Glow Collection has won the American Express Shop Small Retailer of the Year at the inaugural 2024 ARA Retail Awards.

Glow Collection has been producing scented candles for 22 years and has become a go-to-destination for home fragrance products. Having been nominated as a finalist for three awards this year, this is the first award win for the company.

“Winning the Shop Small Retailer of the Year award means so much to myself, my family, my co-founder, Samantha, the entire Glow Collection team and our more than 3,200 affiliates. This recognition supports growth in our brand awareness, which takes us a step closer towards our goal of becoming a household name,” CEO and founder, Greg Smith told Retailbiz.

“We represent high quality, sustainability and non-toxicity in wellbeing. Our candles are meticulously manufactured here in Australia – we’re Australian-owned and Australian-made. We also manufacture out of the US with one of the world’s largest candle companies – which has been making candles for almost 100 years – and they are equally as excited about our success as we are.

“This award validates us to our group of affiliates because we are being recognised by big names in the Australian Retailers Association (ARA), supported by major sponsor, American Express (AMEX), and this helps build our brand for both our team and our customers.

“As someone who works for themselves in a small business, access to networking can be limited, so the ARA Retail Awards is a fantastic opportunity to meet new faces, brands and potential business partners.”

Glow Collection is based on a very unique low cost model where all major functions are outsourced using highly skilled teams. This fractionalisation enables Glow to keep its operational costs low, yield higher margins and hence enable it to offer affordable pricing to its customers. 

“We do not have an office, nor a warehouse or a shop. We distribute products directly and sourced via our 3,200 strong affiliate. Everyone works from their home and we all connect electronically and we have people literally dotted right across Australia. We do travel twice a year on what we call a Glow Tour so our affiliates and customers can experience our new ranges first hand prior to their launch,” Smith said.

“Winning this award could not have been made possible by our fantastic outsourced team of 3PL partners, customer service, marketing, digital, social and finance.“