Only jewelry is a luxury item that everyone needs. Men and women have worn necklaces, earrings, and bracelets, among other kinds of jewelry, for thousands of years. More than 29 million people buy jewelry every single day. This is a good place to do business, but the competition is tough.
But if you do it right, you will be successful and be able to start a business that does well. You don’t even have to open a physical store. We’ll show you how to sell jewelry online and make more money than you would if you rented or paid for a store.
How come you should sell jewelry online?
You could say that no one buys expensive jewelry online because they don’t want to get ripped off. Well, people used to feel the same way about phones in the past. Actually, things have changed. People are willing to spend money on nice things these days. They will even buy iPhones online for $1,000.
Now, the jewelry business is worth a billion dollars. We no longer live in a time when only a few big companies have control over how these things are made. And with all the money being spent, why wouldn’t you want even a small piece of that market?
Here are some good reasons why you should think about selling jewelry online:
- It is a product for regular people, not for businesses. The people who buy it are the end-users or customers, not the businesses. Everyone from every walk of life will have at least one piece of jewelry.
- It’s something that both men and women, young and old, will buy. Children are the only ones who don’t buy them. People from all over the world wear jewelry, so the whole world is your market.
- There are many things to choose from. The first thing that comes to mind is probably a diamond, but there are many other types of precious stones as well. A lot of these are a lot less expensive than diamonds. They can also be watches, pendants, necklaces, bracelets, anklets, earrings, nose rings, and so much more.
- Less money will be spent on endorsements because you are not making a new product and do not need actors or actresses to get people to buy jewelry. This is already done by big brands. They pay famous people a lot of money to wear jewelry and talk about it. You could be one of the people who meets this demand because of these ads.
- There are really a lot of different ways to sell jewelry. Since this is part of society, there will always be new trends, so you can always replace your items with new ones that meet the market’s needs.
How to make money with your jewelry business
The things that people want to wear change over time. It’s a trend that will never end, so you have to keep up with what people think is cool. To do this, you need to read popular blogs that talk about jewelry.
Here are some blogs you can keep going to to find out what kinds of jewelry are popular. At least 50,000 people visit each of these blogs every month.
Liza Urla’s Gemologue
One of the most popular jewelry blogs in the world is this one. Liza always shares the jewelry she finds from all over the world, and she knows a lot about trends, especially when it comes to vintage jewelry. In another part of her blog, she talks with designers. She knows a lot about fashion, but she also went to New York to study gemology and got a degree in it.
Daniele Miele wrote Gem Gossip.
Gem Gossip is about what is going on in the world of jewelry. She writes about jewelry shows, designers, new trends, and jewelry schools. She is a gemologist and has worked in an antique store for several years, which gave her a lot of experience in her field.
Becky Stone wrote Diamonds in the Library.
Becky used to work for the government as a writer. Through her blog, she now keeps a real collection of jewelry. Her blog talks about the jewelry industry, designers, helpful tips like how to pack your precious stones, and even jewelry stores.
If you read these blogs, you’ll know what’s popular right now and what’s not. You will also get ideas for things to write about on your blog or the right way to market your products online.
Some things to think about before opening your jewelry store
Before you set up your online store, you need to think about a few important things. Setting up an online store takes a lot of work, and if you try to do it too quickly, you will fail.
Before you start, here are some things to think about:
- Your area of expertise: jewelry is like clothes. There are a lot of specialties in this business. When people buy jewelry, they are looking for a certain thing. Some like simple pieces, while others like ones that are more fancy. This doesn’t mean you should only sell certain things. All you have to do is set up your store in a way that makes it easy for people to find what they want.
- From what you know, you can’t just sell jewelry because it looks nice. When a person wears jewelry, it changes how she feels. It can be heavy or bothersome. You can’t know this unless you try it on. You aren’t supposed to buy every kind of jewelry out there, but you should know how each one feels.
- Pricing and advertising: Jewelry is expensive, so most people buy it in sets. Be sure you know how to price your products right so you can offer discounts, sales, and even bundles. People are more likely to buy jewelry if it costs less or comes in a set than if it costs a lot for each piece.
- Always do your homework before you sell something. This is why it’s important to read blogs by well-known people. Let them do the work, and then use what you’ve learned from them as well as what their blog readers have to say.
How do you set the right price for jewelry?
Everyone knows that it costs a lot. So how will you set the price so that people can afford it and you don’t lose money?
As a general rule, you must sell your product at a mark-up of 300%, or four times the total cost of your capital per piece of jewelry. The cost of your packaging is also part of this capital. If you paid $100 for the jewelry and another $10 for packaging, your total cost is $110. You should ask $440 for it.
This is something you need to do if you want to run your business well. This method of pricing will also help you cover the costs of returned goods, refunds, broken items, lost shipments, and many other things you thought would never happen.
Here are two more things to think about when setting the price of your jewelry:
- Costs of an appraisal: If you keep your own inventory, an appraisal will cost you between $50 and $300 per hour.
- Sales tax: Depending on where you live, you may have to pay taxes on the things you sell. Your price should reflect this tax rate.
- You should also think about whether you will charge for shipping and, more importantly, how much insurance will cost. People who buy jewelry, which is an expensive item, will naturally assume that shipping is free. On the other hand, the insurance is there to protect you. If it gets lost, you’re taken care of.
Where online can you sell jewelry?
There are many different ways to start selling. Even though there is no quick way to be successful, there are online marketplaces where it is easier to sell your products, especially if you did it right.
Etsy
On Etsy, people who make their own goods can sell them. It was built that way, but it no longer works that way. You can now sell things on Etsy that you did not make. As you can see, Etsy is all about arts and crafts.
Amazon and eBay are not like Etsy. Amazon and eBay both sell everything. Etsy only sells one of a kind items. This is where people look for things that are rarely sold more than once. Today, more than 54 million people have signed up to use Etsy. On the platform, there are 20 million buyers who are all looking for that one special item.
Ruby Road
Ruby Lane is an online store that sells expensive, classy, and old things. This includes jewelry and things that you can collect. It’s not as big as Etsy, but it has a lot of support from people who shop in this particular niche.
Ruby Lane only gets one million unique visitors per month, but these are people who are looking for jewelry or collectibles that they can’t find on Amazon or eBay.
Since sellers on Ruby Lane sell expensive items, you should expect to pay to set up an account.
You should know the following:
It costs $100 to set up an account, and each listing costs another $0.19.
You will also have to pay a monthly fee to use the site, which can be as much as $69 per month.
Handmade by Amazon
This part of Amazon tries to compete with websites like Etsy and Ruby Lane. Only things that were made by hand can be sold here. It’s been around since 2015, and you have to meet a lot of strict rules before you can sell anything here.
Here are a few things you should know about Amazon Handmade:
- Amazon will review your application and audit your business before you can sell on Amazon Handmade. They will check to see if your products are really made by hand or by machines.
- If they find out that what you want to sell is common and cheap, you won’t be allowed to do it.
- If you are accepted, you will have to pay a 15% fee on every sale you make. A monthly subscription is also available, which can cost up to $40 per month.
How to find the best places to buy jewelry from
Now comes what is likely the hardest part of the whole process. Fake jewelry is everywhere, so you have to be smart about who you buy it from. It only takes one bad piece of jewelry to leave your shop for your reputation to be ruined.
Here are some ways to find jewelry suppliers and websites where you can do so:
SaleHoo
This is a website where you can find suppliers for anything, not just jewelry. To use this platform, you need to sign up as a member. You can pay $67 a month or $27 once and be done with it.
SaleHoo is best for dropshipping because the supplier will pack and ship the item to your customer. You can use SaleHoo’s Market Research Labs in addition to buying cheap jewelry. It is a system that tells you if the product you chose is selling or not, and there is also a member forum where you can learn more.
Business fairs
You have to go to trade shows for jewelry in your area. This is a good way to meet new people who work in the same field as you. You can look at the jewelry, negotiate discounts, and even ask the sellers if you can sell their items on consignment.
There are online markets.
There are a lot of online markets where you can find real jewelry sellers. AliExpress is an example of a place where you can buy things at their retail prices. Here, you have to be very careful about who you choose as your supplier. Since the sellers are from China, it can take months for the shipment to reach your customers.
If you use AliExpress, you might also find jewelry in the middle class. These pieces are real, but they are not as good as the more expensive ones. They have stones and gold plating, but they can’t compare to those that are made of 100% gold and gems.
Use Google search to find places that sell jewelry. Pay attention to those that come up at the top of the search results, especially sponsored ones. If a company has enough money to advertise on Google, it probably sells real gems.
To search the right way, you should use the right keywords. You can type “jewelry supplier” plus your area. This way, Google will start by showing only local suppliers and not global suppliers from other countries.
How to get your online jewelry shop up and running
Now is the time to talk about how you’ll put together your online jewelry store. You should already have:
- looked at the different places you can sell your things.
- picked the right provider
- made a plan for how much each item would cost.
- You probably won’t want to sell on Amazon, eBay, or Etsy. In that case, you’ll have to start from scratch with your jewelry store. If this is how you want your business to work, you need to use e-commerce platforms that let you build an online store in minutes.
Here are two that we think you should check out:
- Shopify
- BigCommerce
- Shopify
You can build your own store on Shopify, an online platform. You will have to pay a fee every month, as well as commission fees. The great thing about this is that it’s easy to use, and you can make a fully functional website to sell things online.
Here are some good reasons to use Shopify:
- Apps: There are thousands of apps that can help you with marketing or running your business.
- The price is reasonable: it starts at $29 per month
- You can put up as many products as you want in your store.
- Free themes: You don’t have to buy a theme for your store. There are at least ten free themes to choose from, and you can edit these theme templates to make your store unique.
- Free SSL: You don’t have to pay for this certificate; Shopify takes care of it. Web browsers won’t block your site, and you’ll be known as a safe online store.
- Different sales channels: If you build a Shopify store, you can also sell on other channels, like Facebook and Amazon. After the integration, the products on your store will automatically show up on your other sales channels. People can also buy through these ways.
- Payment gateways let you charge your customers in many different ways. You can use PayPal, Stripe, 2CheckOut, and many more.
- Staff accounts: When your business grows, you can add staff accounts and decide how much access they have to administrative functions.
- Shopify lets you sell things for as little as $29 per month. This is the basic plan for building an online store and getting paid by your customers.
BigCommerce
It is similar to Shopify. You can set up an online store, add apps, and finish the sale by having customers pay you on your website. All you have to do is get the word out about your products and ship them as soon as you can.
Here are some reasons why you might want to use the BigCommerce platform:
- You can sell on eBay, Amazon, Facebook, and other sales channels. All you have to do is connect your BigCommerce accounts to these platforms.
- Free Templates: The platform has a huge number of free templates. Akami Image Manager is also included. It’s software that automatically changes the size of the image to fit the device your customer is using.
- Customizable website: You can change how the website looks if you know how to code or if you know someone who does. You can change where the menus are, how the buttons work, and so much more.
- Migration: If you already have a store, you can move it to your new one with BigCommerce.
- Fast Build is a feature that lets you build a website without using one of the templates that are already there. But you have to know how to code to make it work. It also lets you test your new site before you launch it to the public.
- The two largest e-commerce platforms in the world are BigCommerce and Shopify. They make it easy to build a website—so easy, in fact, that it’s not as hard as you might think to put one up. After you’ve set up your shop, you need to focus on marketing and making sure your customers get their orders on time.
Are there any tips that will help you do well?
Yes, there are tips that can help you sell jewelry online successfully, and you need to make sure you follow them so you don’t run into big problems later.
Don’t sell counterfeit jewelry.
No one wants to get ripped off. Don’t try to do this yourself. You want to build a good name for yourself. Only if you sell real jewelry can you do this. This is why if you want to sell jewelry online, finding a supplier is the most important thing you can do.
Read the tips below to protect yourself and make sure you don’t sell fake jewelry:
- Only do business with people who are registered with government agencies like the Better Business Bureau.
- Check the items yourself. You should be able to hold the jewelry you are selling.
- Choose a good appraiser, and if you have to spend money, do so.
- If something seems too good to be true, it probably is. Be careful about doing business with companies that sell cheap jewelry.
- It’s hard to make a living selling jewelry. There are a lot of scams and frauds in this business. Be careful, and make sure that neither you nor your customers become victims.
Give buyers something of value
There are other people who also sell jewelry online. You should think about what you bring to the table. Customers don’t always feel like they’re important just because they get a discount. Sometimes, the right customer service is all it takes.
Here are some tips on how to do this:
- Offer discounts that make sense, like when you buy more than one item at once.
- Answer customer questions and be nice.
- Learn to ask them what they want or if they need something you can give them.
- If that is their concern, offer help and special treatment, like fast shipping and lower prices.
- Even if they don’t buy, show them that you appreciate their business. They will remember how you made them feel and think of your store when they are ready to buy jewelry.
- Always put customer service first, even if the customer doesn’t buy anything. If you give a customer what he wants, he won’t like or dislike your business. But if you give him more than he expected, he’ll feel like he got more than he bargained for.
Always put up ads.
The Internet is a huge place, so you can’t expect millions of people to know about your online store. You should use social media to make sure you have a presence online. You can do this by always advertising on Facebook or Instagram.
Here are some tips for getting your ads out there:
- Advertise to the right people. Don’t try to reach teenagers, because they can’t afford expensive jewelry. Instead, go after adults.
- Keep an eye on the data, and if your ads aren’t doing well, try a different approach.
- Use a lot of pictures. It’s better to see jewelry than to read about it. Use a lot of pictures and not as many words.
- Watch what your competitors do and take ideas from what they do. If you think it would work for your store, do the same thing.
- Always make sure that your ads reach the right people and that you use stock photos and photos that show how people live. The stock photo will focus on the product, while the lifestyle photo will show your product on a model.
Be truthful.
When you post a description of your product, it has to be complete. This is called a detailed description of a product. People hate having to ask for information about your product. In the world we live in now, information needs to be complete and easy to find.
Here are some ideas on how to do it:
- Set the features in one area and the emotional ad copy in another. This will help you organize the details. Add a section about shipping, and do the same for the rest.
- Be honest; don’t make a gem look bigger than it is. Use rulers to describe the sizes of the gems as they really are. You should also say how many carats your gold or diamond is.
- You can also call this truthfulness “transparency.” It makes customers trust you, and if they know you are telling the truth, they are more likely to buy from you.
Conclusion
It’s easy to sell jewelry online, but you have to put in a lot of hard work. It is important that you carefully follow these steps and don’t skip any of them. Choose your suppliers carefully, price your jewelry so that you can compete with others, and take advantage of the fact that you can guarantee customer satisfaction.
Lastly, choose the right place to sell your goods. Each market is aimed at a different group of people. Make sure that when you build your online store, you use one that has the right apps to help you run your business from the back end.