In many cultures, jewellery is part of life. Men, women, young, and old wear decorative pieces for personal adornment. So it’s not surprising why many entrepreneurs choose to invest in this type of business. Jewellery making is a rapidly growing industry. Forecasts show that the market will reach $480.5 billion by 2025. But before you jump right into it, you’ve got to learn the ins and outs of the jewellery business.
Here’s how you can create a successful business selling jewellery:
Define Your Line
There are thousands of jewellery stores in the world. There could be over a hundred in your local area. What will make your new business stand out?
The first step is to define your line. You do this by answering all possible questions until you can picture how you’re going to operate your business and secure a key position in the market. Some of the key questions to ask yourself are:
- Will you be selling jewellery online or are you putting up a brick-and-mortar store?
- Who are your target customers?
- What makes your products unique?
- How will you price your products?
This is where a solid business plan comes into play. But before you dig into the details, you want to create a business model canvass first. It’s a great way to visualize how your going to operate your jewellery business.
Find Your Niche
No matter how passionate and knowledgeable you are about jewellery-making, your quest to a successful business starts with finding your niche. To find your niche, you will have to do thorough research. Whether you’re into fine, handmade, or custom jewellery, you can test your market by offering your products to different demographics (mass marketing) for a few months.
From there, understand who is likely to purchase your products. You can also conduct a survey to know more about your niche. Understanding the age, gender, and location of your target market gives insightful ideas and sales and marketing and helps you tailor your strategies according to their needs.
Create a Business Budget
When creating a budget, many factors should be considered, such as the start-up costs like equipment, storefront (if you’re opening a physical store), staffing, licenses, permits, and initial supplies.
Don’t forget to include marketing expenses, insurance, and miscellaneous costs. Putting up a small jewellery store can cost a little as $20,000. However, it depends on your location (cities would cost more rent and operational expenses). It can cost you up to $100,000, sometimes more.
Analyze Your Competitors
Benchmarking is critical to the success of any business. While competition makes doing business more challenging, it can also provide a framework for business growth. Look at your competitors. Check their websites. See how they are doing. What makes them successful? Who are their target customers? How’s their pricing?
Visit their shops too and pretend like you’re a customer. See how well they fair in terms of selling, customer service, pricing, product placement, interior design, etc. Compare these points to your methods. Learning from the successes and failures of your competitors is a built-in boost for your business.
Cover All Legal Bases
Don’t want to miss out on any legal requirement to avoid hefty fines, store closure, and worse – imprisonment.
Before you start selling, make sure to coordinate with the local business licensing authority in your area. If you’re a sole proprietor, setting up your business is easier as there will be fewer requirements. Even if you’re only selling jewellery online, you will still need permits and licenses.
Other licenses, particularly industry-specific licenses, may also be required. It depends on the level at which you enter the trade. For instance, if your shop will be offering appraisal services or jewellery valuations, you (or someone in your team) needs to be a certified gemologist.
Getting training and certification from recognized organizations, such as the GIA, will give your business more advantage.
Find Suppliers
Whether you decide to make custom jewellery or simply re-sell pieces from renowned brands, you need suppliers.
If you’re designing your jewellery products, you’ll have to invest in tools and equipment, as well as materials. It’s going to be an expensive undertaking so make sure you are only dealing with credible suppliers.
When scouting for suppliers, talk to as many companies as you can. Compare their rates. Check their permits and licenses, Lastly, don’t forget to negotiate.
Start Your Marketing Strategy
In most cases, you will be promoting your products online, alongside your brick-and-mortar shop. Otherwise, you could lose a lot of potential customers.
Here are some marketing strategies to boost your sales and establish your brand:
- Start with an eCommerce website designed for a jewellery business. You want an online store with a user-friendly interface, mobile optimization, quality product and marketing content, and seamless shopping cart functionality. You also need to design your online store to reflect your brand.
- Offer reliable payment systems. If you’re selling online and offline, consider integrating your eCommerce platforms with your Point of Sale (POS) system. Additionally, offer multiple payment methods to accommodate more buyers.
- Leverage social media. Social media is one of your best tools to market your jewellery business. It’s good to have multiple platforms to reach as many customers as possible, as long as you’re able to manage them.
Organize Your Shipments and Sales
A big part of running your business is ensuring that those exquisite pieces arrive safely at your customer’s location. Note that unlike stepping into a physical shop, your customers will depend mainly on what they see on your website – photos, item description, etc.
Your goal is to meet their expectations by delivering the same, exact piece they fell in love with when browsing on your site.
Thus, handling is critical, especially when you’re selling fine jewellery that could cost thousands of dollars. Next, you want to ship your jewellery quickly. Whether you ship the product in a matter of three days or three weeks, it makes a big difference.
Lastly, make clear policies on returns and refunds. This increases the trustworthiness of your jewellery business.
In Summary
Creating a successful jewellery business is rocket science. It’s not enough that you are passionate about it. You have to learn the “business” side of your craft to make money and grow your business.
Fortunately, these steps can lead you to the right path. If you start your business right, you have a greater chance of becoming successful at it. Proper planning and preparation are the keys. So, don’t rush the process. Take time fulfilling the steps outlined here.
Until such time, running your business gets easier each day.