Reblog - a brief guide to selling jewellery online

It's jewellery business week at the London Jewellery School and I have written a few blog posts for them. This is a reblog of one, the original can be found here

They are running a discount on their business courses this week, 20% off bookings made by 28th February (bookings can be made on any available course for the whole of 2015). For the discount email or phone

One of my absolute favourite things is to wake up and find I’ve made a sale in my sleep! It is so satisfying. The options for selling your work, however, can be a bit daunting so here is a brief guide to selling jewellery online.

Firstly, you need to decide on your approach.

I’m just starting out

If you want to test the waters and see how your jewellery sells I would recommend starting out selling through a website like etsy, folksy, misi, dawanda

These sites have differing costs and take a percentage of your sales so you will need to research which is best for you.

Pros	Cons
Cheapest option. Doesn’t cost much to list a few items and you then only pay when you sell Sites like these attract buyers who will browse for what they want You are provided with your own shop url (web address) which you can promote You can take paypal, credit cards and gift vouchers Easy to set up your shop and add items, follow the prompts	Some of these sites have become so big that you as a seller can be lost

I plan to sell in volume

If you are expecting to sell large amounts of jewellery then consider a pay monthly option e.g. big cartel. artfire. Here you pay a monthly fee and no percentage charge on your sales

Pros	Cons
All profit is yours (subject to tax of course!)	If you don’t make many sales it can be a costly option

I want to be featured in a boutique

Selling from a boutique-type website e.g. Not on the High Street is potentially great for sales. They have limited the number of jewellery sellers on their site (unlike other platforms e.g. etsy) and they advertise on television so are well known with shoppers who perhaps aren’t aware of some of the other options.

Pros	Cons
Excellent opportunity to sell Capitalise on nationwide advertising	Large joining fee and 25% sales fee plus VAT It is difficult to get accepted selling jewellery now (so if you are accepted this is a definite plus!)

I want to sell from my own website

Selling from your own website is tempting. It looks very professional but it is the most costly approach both financially and in terms of your time

Pros	Cons
Most professional looking approach High level of control	Monthly fee even if you’re not selling anything You are responsible for driving all traffic to your website, you don’t have the benefit of people being attracted to the site to start with

With all the above approaches don’t make the mistake of thinking that once you have some items out there for sale that people will find you. You need to promote your business both face to face and online to drive traffic to your shop. If you need help with planning how to do this why not join us on one of our business courses

PR for your jewellery business (taster class, 1 evening)

Getting your business seen on Google (taster class, 1 evening)

Social media for your jewellery business (1 day class)

Please note, all details were correct at the time of writing. Selling sites may change their terms and conditions so do check before signing up