Selling jewelry, whether handmade or pieces that you no longer need to keep in your collection, is a great way to bring in income and find great homes for your treasures. Knowing the ins and outs of how to go about selling jewelry online is important, especially if it is going to turn a profit for you. You need to know some jewelry selling basics before hopping on the internet and giving entrepreneurship a whirl.
How to Sell Jewelry Online
If you make jewelry yourself or want to unload some lesser-used pieces in your current jewelry collection, then you need to know the very best ways to go about doing this. The world has turned heavily to virtual everything, shopping included, so knowing how to sell jewelry online is a must for anyone who wants to be successful at this practice. Here are the basics of being a boss in the online jewelry sales world.
Decide on Direction
How involved are you planning to get with your love of selling jewelry? If you have a few pieces to unload, your approach to selling will be vastly different from that of someone who plans to design, create and sell pieces for a living. Know how much time and money you are willing to invest in your jewelry selling endeavor. If you are doing some short-term selling, some sites will fit your needs better than others. If this is intended to be a full-blown money making biz, then other sites will give you more of what you need.
Spend Time on the Concept and the Plan
Those wanting to start a true online jewelry business will want to consider a name for their business as well as a webpage concept. Budding jewelry entrepreneurs wanting to have their very own space on the internet where pieces are viewed and bought, must pay much attention to detail. Consider everything from wording fonts to color schemes and logos before jumping into the actual selling.
Know what pieces of jewelry you are going to sell. Will you be carrying vintage pieces, fashion jewelry, costume jewelry, or basic handmade pieces? You likely can not cover all the possible areas from the jump, so determining a niche will help you aim for a target audience specifically interested in your pieces.
Keep your target demographic in mind. If you are selling fashion jewelry, older ladies might not be so keen on shopping for your pieces. If you are selling vintage pieces, then you might appease an entirely different demographic of shoppers.
Make Sure You Are Making Money
What is your price point for most pieces? How much will it cost to run your online business and create products? Compare that overall anticipated cost to the expected revenue. Make sure that you are in the green on paper, meaning your online jewelry selling business should pay out more than costs to run.
Market Your Goods Like a Boss
Once you have decided what you want to sell, who you want to sell to, and that you CAN indeed make a buck doing it, turn to marketing. Think about the details outside of the jewelry. Does your packaging match what you are selling? If you sell fun and funky pieces, the labels and packaging should reflect that style. If you are selling vintage pieces, class up your packaging to match the ornate items that you people are buying.
Invest in Photography
This is so important in the world of online selling and shopping. When a person shops in a brick-and-mortar space, they feast their eyes directly on the goods. They can fall in love with a piece right on the spot because they are looking right at the real deal. When people shop online, they are only going off of what the pictures show. Up your photography game, or pay someone who has an eye for lighting and staging jewelry to snap pics of the items that you intend to sell.
Figure Out How People Will Pay You
Thankfully, people have it really good these days when it comes to online payment options. What types of payment are you willing to accept? Aside from typical payment options like Mastercard and Visa, can you extend options like PayPal, Venmo, and Apple Pay to your customers? Address shipping costs as well. Are you providing free shipping to customers? Research whether free shipping will work for you or against you. Don't forget to add the cost of accepting payments through these programs in your budget and pricing structure.
Be Accessible
If you are going to sell anything online, jewelry included, then you will want to make sure that your customers can reach you should an issue arise. If you are going this alone, then you are going to be wearing all company hats, including the customer service hat. Make sure people can reach you through email, phone numbers, or chat options if they have questions or concerns with your product.
Use Social Media
When it comes to reaching possible buyers, social media is your greatest ally. Be sure to create a Facebook page, Instagram page, and Pinterest page for your jewelry website if you are going that route of selling.
Where to Sell Jewelry Online
So, you are ready to get selling; you have direction, a plan, and inventory. The next step in successful online jewelry selling is to know where to sell your pieces. There are so many online sites out there to house your products, and each one offers something a little different.
ArtFire - Simple and Customizable
ArtFire is ideal if you want the ease of creating a simple storefront that you can customize yourself. You'll have your jewelry work marketed to millions of potential customers, and they offer easy sharing to Instagram and other social media sites. There are three main plans to choose from about $5 to $40 per month. For the most modest plan, you pay a $0.23 fee per item, but for the upgraded plans, there is no associated fee. All in all, it's a good, affordable option for marketing your handmade jewelry.
StorEnvy - Total Control
StorEnvy is a very different concept than the traditional marketplace format used by Amazon and many others. With this site, you build a storefront and manage it yourself. Opening a store is free. Your jewelry can be listed in the StorEnvy marketplace, but you only pay a 10 percent commission if your pieces sell through the marketplace. You don't have to pay a commission if your items sell through your own store. It's a much more hands-on approach that can save you money but may require more work. Sellers who have used StorEnvy report it's easy to set up a shop and painless to make sales, but they also say the site is prone to crashing.
Zibbet - Personal and Community-Based
Zibbet is similar to other options in that it allows you to set up a storefront in a marketplace, but with only 50,000 storefronts, it's much smaller than the alternatives. This translates to a more personal, community-based approach that does not hurt your sales, according to CraftMakerPro. Plans range from $4 to $16 per month, and there are no listing fees, set-up fees, or limits to your number of handmade and vintage jewelry listings. If you already have an Etsy store, you can even copy items directly from it to your Zibbet store.
Open Sky - Major Exposure
Although it has some drawbacks when it comes to flexibility and profit margins, Etsy Alternative reports Open Sky excels at providing great exposure for your jewelry. You need to keep your materials cost low for your pieces at this site since they take 50 percent of the sales price as a commission. That can be a challenge for high-end items, but if you create jewelry that doesn't rely on precious gems or metals, it may work for you. The advantage here is that the site has 100 million shoppers and is good at marketing your work. You pay about $40 per month for your account and don't need to pay a per-item listing fee.
Selling Used Jewelry
You can also sell your pre-owned pieces online, and eBay isn't your only option. Whether you're selling just a few things or planning to make a business of re-selling jewelry, these options can work.
The RealReal - Reputable Consignment Selling
Consignment giant The RealReal offers a marketplace for one-time sales or repeated selling, and they specialize in luxury items like jewelry. Rather than setting up a storefront, you let the site market your work for you and take a commission. The commission depends on the value of the item you're selling, so getting it appraised before you sell is a good plan. According to The Washington Post, there are a lot of scams online, but you can have success with reputable sites like The RealReal. If the item is worth less than $200, the commission is 50 percent. The commission percentage goes up with value, with items worth over $10,000 resulting in a 70 percent commission. Still, this is a good option if you want to sell your pre-owned jewelry without the hassle of marketing.
Worthy - Transparent Communication
With a BBB rating of A+ and positive reviews from past sellers, Worthy offers another option for selling your jewelry. You send in the item which a GIA-certified gemologist appraises. Then the item sells at auction, which Worthy manages for you. After the sale, Worthy sends you a payment for the sales price minus a 20 percent commission. The site prides itself on transparency and communication, although some sellers feel the communication is possibly a bit excessive. This is a great option if you want to sell your jewelry at auction with a hands-off approach.
Find a Good Home for Your Treasures
Selling goods such as jewelry online is a fun practice for many and for the lucky ones, it is a wonderful means of income. Learning how to sell jewelry online is simple and knowing where to peddle goods makes the concept even easier to be successful.
