By the time that inventory started waning, we were back manufacturing and restocking.”
When 2021 brought a surge of new independent sellers and competition in the candle category reached its peak, Bluecorn discovered Amazon’s advertising tools would be key to unlocking their next phase of growth.
“Our return on Amazon advertising is quite high and it’s been really important in our growth” said Tessa Cheek, chief revenue officer for Bluecorn Beeswax. “About 30% of our advertising budget goes to Amazon because it’s more effective than other marketing channels.” By combining Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Products with strategic search optimization, Bluecorn turned a 10% decline that year into 30% year-over-year growth.
The results validated their partnership. “We started paying attention to every detail of our product listings—from product photos to descriptions,” Cheek explained. “What we realized was Amazon had already built the infrastructure we needed to succeed.”
“What impressed us most was Amazon’s pace of innovation,” Kornbluh added. “We watched them continuously test and launch new features, often at a speed that seemed mind-boggling for a company of their scale. Over time, we learned to trust their insights. When they introduced new tools or features, we knew they were responding to real customer needs—needs we might not even have recognized yet as a small business. Amazon’s ability to innovate and execute made them an invaluable partner for businesses like ours.”
As their Amazon business has grown over the years, so has Bluecorn Beeswax’s wholesale business and their own direct-to-consumer channels. They employ more than 40 people—from skilled craftspeople to production and operations managers to marketing specialists, all based in Montrose, Colorado.
Their growth has funded an expansion into a 26,000-square-foot facility in downtown Montrose, featuring a café and mercantile where visitors can watch candle artisans at work. “The most gratifying work I’m doing these days is creating this community space,” Kornbluh said.
“This journey has been remarkable,” Kornbluh reflected. “From our early days with Amazon to where we are now, each step has built on the last. The candle business allowed this café space to take root and thrive, and Amazon remains a core pillar of that success. Today, we’re building something even bigger—a lasting contribution to our community.”