Whether you design and create your own masterpieces or you are selling on others works (maybe you are a gallery store), selling jewelry online isn't easy. There is a fair amount of competition out there, including ebay, etsy, folksy and amazon - plus all those other individuals websites of course.
But those big names have a problem.
Etsy takes a huge cut of your profits, leaving almost
nothing leftover to cover the cost of your materials.
This is the reason so many people are deciding to create their own websites, its a much higher profit margin and often an easier sell. One such jewelry artist who has decided to turn away from the likes of Etsy is Rhona Petrie, who designs and crafts beautiful silver jewellery which she sells via her professionally designed website.
Using Rhona's website as a focus today I want to examine a number of ideas and tips which will help you sell more jewelry online, on your own website, without much hassle.
Tips for Selling Jewellery Online
1. Create a Great Website
The look and feel of a website is usually the first nod or shrug from a potential customer. If you can get a customer past the first page they land on, then it's a nod. If they visit only a single page and "bounce" away, then they've shrugged and decided this route doesn't look good. The later is usually the case when a website isn't professionally designed or is the work of a free website platform such as WIX.
Rhona's website is very clean and professional. It's elegance reflects that of the jewelry and art Rhona creates and sells on her website.
2. Take Great Photos
Once the design is looking good, you've another hoop to jump through. That is, if your photographs are not great quality your products probably will not sell. The better quality the photos of your products are the more likely you are to sell them. The photographs of your jewelry should be in focus and without too much reflection (watch out for seeing your own camera in shot!).
Tip: you don't need an amazing camera to take lovely high quality photos, most modern smart phones have sufficient resolution to do the job.
Tip: if you don't have a live model to use for photos of your lovely earrings, bangles and pendants try a simple piece of fabric which has a color to contrast that of the piece. For example Rhona uses a pinky coloured background for many of her works including these heart shaped stud earrings (image below).
3. Give Them Options
A key rule of selling online is to give users options. One example of this (as seen in the image above) is the option of a finish on a given piece of work. But options could also include things like chain length, color of gem used, whether someone wants an item gift wrapped and of course many other things.
4. Allow Social Sharing
One common mistake for online stores is to forget the use of social sharing. Using "like" or "share" buttons from Facebook, "tweet" buttons from twitter and pinterest buttons can all help promote you and your brand, as well as your website. Each share is basically a free advert for your product and a recommendation from one user to their friends on that social media network. A recommendation that could of course lead to a sale or two.
5. Wear Your Jewellery
It sounds very odd to say this, but if you create you are creating jewelry you should wear it outside of your house. It is FREE ADVERTISING, so whether its to galleries, events or just everyday you should wear it. It's a quick and easy way to advertise your products to friends and family, plus those lovely strangers you may meet on the street. Also, don't forget to always have business cards to hand.
You could even go a step further and ask that some of your friends and family also wear your amazing creations too.
Bonus Tip: Get Commissioned and Sell Quality
This sounds like a bit of common sense but it's all too easy to forget. Most jewellers start off by creating custom one-off pieces they are commissioned too do. If that is the case then you should a) display that work in a gallery (like rhona does) and b) accept enquries for commissions.
Next off if you sell things like Stirling silver or gold, prove it is what you say by having all of your pieces hallmarked. It may add a few days to the delivery and despatch process but it shows that you care about every piece you create and that the piece of jewelry is of high quality. Also it maybe worth saying somewhere on your site (maybe the about page) about where your pieces are hallmarked.
I would like to thank Rhona for kind use of her website and images above as illustrations to this post. You can find Rhona on twitter @rhonapetrie and on facebook at facebook.com/rhonapetrie
