How To Start an Online Jewellery Business

We meet more and more entrepreneurs who are starting jewellery businesses online. After all, its something that you can run from home and is pretty low cost to run, with no regulation. With different jewellery trends and fads, you can utilise your years of expertise and generate a healthy income.

 

Popular Jewellery Business Ideas

  • Sustainable jewellery
  • Ethical jewellery
  • Handmade jewellery
  • Gold jewellery
  • Classic or vintage
  • Cheap? Expensive?

 

What Website Should I Use for My Online Jewellery Business?

We recommend using Shopify which is the most effective and simplest way to sell jewellery online. The packages start from just $29 per month (around £24 per month) and this include a full online store and other bits including:

  • Easy way to upload images
  • Payment facilities (all credit cards accepted)
  • Automatic emails
  • Record of purchases and sales made online
  • Discount codes
  • Unlimited products to upload

jewellery-shopify

You can use other sites like Wix and Squarespace to put a good looking site together and the pricing is very similar. However, be warned that these sites do not rank as well on Google.

If you have a bit of budget (£1,000 or £2,000), working with a developer and using WordPress would be the first choice and fulfil all your requirements.

 

Your Business Model

Many entrepreneurs we meet believe that they can create a site, upload some images and the sales will start pouring in.

If you tell a lot of friends and post about it on social media, you will always get some initial sales, thanks to your supportive network around you.

Once this runs, making the sales and covering all your costs can be tricky.

Our advice? You have to keep costs down, as much as possible. Consider whether your hold stock and buy £5,000 worth of jewellery upfront or buy it in increments of £500, helping you manage costs more effectively.

Its all about repeat customers.

We always talk about creating a brand and trying to get repeat customers. If you start with 5, 10 or 100 paying customers, you just need to get them to come back to you every year, whether it is for a birthday or valentines day. Whether it is through social media or monthly email newsletters, that list is essentially your customer base, and if you can build it up and get that backlog of customers, you will work very hard in the early days, but eventually sales will just keep trickling through without you having to do much – and that is when your business is cooking.

 

How Do You Make Yourself Different?

There are a lot of jewellery companies online, whether they are large established businesses (such as Hatton Garden Diamond), mummy business or side projects. You really need to think how you will be different, e.g

  • Will be geared around ethical values? Where have the items been sourced?
  • Will you give proceeds to charity?
  • Will your marketing be young or older?
  • Will you push limits and break boundaries through your social media?

 

How to Get Sales for Your Jewellery Business

Word of mouth – Nothing beats word of mouth and getting other people to recommend your items. This is also going to be free and not subject to paying for advertising or marketing costs. Having a beautiful or unique brand will help you in getting the word of mouth and other things such as good customer service or a jazzy name.

Influencers –  A lot of people are talking about influencers at the moment, but unless it is very targeted to your demographic, the hundreds or thousands you pay for a Made in Chelsea or Love Island star could end up giving you a lot of views, but very few purchases. If you want to use this angle, try launch on the build up to Christmas or Valentine’s Day when people are likely to be shopping anyway.

Selling through other vehicles – You can sell through other platforms too such as Amazon, eBay and selling on Etsy. If in person, consider going to trade shows and other events where your target market is likely to be. Even stands in shopping centres, if it is just a few days per month, or a limited opportunity, this can be a good selling point.

 

Finding the Right Name for Your Jewellery Business

We always suggest something unique and memorable. We don’t believe that jewelleryshoponlineUK is particularly memorable but something that sounds like a brand name might. Using your surname and a play on words is always good. Some people will name their company after a family pet or clever pun, but the more unique, the better.