How to sell your jewelry easily and fast.

Good day wonderful people

This article is for those of you who are thinking of starting a jewelry selling business. It is also for those who have started one but are looking for ways to improve it. Below is a summary of how to sell your jewelry fast and easily. Be sure to pin this as it will be a long article

How to sell your jewelry easily and fast:

1. Make sure that you understand your style.
2. Identify your target audience
3. Calculate the fixed cost of your jewelry making
4. Calculate the variable costs of your jewelry making
5. Decide where to start: Are you selling physically or online?
6. Calculate the fixed and variable costs of selling your jewelry in your marketplace.
7. Get social media accounts that convert best for jewelry, Instagram and Pinterest.
8. Price your jewelry
9. Develop a brand

1. Make sure that you understand your style:

Many starter jewelry makers actually do not understand their style. They see something that they like or is popular and they recreate it.

Jewelry is an emotional purchase, handmade jewelry even more so. People are not buying jewelry every day or even every month. You have to connect to your audience and communicate with them. A large part of that communication comes solely through the sight of your jewelry.

They have to look at it and feel something. They will not feel anything if you don’t. You cannot copy a trend without adding your own style and expect people to pick it over everyone else’s creations.

You must love creating your pieces. You should have an emotional connection to each piece. You should be proud of every single piece that you make. Give yourself time to understand your style.

Once you know what it is, move on to the next step. Please note that I am not telling you to not start your business. You should always choose to start as soon as possible. Even when you do not know exactly what you are doing, learning by experience is best. I am just telling you to get to know yourself as you grow your business.

2. Identify your target audience

Knowing your target audience is very important. You have to know who you are selling to in order to make a sale. This is why understanding your style is important. You can target your audience based on this style. Let’s take an example: I make pieces with big Swarovski pieces a majority of the time. My target audience would be women who like big statement pieces and shiny jewelry. Women who would not mind people looking at them.

You can identify this audience by using social media. Look at what people like and share. You can also learn your audience by just observing them. Look at the people around you. Try to see if you can categorize them by the jewelry they wear.

Again another example. You would expect mothers with young children to wear non-intrusive pieces that cannot be grabbed by tiny hands. You would also expect jewelry styles to be determined by age. Use these categories to target your audience. If your jewelry is appealing to teenagers, do not try to sell to people in their thirties.

3. Calculate the fixed cost of your jewelry making

These are the tools that you need to make your jewelry. For me, that would be my pliers, hammers, and mandrels. If you have to rent out space to make your jewelry, include this in your fixed costs. You must factor these costs in when selling your jewelry. They will determine your profit.

Most importantly, if you plan on making a living off your jewelry, add your salary to this cost. You have to be able to earn a living salary.

4. Calculate the variable costs of your jewelry making.

These will be the materials that you use. I use wire, chains, beads and Swarovski pieces. This calculation should be done individually for each of your pieces. You need to know how much it costs to make each piece.

5. Decide where to start: Are you selling physically or online?

You need to know where you are going to sell your jewelry. Are you going to sell physically or online?

Physical

You can start selling your jewelry at craft shows. I would suggest this for beginners who have just started selling. Craft shows attract a consumer base that is actively looking for handmade goods. They are willing to pay high prices (given that your jewelry is good quality) and have come prepared to spend. I would not recommend opening a brick-and-mortar store for several reasons :

• They are expensive. You have to pay rent, utilities and for the renovations needed to attract customers
• Jewelry is not something people buy every day. You may get repeat customers who enjoy your work, but they will not come frequently (it may be months in between each visit)
• There may be months during which you have no sales
• Your consumer base is small and niched, it may not exist in your town
• You will have to convince people who had no intention of buying jewelry to buy yours
• You have to get people to come to you, impulse purchases reduce signoficantly

When you go to fairs, you will have competition so you must do your best to stand out. Use bright, but not unflattering colors in your set up. Use jewelry displays that draw the eye in and emphasize your jewelry. Use signs that draw the eye.

Online

This is the new way to sell. The best thing about this is that you can sell to virtually anyone in the world.

Etsy

Some people use platforms such as Etsy. These are great and you can find some wonderful communities in Etsy, but when you sell on Etsy, you have to abide by their rules.

• Etsy has to enforce strict rules because they can be held liable if sellers misuse the platform.
• You also have to pay a fee per item listed
• You can only list an item for up to four months, after that you have to relist and pay the fee again (this leads to high fees for beginners as it is difficult for buyers to see your items when you are beginning (unless you pay for advertising which means more money)
• You pay a “listing” fee for each item that you sell
• You pay a transaction fee (based on item value and shipping) each time you sell

Etsy is not all bad. It has some perks that you will not get when running your own website.

• It has traffic. Lots of traffic. You will have an easier time finding your first customers.
• They are an established and trusted website. Customers trust the platform and will convert more easily than those who visit your self-hosted website. You will have to build a reputation.
• Etsy will have multiple payment systems established. Giving your customers many payment options will result in more buyers.

Here are some books that will help you to get started on Etsy.

AS you can see, Etsy is not friendly to beginner sellers, all of these fees are substantial unless you sell well, it may take months to make your first sale (which means that you will have to pay relisting fees again).

You could use other platforms, but they also come with high monthly subscription fees, and they limit your ability to use the platform based on the plan that you choose.

Woocommerce:

I would suggest getting your own website. I would strongly recommend WordPress. AS a platform, it is completely free you only pay for your hosting.

Word press has a WooCommerce plugin that is completely free. You can choose from thousands of free themes that will work perfectly with WooCommerce.

The best thing about WordPress is that you can add a blog to your store without any hassle since it is primarily a blog site. There are hundreds of free plug-ins available to customize your store to suit your needs. Adding your products is incredibly easy, you can even use variations.

WordPress the site is free but you have to pay for hosting. Here is where the best part comes in. With Bluehost, this cost is very low. You can start off by paying $2.95 PER MONTH.

Here’s why Bluehost is the best option:

1. It’s CHEAP, only $2.95 when you are starting, you can upgrade easily when you traffic increases and it is still under $30 for their best package.
2. They have a FREE domain. You register for a domain as you sign up for their service,
3. For those who already have a domain, they can integrate it for you,
4. As a seller, this is the most important part, FREE SSL. Your site will be secure and your customers do not have to worry about getting their credit cards hacked,
5. They have 24/7 support. Any problem that you have will be taken care of as soon as possible.
6. ONE-CLICK WORDPRESS INSTALL. You do not have to be knowledgeable about anything related to coding, it is all done for you.

How to get Bluehost:

Go to Bluehost website click here. You will be directed to the front page.

Click on the get started green button

You will have three choices. Choose the one that’s best for you. The basic is good enough for starters, but if you do not want ot go through the pain of changing plans later, I would recommend the Plus plan.

Next, enter your domain. The best part is, IT’S FREE. Make sure that you pick a memorable but unique name. You want it to be associated with you and your jewelry.

You will then be directed to your payment page. Enter your details and you are good to go.

Next, you will have to set up WordPress, they have great support for this on the website. Just click the button and it will install.

the next article is about how to get traffic to your website to sell. Click here to go to it.

6. Calculate the fixed and variable costs of selling your jewelry in your marketplace.

Now that you have determined where you are going to sell your jewelry, calculate the price.

If you plan to sell physically at craft shows or door-to-door, you will need to invest in presentational pieces. Something that will make people want to buy your pieces. If you have a physical store, you will have to consider advertising costs to get people to come to you.

For an online store, you will need to pay monthly fees on stores like Etsy or pay for hosting on Bluehost. You will also have to pay advertising costs to stand out on platforms such as Etsy.

7.  Get social media accounts that convert best for jewelry, Instagram and Pinterest.

These work particularly well for people who sell online. Instagram is perfect for those great pictures of your jewelry. On an online store, you have to put white backgrounds for your products as it makes people more likely to buy. There are no such restrictions on Instagram. Pinterest is full of people who are ready to buy. They are a highly targeted audience. This is what I would recommend for beginners. You get great traffic for FREE. Click HERE for an article that teaches you how to use it.

8. Price your jewelry

This one is difficult. Do not underprice your jewelry. You can begin by using the standard pricing strategy. Add your costs up and multiply by two and add a percentage markup, say 25%. You should be bringing in at least as much as you are taking out. Do not feel as if you are cheating people by asking them to pay you fairly for your work. Many jewelry makers end up leaking money because their jewelry costs more to make than it is selling for. They are essentially paying people to buy their jewelry.

9. Develop a brand

There is a reason that this is last. People tell you to do this before you do anything else. This is bad advice. If you want to sell your jewelry, you should jump right in a begin. As I said earlier, experience is the best teacher. People usually quit when they begin with this step because branding is difficult. You will have to do it over an over again. When you find something that you love, you will begin hating it later. So do this last.