In this blog post, I am going to show you eight Simple Steps To Creating A Successful Online Jewelry Store please leave your comments at the end of this article and let me know your thoughts on this topic.
Whether you’ve found some pretty trinkets in your attic, or you make your own accessories, now is a rewarding time to be selling jewelry online. More people are discovering the benefits of buying from small businesses recently – not only does it help support independent sellers, but it’s also more sustainable than fast fashion.
We’ll walk you through eight easy steps to successfully sell jewelry online, so you can start dazzling your customers!
- Think About Your Niche
One of the first things to consider when selling anything online is your niche – and selling jewelry is no different. This is still important even if you’re selling used items, and is vital if you’re actually launching a jewelry business. Look at your jewelry pieces and ask yourself:
- Who is most likely to buy this?
- Where will that customer shop?
- How can I connect with my audience?
It’s important to understand not just what you’re selling, but who you’re selling to. Knowing this will help you in the next steps – for example, it’ll give you a better idea of which platform to sell on, and what branding choices are most suitable to catch your customers’ attention.
If you’re hand-making jewelry for young people, for example, you may want to sell on social media and use a fun, light tone for your branding. If you’re selling engagement rings, you might want a more professional website to showcase your jewelry.
It’s clear that your niche has a big impact on your selling journey! Creating a niche takes a bit more work if you’re setting up a business from scratch. If you need help with that It’s important to think about what you’re selling, and how this affects who you’re selling to!
Before moving on, make sure you have:
- Looked at the jewelry you’re selling
- Thought about who might want to buy your jewelry
- Considered how you might reach your audience
2 Decide Where You Want to Sell Online
The internet is a big place, and we know it can feel overwhelming knowing where to start. So here’s a quick-fire guide to the main places you can sell jewelry online, and which one is best for you…
How to Sell Jewelry Online: Finding Your Space
- Online marketplaces – such as Etsy, eBay, and Amazon
- Social media – such as Facebook and Instagram
- Your own online store – built using a platform such as Square Online
The right selling place for your jewelry online all depends on your needs, your goals, and your audience, so start thinking about these three things as we walk you through the pros and cons of each of these main marketplaces.
#1. Online Marketplaces
The best thing about online marketplaces is that you don’t need to work hard to get your products in front of customers – platforms such as Amazon, eBay, and Etsy are hugely popular and get tons of traffic every day. The downside is that you have no control over your branding, and you also face a lot of competition from other brands selling in the same marketplace. This means you probably won’t get many loyal or repeat customers, as you’re not creating a memorable brand.
While you usually don’t have to pay an expensive subscription to sell through online marketplaces, you might have to pay listing fees or transaction fees depending on which marketplace you choose. Always check the rules and fees before signing up, as it could eat into your profits if the fees are too high.
It’s worth noting that Etsy only allows handmade or vintage items, while Amazon only permits new jewelry to be sold through its marketplace. eBay is best if you just have one or two jewelry pieces to sell.
#2. Social Media
Selling jewelry on social media can allow you to reach a big audience. It’s also very low-cost, quick, and easy to set up!
However, once you get going, selling jewelry on social media can also be extremely time-consuming when managing it on a day-to-day basis. You might find you run into similar problems with branding as you do on marketplaces because your branding and designs are limited to the layout of your profile page. That said, social media shouldn’t be overlooked as the perfect way to engage customers and build up a following for your business – we just don’t recommend relying solely on it for selling your products.
#3. Your Own Online Store
Selling jewelry through your own online store is the most professional way to build your online business. You have total control over your store’s design and branding – you can display all your products in one place, create a professional and consistent brand, and provide a smooth customer journey from start to finish. The main thing that puts people off building their own online store is the fact it takes a little longer to set up than simply uploading products onto a marketplace like Amazon.
However, if you’re setting up a business then it’s worth the extra bit of time and effort! Building an online store isn’t right for everybody, but it’s not as expensive or time-consuming as people often believe. Some e-commerce builders like Square Online let you sell for free, and you don’t even need tech skills, so don’t be put off if you need your own online store – anyone can make one!
Which Platform Is Best For You?
Deciding where to sell your jewelry online is a pretty important decision – you need to pick the best place for you and your customers. Here’s a simplified look at what each platform is best for, to help you make the best decision:
- Online marketplace: best for quickly getting your products in front of a large customer base
- Social media: best for hobbyists selling a small range of products
- Online store: best for professional sellers or business startups
3 Set Up Your Store
Once you’ve chosen where you’re going to sell online, you need to set up your store and get your products in front of customers. Whichever channel you choose, we’ve got a quick setup guide for you!
Online Marketplaces
The setup varies depending on the marketplace you choose, but generally, it’s pretty simple – you need to create an account, upload your products, and start selling! Some marketplaces like Amazon require you to choose a selling plan, and most ask for listing fees.
Make sure that your products are suitable for your chosen marketplace – for example, Etsy only accepts handmade goods, vintage items (over 20 years old), and crafting supplies. Certain categories on Amazon are reserved for premium sellers, and this includes jewelry. Now is the time to create your seller profile this is most important on Etsy, where you can upload a photo, bio, information, store logo, and more to help customers get to know you.
Social Media
Selling on social media can be a bit fiddly to set up, it varies a lot from platform to platform. To set up a Facebook Page Shop you need to be the admin of your business page, be selling physical products, and accept Facebook’s terms and conditions. Only then can you create an actual Facebook Shop!
the steps you need to follow to enable your Facebook Shop are::{
- Set up an account with Facebook’s Commerce Manager
- Create a collection
- Customize your storefront
- Publish your shop!
Head to your settings and click Switch to Business Profile, then sync your Facebook store (or online store) with your Instagram account to pull your products into your Instagram account.
Once you’ve set up your store, you just need to upload photos – go to post settings and select Tag Products. This helps your followers find and buy products they love from your feed!
Create posts, share content to your story, use hashtags, and even connect with influencers to promote your products.
Make sure to activate the Shop tab in your Instagram profile!
E-commerce Builders
The easiest way to create your very own online store is to use an eCommerce website builder – this removes the need for coding or hiring an expensive developer. The process is easy: pick a template, customize it, add your products, tailor your settings, choose a domain name, and publish.
You’ll notice that’s a few more steps than both previous options, but trust us when we say that it’s still an easy process. We’ve included some more detail on these steps to help you get started.
With an eCommerce builder, you can create a brand of your own, and arm your store with all the tools it needs to succeed.
The best eCommerce website builders to sell jewelry online are:
- Square Online – best builder for selling jewelry
- Wix eCommerce– easy to use and fully customizable
- BigCommerce– best for large, ambitious businesses
- Squarespace– best for designing beautiful storefronts
Square Online is the builder we recommend to most jewelry sellers. It lets you sell for free, making it budget-friendly, and it’s also extremely easy to use – the setup process is very quick!
We’re not just pulling this list from thin air; we carry out in-depth research on all the builders we review. After trying, testing, and analyzing each of them, we can say without any doubt that these four builders are the best of the best for selling jewelry online. Here are five things to think about when you’re searching for the right builder for you:
- Budget and value for money – take a look at the builder’s price plans and see how they fit with your budget. Don’t just look at the starter prices – make sure the higher plans are suitable too for when the time comes to upgrade.
- Ease of use – if you’re a total tech phone, make sure your builder is beginner-friendly! Our reviews always explore ease of use, and you can sign up for a free trial to test it for yourself too.
- Tools – take a good hard look at the tools and features, and if they match your business needs. Blogging functions? Built-in analytics? Real-time shipping quotes? Give your store what it needs to succeed.
- Design – you need your store to look as good as the products it’s selling. How many templates are there to choose from? How much can you change the design? Don’t leave the design as an afterthought – make it count!
- Customer support – when things do go slightly wrong, you’ll need a helping hand. It’s worth checking you’re happy with the support options on offer.
4 Showcase Your Products
Now you can start having some fun. Jewelry is all about looking good – in a brick-and-mortar store, a lot of attention goes into the lighting and placement of each piece.
Online is no different, except that customers can’t go up and examine your products. Instead, you have to make them shine in different ways. Here are our top tips…
Customize Your Store
Most people probably don’t want to buy jewelry from a dirty, falling-down shop on a sketchy street, right? Well, how you design your storefront sends similar messages to online customers. A well-designed storefront can increase customer trust and help to show off your products at the same time.
eCommerce builders give you the most control over your storefront’s design, which is why they’re so good for businesses – you can tailor your branding to your customers in order to encourage more sales.
If you’re selling through a marketplace then your branding options may be limited – still, think carefully about what you can control, such as the tone of voice you use for your copy and the photo you use for your profile.
Write a Captivating Description
With an online store, you can’t notice which item the customer is eyeing up – you can’t stroll over and use your awesome sales skills to entice them into making a purchase. What you can do, though, is write an enticing, persuasive, and informative product description!
Customers can’t pick up the items and examine them, so they’re relying on you to give an accurate insight into the product. Like Tiffany & Co., make it factual, but appealing – people want to be persuaded they need that diamond bracelet or a new pair of earrings!
Take High-Quality Images
Your stunning description alone won’t be enough to make shoppers click that buy button. People want to see what they’re getting, so you need to take some professional photos of your products.
Think about the background, the lighting, and the overall quality of the photo – is it in focus? Is it pixelated? Make it a good size and take snaps from multiple angles. It’s usually a good idea to have photos of the jewelry both on its own and being modeled as part of an outfit.
5 Price Products and Set Up Payments
Part of getting customers to buy your jewelry is pricing it correctly. If you’re selling jewelry made from precious stones, that should be reflected in the price. Likewise, if you hand-make your jewelry, the total price needs to factor in your time, labor, and skill.
It can be hard to know if you’re pricing your products right – too expensive and nobody will buy them, too cheap and you won’t make a profit. Here’s a quick run through our top tips – check out our full guide below for more detail.
- Always cover your costs. At a bare minimum, you need to make sure you’re not selling at a loss!
- Research the market. Find another jewelry seller that seems similar to you, and look at their prices. Think about why they’re charging that amount, and how your products (and prices) compare.
- Try out this formula: Total Cost of Product + Markup % = Final Product Price.
Make sure you set consistent pricing across your products, and make it clear for the customer to see.
Don’t be afraid to show the price! This Cartier product page makes it very clear how much the Love necklace costs but gives the customer lots of choices in how to proceed.
Don’t be afraid to show the price! This Cartier product page makes it very clear how much the Love necklace costs but gives the customer lots of choices in how to proceed.
6 Set Up Shipping
Shipping isn’t quite as fun as taking arty product photos, but it’s just as important.
Shipping Origin Address
First of all, you need somewhere to ship from. Your shipping origin address will tell your e-commerce builder what tax applies to orders and is essential for calculating shipping rates and processing returns.
Shipping Destinations
You might be worried about how much it’ll cost to ship to certain areas. What if someone puts in order from halfway across the world? Well, that’s where shipping zones come in.
Shipping zones are just the areas you ship to – for example, you could have the USA as one shipping zone, and then the rest of the world as another. You can choose how local or large-scale you want to go. So if you only want to ship to your state, you can!
Types of Shipping
There are multiple ways you can handle your shipping rates. These will depend on the builder you choose, and often which plan you’re on, but here’s a quick overview of the main shipping types available.
- Exact shipping costs – charge the exact amount it costs to ship the item through regular postage, or a courier like USPS.
- Flat rate shipping – charge a fixed price on certain products and/or orders. For example, it would cost $3 to ship orders anywhere in the US
- Free shipping – the best kind for customers, and a great option for businesses looking for a win with their shoppers. You can offer free shipping for all orders if you’re feeling generous; you can also restrict it to certain products, or use it to reward orders over a certain amount.
- Calculated shipping rates – offer your customers the lowest rates by using real-time shipping quotes from couriers such as USPS, Canada Post, FedEx, and more.
- Price-based and weight-based rates – speak for themselves, but you can charge shipping based on the price or weight of the product, through regular postage services.
Top Tips for Shipping Jewelry
- Make it appealing. Part of your branding and even the experience of buying jewelry is the packaging. Even if you’re shipping in plain old cardboard boxes, try to put something a bit special inside.
- Track it. Jewelry can be expensive and is often bought for emotional reasons – as a birthday or engagement gift, for example. Track your shipments to avoid any lost deliveries.
- Make it safe. This is especially important if your jewelry products are delicate. Don’t just put a dainty necklace into a box and chuck it into the mail – invest in jewelry foam inserts, and pads, or nestle them in cloth. Don’t resort to bubble wrap if you can help it – this ties into tip number one!
7 Promote Your Jewelry Products Online
Sadly there’s no magical alert to let users know when a super cool website has just gone live. We have to wait to stumble across it… or for it to find us. This is where you can do your store a massive favor by getting on top of the following five things: SEO, multichannel selling, email marketing, social media, and customer reviews.
#1. SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is what makes your website get found by search engines like Google.
E-commerce website builders have built-in SEO tools which automatically make search engines sit up and pay attention. However, there are still other things you can do to optimize your website and help your store to rank more highly on Google.
Shopify, BigCommerce, Squarespace, and Wix all have SEO guides and tools to help you do this. If you’re on a marketplace or even social media, getting your content to rank isn’t quite as straightforward – you’re reliant on your platform’s algorithms to put your products above others.
For Amazon, customer reviews are extremely important, while on social media the amount of engagement you get can have a big impact on your success.
#2. Multichannel Selling
Multichannel selling gives you the option to easily sell across different platforms such as Facebook, eBay, Amazon, and Instagram.
BigCommerce has integrations with many different channels, letting you expand your store’s reach while easily managing all your sales from one place.
BigCommerce is the top dog when it comes to multichannel selling. You can easily manage all your sales from one place with big commerce’s built-in integrations.
#3. Email Marketing
Email marketing is still one of the most effective ways of engaging customers. By sending out emails, you can promote new products, announce sales and discounts, release blog updates, or send out personalized suggestions.
Automated recovery emails can tempt back shoppers who have left items languishing in their baskets, while automated thank-you emails can leave a lasting impression on first-time buyers.
You don’t have to be a marketing genius to run email campaigns – as always, your eCommerce builder has got your back. For example, Wix has an email marketing tool called Wix ShoutOut, which lets you easily and quickly create stunning emails.
Wix ShoutOut lets you create stunning and professional email campaigns with just a few clicks
Don’t just sit there wondering if these emails are captivating your customer base – you can track your campaign’s success with built-in analytics!
#4. Social Media
Social media is a great way of promoting your brand. Even if you don’t actually sell through social media, it’s still a fantastic way of helping new customers discover your jewelry and re-engaging existing customers too.
Announce new product launches, share photos of customers wearing your jewelry, and even run competitions to help build your brand and your online audience. Don’t be too sales, and try to post regularly.
#5. Customer Reviews
Customer reviews hold a lot of power: 95% of consumers read online reviews before making a purchase. They’re also somewhat out of your control, but don’t be afraid of them – they can be a helpful tool for building customer trust and boosting sales. If you’re selling very expensive jewelry, customer trust is vital for success, and that’s where reviews come in.
Make sure to publish both good and bad reviews online – the trick is to respond positively to both as much as you can.
Reviews are especially important if you’re selling on marketplaces like Amazon. Positive star ratings and reviews feed into Amazon’s algorithm – so the better you do, the higher you’re likely to rank in Amazon’s search results.
8 Manage Your Stock
All your hard work has paid off, and your jewelry is selling like hotcakes.
This is where an eCommerce website builder can really shine, thanks to inventory tracking. Inventory tracking is where you manage your orders and track stock levels – it’s important to avoid selling the same product twice, or missing customer orders!
eCommerce builders like Square Online have advanced tools to help you run your business, by automating tasks and giving you easy-to-manage systems.
By tracking your inventory for you, builders like Square Online can monitor stock levels, alert you when stock is low or out, and even automatically label products on-site as “Low Stock” or “Out of Stock”.
This means you don’t have to be constantly glued to your screen and frees up time for other important tasks (or a well-earned cup of coffee).
BigCommerce, Square Online, and Squarespace are really top choices when it comes to inventory tracking. They’ve got it all – not only can they track your inventory for you, but they can also give you reports on revenue, and inform you how many customers have visited your site.
How to Sell Jewelry Online: 8-Step Recap
- Think about your niche – think about who you’re selling to.
- Decide where you want to sell – the main three are marketplaces, social media, or an online store.
- Set up your store – get ready to sell with your chosen channel.
- Showcase your products – make the most of product photos and descriptions.
- Price products and set up payments – choose a payment option, such as PayPal, and connect it to your store.
- Set up shipping – set your shipping rates, couriers, and more.
- Promote your jewelry products – market your products across various channels.
- Manage your stock – track inventory levels as you sell.
Now you’re ready to dazzle your customers and make the world a prettier place, one jewelry sale at a time!
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