How Bottle to Flame found the creative freedom to build their dream website

Starting a business that made scents

Jake Duenckel spends his workdays as a marketer and strategist, optimizing websites for other businesses. He knows the ins and outs of ecommerce platforms and how much a good online shopping experience can shape the way people see a brand.

But in his off hours, he likes to get away from the screen.

A longtime wine and cocktail enthusiast, Jake has a particular appreciation for the complex flavors and aromas that make a good vintage or mixed drink.

“I've always been someone who connects memories to scent. A really good glass of wine, a perfectly mixed cocktail, a random night out…a lot of those memories are tied to smell.”

So when he decided to learn how to make candles, that’s where he found his inspiration.

After experimenting with different combinations, he landed on his first two scents: The Old Fashioned, with notes of orange zest, aged bourbon, and warm spices; and The Celebratory Brunch, with champagne, pear blossom, and lavender.

He makes each candle with 100% natural soy wax, lead-free cotton wicks, and phthalate-free fragrance oils, pouring them in small batches into 8-ounce clear glass tumblers from his hometown of Denver.

Though he loved the creative process, he had more in mind than just making. He wanted to share what he made with other people.

With his product perfected, Jake launched Bottle to Flame in 2025 with the opening of an Etsy store, quickly followed by a website on Squarespace.

It was a quick way to get the business off the ground. But before long, the platform became a blocker for building the store he had always envisioned.

Running into the limits of a templated storefront

As someone who works on websites professionally, Jake had a clear picture of how he wanted Bottle to Flame to look and feel online.

But despite its drag-and-drop website builder, Squarespace did not live up to Jake’s needs. After spending hours wrestling with the design, he finally settled for a storefront that would do the job, but wasn’t what he had imagined.

And because Bottle to Flame is a side hustle and passion project, he couldn’t justify sinking endless hours into finessing it.

“The changes I actually want aren't going to be available in Squarespace because you're so locked into a style. And then I'm like, ‘Okay, if I want to make changes, then I'm going to have to start going and injecting CSS or for Shopify, messing with liquid, right?’ Then it becomes a pain in the ass…you're just so templatized even on these more flexible builders.”

Because it wasn’t something he felt proud to showcase or that did his product justice, he held back sharing the website. Instead, he pointed people to his Etsy store, a workaround he knew wasn’t going to hold up long term.

Looking for something more flexible

After years working in ecommerce, Jake was already familiar with the usual ecommerce alternatives, including Shopify. He knew exactly what limitations he’d run into with each and wasn’t willing to jump out of the frying pan and into the fire.

So when he learned about Merchant Tech, he was intrigued but skeptical.

He wanted to know how easy it would be to make changes to his storefront. He also needed to be sure he wouldn’t lose the functionality he already relied on, including discount codes that let customers return their empty candle tumblers for 20% off a refill.

What he discovered was enough to decide the switch was worth it.

1. More creative freedom.

Instead of designing within the boundaries of a template or drag-and-drop builder, Jake could shape the storefront around his brand and the experience he wanted customers to have.

2. Stronger SEO foundations.

Merchant Tech could take care of technical SEO elements that hadn’t been fully addressed on his existing site, giving Bottle to Flame a stronger foundation for search from the start.

3. Integration with Klaviyo.

His old setup made it difficult to do much beyond building an email list and sending customers to Etsy. Merchant Tech supported a direct Klaviyo integration, allowing Jake to create more targeted campaigns and automate customer journeys.

4. Keeping customers on his own storefront.

Because he wasn’t happy with his Squarespace site, Jake often sent customers to Etsy instead. But every Etsy order came with marketplace fees on top of payment processing. With Merchant Tech, he could finally send customers to a storefront he was proud of without giving up an additional 6.5% of every order.

“If I want something that's really unique to me and to my brand, this is great because you guys can do it…this is truly like you said, white glove.”

Going from templatized to customized

Once the migration was underway, Jake finally had room to build the storefront he’d had in his head.

The details he’d struggled to execute before, like how each page would flow, how products would be organized, and what the customer experience would be, could now be customized to his liking, rather than around the constraints of a template.

At the same time, Merchant Tech helped shore up the technical side of the site.

During the switch, the migration team set up 301 redirects for any new page URLs. Everything else, from meta titles and descriptions to the sitemap, robots.txt files, and page performance optimization, was automated by the platform, with no additional setup required.

And for the first time, Jake had a better foundation for turning his marketing into sales on a storefront he actually owned.

Instead of using email primarily to point shoppers toward Etsy, he could connect Klaviyo directly to his store and build campaigns around customer behavior. That gave him more opportunities to bring past customers back, nurture shoppers who weren’t ready to buy yet, and keep the entire experience within the Bottle to Flame brand.

Plus, he no longer needed to choose between sending customers to a site he wasn’t happy with or paying Etsy an extra cut of the sale. He could drive traffic directly to Bottle to Flame, control the experience from end to end, and keep more of the revenue generated by his own marketing.

“Other platforms I've tried, you're on your own. But Merchant Tech actually handled the migration for me, and made sure nothing got lost in the transition. I couldn't believe I was getting that level of support for free.”

More room to create

Now with his storefront finally working the way he wants it to, Jake gets to focus on the part of the business he enjoys most: experimenting with new candles.

Recently, he expanded beyond cocktail scents with two new candles inspired by wine. The Blanc combines grapefruit, passion fruit, and fresh herbs, while The Rouge drops hints of red currant, citron zest, crushed vine, cardamom, and wild blackberry.

For someone who spends his professional life thinking about marketing and digital experiences, having a platform that can bring his ideas to life makes all the difference.

It gives him the freedom to create the customer experience he wants and sell on a storefront that reflects the elevated, craft-forward brand he’s worked hard to build.

If you’re a cocktail, wine, or candle connoisseur, you’ll love Jake’s one-of-a-kind candles. Explore them here.

Kate Maruyama

Kate is a Senior Editor at Merchant Tech where she oversees content that helps merchants understand platform tools, optimize their online stores, and grow their businesses.