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What specific retail products actually sell at my acupuncture practice?

In my last blog post, I shared how my acupuncture clinic brought in $4,043.93 in retail sales in 2025 — without pushy sales tactics or turning our reception area into a gift shop.

If you haven’t read that post yet, you can check that out here:
How I Made an Extra $4,000 in Retail Sales Using Faire Wholesale

If you have read it, you might be wondering…

Okay, but what did you actually sell?
What products did patients buy?
What worked well?
And what didn’t?

That’s exactly what I’m sharing in this post. Because whenever I learn from acupuncture colleagues that they’re making money from retail, my first thought is, “Tell me exactly what’s working!”

In the previous post, I talked about how I get my retail items from Faire Wholesale and why – basically, it’s very low-risk, financially. More on that below.

But if you’ve ever browsed Faire and felt overwhelmed by the options (because there are SO many), I get it.

So here’s what I’ve found works best in my real-life acupuncture clinic in Western New York state.

What Sold Best in My Acupuncture Clinic (And Why)

Before I list the specific products, here’s the big lesson we learned:

The retail items that sell best in my acupuncture practice are usually small, lower-cost, giftable, and easy to say “yes” to.

Most of our retail sales come from products that are:

  • Under $15

  • Cute or useful (or ideally both!)

  • Easy to impulse buy at checkout

  • Make excellent small but thoughtful gifts

Okay, here are the exact retail products that sell best at my practice:

1. Magnetic bookmarks from Coastal Creators of Connecticut

These sell for $4 (single) to $6 (two-pack) and I’ve been blown away with how popular they are. 

Items that sell well for us:

We have a variety of other bookmarks and notebooks from Coastal Creators of Connecticut and they all sell relatively well. These don’t take up much space, they’re cute and funny, and they’re extremely giftable.

2. Notebooks and pens from B.V by Bruno Visconti

These notebooks are beautiful and inexpensive. They make very elegant gifts for a low price, especially when combined with a matching pen. 

Plus sometimes my acupuncture associates and I recommend journaling or recording diet or other symptoms to various patients, and it helps to have a journal and fun pen they can buy in the office and get started with right away.

Items that sell well:

These sell well year-round, not just at the holidays.

3. Coffee cups earrings from Lilliput Little Things

These always sell out. I usually announce when they come back in stock (via my email newsletter) and people will respond to the email asking if they can reserve a pair even before I get them out on display.

Lilliput Little Things – Tiny Coffee Cup Earrings

4. Poppy & Pout Lip Balm

These are super lush and patients LOVE them. I was a little worried at first that they would be too expensive to sell. Retail is $9.99 and that’s kind of a lot for lip balm! Plus we’re in a rural, lower-income area and I just wasn’t sure how it would go.

It turns out, people are crazy about this brand. I’ve found that putting out a tester for each flavor has really helped people decide to purchase. These smell AMAZING but you can’t know that without the testers.

Which ones specifically sell well:

5. Candles from Oak and Ash Candle Company

These candles truly smell amazing and they have crystals in the wax. As the wax melts, the little gift left over is the crystal at the bottom. Fun and a great gift. I found that the smaller size did well at out office. 

What Didn’t Sell Well (And What I’d Skip Next Time)

Not everything I ordered was a great fit for my practice.

I think this is important to talk about, because retail can feel intimidating if you’re afraid of wasting money.

That’s why I recommend Faire as your starting place for wholesale/retail, because they allow you return items from your first order that didn’t sell, so there’s much lower financial risk.

That way you can dip your toe into retail without stressing about getting it “just right” the first time. Like anything else in business, some trial and error will probably be necessary. You just have to be willing to experiment.

And even if you order wholesale items from somewhere else and can’t return them – there are ways to manage that, too, so you don’t lose money. 

In that case, here’s what I recommend: 

Have the items out for sale for 3-4 months. If they’re just not selling, don’t stress.

Mark them down to half price (or whatever you paid for them – wholesale is usually 50% of retail) and put a splashy sign next to them that these items are on clearance.

Those items will very likely move at half price. Then you made your money back, no harm done.

Here are the products that didn’t sell well for us:

  • These large, gorgeous crystal candles – Unfortunately, $58 was too high a price point for my small, lower-income town. But these would probably sell well in bigger cities or more bougie, spa-like settings. They are gorgeous and smell SO GOOD.

  • These adorable little pocket “worry stone” gemstones! I even made little business cards to go with them, explaining the properties of the stone. Darn. I really wanted that to work. (However, I DO recommend this gemstone brand – their stuff is flawless. Just watch out for international tariffs!)

  • These Poppy & Pout lip scrubs. I really don’t know why these didn’t sell well. We carried the pomegranate peach flavor lip scrub, which is our bestselling flavor in lip balms. But people just didn’t seem interested in the scrub. Maybe in a different setting, or if I had made a little place card explaining how to use lip scrub?

Why I think these items didn’t move:

Again, I think these items were either too expensive, or simply not a good fit for my patients/area. Sometimes you can’t know what’s a good fit until you try. This is why I’m a big believer in starting with small, low-risk items first.

Once you get a feel for what your patients love, it becomes easier to expand.

A Quick Note About Location

I think it’s important to mention this because it affects what sells.

My acupuncture clinic is located in a rural town in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York. Population, 7,000. Median income is lower than average.

We’re running a boutique practice in a rural location. Some of our patients drive an hour to see us for cosmetic acupuncture, some are local. So I really had to experiment with price points to get a feel for what felt reasonable to people passing through our office. 

If you’re in a major city where patients are casually spending $80 on skincare add-ons or luxury wellness products, you might have a totally different price point for your retail. For example, I know that those exact $58 crystal candles sell well at my friend Michelle’s community acupuncture clinic, Zen Den SLO, in San Luis Obispo, California.

And that’s okay – you probably have a good feeling already of what your patients will be interested in and willing to spend, either as an impulse purchase or gifts for others. 

For us, lower price points (under $15) tend to sell the best. That doesn’t mean doesn’t mean higher-priced items don’t sell — we do offer a $65 facial oil and a few $40 items. But lower seems better for us. You just have to consider your own patients.

Honestly? I think this makes retail even more encouraging.

Because if we can bring in $4,000+ per year in a small town with realistic price points, there’s a good chance retail could work well in many other communities too.

Why I Recommend Faire 

There are a lot of places you can source retail products, but Faire is the easiest platform I’ve found for clinic owners who want to experiment without making a big investment.

Here’s why I recommend it:

  • Huge variety of independent wholesale brands

  • Easy filtering (Made in USA, women-owned, minority-owned, eco-friendly, handmade, organic, not available on Amazon, etc.)

  • Many brands offer low or no minimum dollar amount for first orders

  • Returns on your items in your first order

  • Faire offers net 60 payment terms (optional), meaning you can pay for your items 60 days after purchase (once they’ve hopefully paid for themselves)

  • Most products look professional and giftable

If you want to try Faire, you can get started here and use my discount code AMS10 for 10% if your first order is over $400.

Final Thoughts

Adding retail to our acupuncture clinic has been a surprisingly fun (and profitable) business experiment. And I plan to continue experimenting!

It doesn’t have to be complicated, and it doesn’t require “pushing for the sale.” We put the retail out on the shelves and let it speak for itself. 

If you stock products that feel aligned with your clinic, keep the price points realistic for your patient demographic, and make it easy for patients to browse while they wait…

…the sales happen naturally.

And over time, even small purchases really add up.

If you want to try Faire for your clinic, you can get started here. Don’t forget to use code AMS10 to save 10% on first orders of $400 of more.