Are you one of those who have an eye for the finer things in life? Are you into jewelry and looking to start a jewelry business? Maybe you already have a vision of a perfect collection for starting a jewelry line, and you just need to do some basic research to get it up and running.
If that’s the case, you have come to the right place. We’ll discuss how to start a jewelry business over the Internet. In other words, you’ll learn how to create your very own online jewelry boutique.
The global jewelry market is on the rise and is expected to have a total worth of about $292 billion by 2025. Thus, this is a good time to step into the market, especially when all kinds of businesses can be launched online these days, which substantially reduces the start-up costs.
Now, it might sound daunting when we talk about building your online jewelry store, but fortunately for you, it’s not really all that hard. Let’s go through the steps of how to start a jewelry business online.
Steps to Build a Jewelry Business Online
- Pick a niche
- Get a supplier
- Choose a website builder
- Build your website
- Add an online store
- Prepare the web content
- Customize your website
1. Pick a Niche
Like every other industry, the jewelry business also has many different segments to choose from. In order to pick the right niche, you need to keep certain factors in mind.
- How to make jewelry?
- Who will your target audience be?
- What type of jewelry will you sell?
- How will your jewelry designs be?
- How will you market your online jewelry business?
The last thing anyone wants is to spend all your savings plus a lot of time and energy in making different jewelry designs, just to find out that nobody is interested in buying them.
In order to pick a niche, you need to do market research first. Look into the different kinds of materials or stones that jewelry can be made of: stones, gold, silver, pearls, etc. You might want to go for a specific demographic to target, such as fashion jewelry, kids’ accessories, or very sophisticated clientele.
If you are interested in high-quality fine jewelry, your raw materials would cost you relatively higher, but then you’ll be able to sell your finished products at a higher price. This is good for building a brand identity. On the other hand, if you are more into costume jewelry, for instance, then the jewelry designs will be produced at a lower price, but you’ll need to make more sales in order to make a good profit. Either way, you need to make sure that you are able to establish a sustainable profit margin for your jewelry business.
2. Get a Supplier
Once you have selected your niche, it’s now time to source for a good supplier who’s experienced in the kind of jewelry designs you want. If you know how to make jewelry yourself, you can create some DIY jewelry designs yourself as well. As you scale your business, it would be a good idea to get a supplier who has the capacity for producing and designing jewelry at the pace that you require.
If you are short on your capital expenditure budget, you might want to look for a local craftsperson who could assist you or complement you in designing jewelry, so that you can keep track of your finances and grow your jewelry business gradually with time. This way, you can build and maintain your inventory at the exact pace that your business needs. As jewelry design trends change, you need to take quick actions to cater to the changes in the market demand. If you manage your inventory wisely from the start, your business will be able to expand. Soon you’ll be in a better position to sign an agreement with a large-scale supplier.
3. Choose a Website Builder
It is a lot simpler to build a website these days, thanks to so many website builders available in the market. These website builders come with ready-made website templates for you to choose from, which saves time that you would otherwise have to spend in designing your own website from scratch. Isn’t it great that while you focus on your jewelry designs, the website builder will take care of your website design?
Image taken from Strikingly
Most website builders are free to use, which makes them time-saving and cost-effective. Saving on the costs is crucial at the beginning of your jewelry business.
Your next step here is to choose which website builder you’re going to use for starting a jewelry line and building your online jewelry store. One of the good options is Strikingly.
Image taken from Strikingly
4. Build Your Website
There are several online store templates available at Strikingly, where you can upload pictures of your jewelry designs and write a description for each by using its simple drag-and-drop feature. To edit any text that you key in, you just have to click on the text box and make the changes instantly. You don’t need any coding or programming skills for doing this. The Strikingly editor is quite self-explanatory and designed to be used by non-programmers.
Make the header and footer look good, and include a brief introduction about yourself and your business. Add in your contact details so that your customers can ask you questions if they want to have more information before making a purchase. Link your site to the social media pages of your business if you have any. Come up with a creative headline and announce any special offers in it to attract a larger crowd. Prepare your terms and conditions, privacy policy, and return/refund policy.
The free plan of Strikingly offers a monthly bandwidth of 5 GB and a storage space of 500 MB for your website, which is more than enough for starting a jewelry line on a site. Later on, as your jewelry business starts growing, you can purchase one of Strikingly paid plans that will allow you to run your website on a custom domain.
Image taken from Strikingly
5. Build an Online Store
It is super easy to build an online store in Strikingly. Once you have selected and installed the store template and uploaded pictures of your products, you would need to install payment methods so that your customers can buy directly from the site. Strikingly supports various payment gateways including Stripe, PayPal, WeChat Pay, and AliPay. Besides payment integration, Strikingly also has inventory management features that will enable you to keep track of your stock and arrange for new stock in a timely manner. Ensure your store looks neat with all your products listed in an organized way, like in the screenshot shown below. Keep an eye on your site’s statistics that you can access from your Strikingly dashboard.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
6. Prepare Your Web Content
Along with product descriptions, don’t forget to write some articles on how to start a jewelry line and post them on your website as well. You can actually write on anything related to jewelry and establish yourself as an expert in the jewelry business. This is called content marketing, which has become too valuable for enhancing a website’s search rankings these days. In fact, it is a means of promoting a website for almost zero cost.
Strikingly has a blog section too, where we keep posting valuable articles everyday. So when you build an online store in Strikingly, your website will automatically get an SEO boost due to the high-quality SEO content published regularly on the Strikingly blog.
7. Customize Your Website
Practically speaking, your website is now ready for your jewelry business to be launched. However, if you want to beautify it further or add more sections to it, you can look into the additional features that Strikingly offers.
The paid plan of Strikingly gives you the option to send out newsletters to your site’s subscribers. This is a good way of keeping in touch with your website visitors. It also keeps your customers reminded about your brand and products. A good strategy is to compile pictures and descriptions of all your latest jewelry designs in a newsletter and email it to everyone in your subscribers’ list at the end of every month. This not only gives you an edge over your competitors but also makes your products irresistible to your audience, especially if you are really good at designing jewelry.
By following the steps discussed in this article, you’ll be able to make the most out of your online store. You would feel like starting a jewelry line has never been easier and as fun as this. By having your website up and running in just a couple of hours, you will be left with a lot more time and energy to focus on your business strategy and growth plans for the future. We wish you all the best in your new jewelry business!
