How to start selling jewellery online

The online share of jewellery sales is steadily growing, and trading in it is becoming more and more at­tract­ive. It all starts with finding an online mar­ket­place like Amazon, Etsy, or similar. You also need original ideas and a clear target group, and you need to be good at main­tain­ing your personal brand.

What are the pros of selling jewellery online?

The jewellery business is a fiercely com­pet­it­ive sector in e-commerce. Stat­ist­ics on online sales of jewellery show it’s one of the most purchased products, along with elec­tron­ics and household goods. If you’re toying with the idea of selling products online, they you should consider selling jewellery.

There are many pros to selling jewellery online and make having your own jewellery business at­tract­ive despite the com­pet­i­tion. These include:

• Large profit margins from 25 to 75 percent
• Many niche areas for spe­cial­ised jewellery
• Many low-cost, free, and scalable online sales platforms
• Easy entry to online jewellery business with own online shop
• Easy to store and ship thanks to light weight and compact size
• Many pos­sib­il­it­ies due to many jewellery cat­egor­ies
• Per­son­al­isa­tion through en­grav­ings or jewellery on request/order
• Higher prices for luxury items
• Sale of handmade jewellery or by drop­ship­ping
• Sub­ject­ive aesthetic per­cep­tion can be guided by online marketing

How do you sell jewellery online?

There are many options when it comes to selling jewellery online. To find out the best method for you, start by asking yourself these questions:

• What kind of jewellery do I want to sell?
• Who is my target group?
• Which cat­egor­ies (necklaces, rings, watches, bracelets, etc.) do I want to sell?
• How much do I want to invest?
• Do I want to sell handmade items or purchase them from jewellery designers?
• Will I cover storage and transport?
• Do I want to start my own brand or act as an in­ter­me­di­ary seller?

Answer these questions as early on as possible because the platform and tools you’ll need will depend on this.

Sell via online shop or online mar­ket­place?

If you’re selling jewellery online, then you need a shop or a selling platform. Having your ‘own shop’ doesn’t have to be your own website, because you can sell jewellery both through your own online shop and through a seller account on Amazon, Alibaba, or Etsy and other al­tern­at­ives.

Online shop on your own website

Online shop on a sales platform or online mar­ket­place

Selling jewellery online in your own online shop

If you’ve opted for own online shop, you’ll need to create and set up a website. Both free and paid software tools are available. For example, you can create a free online shop with WordPress and combine it with WordPress plugins like the e-commerce plugin Woo­Com­merce. Many Woo­Com­merce plugins to optimise orders and payments promise to make your WordPress CMS (content man­age­ment system) not only a solid pro­fes­sion­al website, but also a powerful sales platform.

There are many WordPress al­tern­at­ives and Woo­Com­merce al­tern­at­ives that can help you create a website with an online store complete with inventory man­age­ment. You can add products and offers to your shop with social commerce and social selling and market it via social media by for example ac­tiv­at­ing the “sell on Instagram” feature. As an aesthetic product, jewellery is es­pe­cially well suited for an appealing Instagram online shop. Here, the most important thing is excellent product pho­to­graphy.

But let’s not forget about all-in-one online store solutions like Shopify and other al­tern­at­ives including Shopware and Big­Com­merce. These aren’t very expensive but offer everything you’ll need and a con­nec­tion to an online mar­ket­place. From easy setup to tailored designs, product present­a­tions, and managing orders, contracts, and shipping: e-commerce platforms and store builders bundle all the important tools and can be scaled flexibly depending on your budget.

Tools to create an online shop

Selling jewellery on online mar­ket­places

There are many online mar­ket­places on which you can sell jewellery, but the biggest platforms are un­doubtedly Amazon, eBay, Alibaba, and Etsy. With Amazon leading online sales by a wide margin, you shouldn’t miss the chance to sell your products on Amazon. With a pro­fes­sion­al Amazon seller account, you don’t even need your own website. Simply add your products to your shop and start. With the Ful­fill­ment by Amazon (FBA) program, you also use Amazon’s logistics (for a fee) to not have to deal with storage, transport, shipping, returns and customer service.

There are also many Amazon al­tern­at­ives that let you sell jewellery on online mar­ket­places without a big budget, logistics, or a website. Es­pe­cially if you’re working in­de­pend­ently, selling on Etsy, is a great solution once you’ve opened an Etsy store. Many customers browse for original, handmade products here spe­cific­ally. But Etsy al­tern­at­ives like Storenvy, Amazon Handmade, and Bonanza are also great picks for selling jewellery. If you don’t create your own products, then you can resell items via drop­ship­ping.

Online mar­ket­places to get started selling online

Step-by-step guide to selling jewellery online

Follow these steps to get your online jewellery business up and running, generate as much revenue as possible, and build your customer base:

Step 1: Pre­lim­in­ary con­sid­er­a­tions and pre­par­a­tions

Develop product idea and sales strategy

If you’re just starting out, the first step is de­vel­op­ing ideas for products and sales strategies. This includes jewellery lines, in­di­vidu­al pieces, and realistic pricing. Also, decide whether you want to sell your own products or third-party goods (e.g., via drop­ship­ping). Do you want to focus on a few unique pieces or do you rather want to sell bigger col­lec­tions to generate large sales?

Define your target audience and cat­egor­ies

Create a framework based on factors like demo­graph­ics and buying behaviour to define your target audience and the jewellery you want to sell e.g., rings, necklaces, bracelets, and watches.

Develop the look and feel of your store

Not only what and to whom you sell is crucial. The style, design, and com­mu­nic­a­tion should also be well thought out to make your brand or store dis­tinct­ive. The goal is to create re­cog­ni­tion value.

Explore com­pet­i­tion and trend analysis

You should neither ignore your com­pet­it­ors nor go in the complete opposite direction of the com­pet­i­tion. Analyse similar business models and jewellery lines, create an overview of price ranges in jewellery cat­egor­ies, and get inspired by how suc­cess­ful stores’ design and marketing.

Create a business plan

The basis and guide of a larger-scale jewellery business is to create a business plan. This includes a fully formed business idea, clear marketing strategies, growth targets, sales channels, and in­form­a­tion on how your jewellery is made or bought from man­u­fac­tur­ers. A realistic financial plan that breaks down your budget, in­vest­ment plans, and potential investors is es­pe­cially important, and should also include financial risks.

Develop a marketing strategy

Now it’s time to develop a marketing strategy for promoting your website out there. Find out what marketing tools could come in handy. For example, there are tools like Amazon SEO, Amazon keyword tools and WordPress marketing plugins. Ads and social media marketing can also give you more reach.

Register your business

If you plan on regularly selling jewellery in your online store, then you need to register your business and check whether you need an EIN (employer iden­ti­fic­a­tion number). If you fail to register your business properly, you may be subject to fines.

Add an imprint and details on data

If you operate a store and sell goods then you need to provide visible, legally compliant terms and con­di­tions, an imprint, and a privacy policy.

Step 2: create an online store to sell jewellery

Create your online store with a tool, store system, or CMS. Your online store should be appealing in terms of design and present­a­tion, and provide customers with a quick overview of offers, shipping, and payment options, as well as prices and ad­di­tion­al costs. Product de­scrip­tions and images are key, with keywords to improve your SEO ranking. Reliable shipping options, common payment methods, and visible customer support with return policies are also important. Also, choose a suitable domain name, a dis­tinct­ive store or company name, and an original logo that rep­res­ents your business.

Step 3: find man­u­fac­tur­ers and suppliers

If you don’t want to sell your own jewellery, you can find partners to source products from. This can be through wholesale, drop­ship­ping, or in­de­pend­ent jewellery designers. With whole­salers, you purchase products in bulk. You store and ship them yourself, which means you cand o quality checks and take advantage of wholesale discounts. Drop­ship­ping elim­in­ates logistics costs because you don’t man­u­fac­ture, store, or ship your own goods. But, you have little control over shipping speed and product quality. Check the reput­ab­il­ity of the people who man­u­fac­ture and ship your items, because coun­ter­feit goods or poor quality will end up falling back on you.

Step 4: optimise your stop for search engines

To increase your vis­ib­il­ity and reach, you should optimise your content for search engines. Learn about the basics of search engine op­tim­isa­tion and es­pe­cially about image SEO. Also, update your content regularly for better content marketing, to increase traffic and keep new offers and col­lec­tions coming.

Step 5: high-end product pics and helpful de­scrip­tions

Aes­thet­ics are es­pe­cially sub­ject­ive when it comes to jewellery. One of the most important things to consider when selling jewellery online are high-quality product photos with different angles and optimal lighting. Get them done pro­fes­sion­ally and upload only high-res­ol­u­tion photos. Showing jewellery on models also helps. Equally important are in­form­at­ive product de­scrip­tions. Here you can make clear your products’ special features and brand vision.

Step 6: marketing products or building your brand

Following tips on op­tim­ising SEO content isn’t enough. It’s best to also learn about email marketing trends, in­flu­en­cer marketing, social media marketing, positive website ratings and customer comments to help grow your user base. WordPress marketing plugins and sponsored ads on Amazon can also help integrate key marketing features in your shop.

Step 7: analyse stat­ist­ics and consumer behaviour

Analyse the success of your shop and customers’ buying behaviour by op­tim­ising your website with web analytics. This will let you check your KPIs (key per­form­ance in­dic­at­ors) and identify deficits in keywords, loading times, or present­a­tion. The pop­ular­ity of products and cat­egor­ies is also displayed.

Step 8: building and main­tain­ing your store

In the jewellery world, the aes­thet­ics and appeal of the brand are as important as the jewellery itself. Therefore, build a brand with re­cog­ni­tion, dis­tinct­ive style, and trust­worthy ap­pear­ance. This includes:

• Flawless product pages and images
• Con­sist­ent look and feel
• Trusted customer support
• Safe payment methods
• Easy order pro­cessing
• Reliable shipping