Creating an online jewelry business can be very lucrative, as the jewelry industry has seen a significant surge in the past few years. More people than ever before are interested in buying jewelry, and there is a constant change in jewelry trends to reflect this, meaning there is plenty of opportunity if you have your own online store in this field.

However, as the jewelry market is constantly changing and there is more demand for jewelry, especially costume jewelry, to match trends, the competition is tight.

Having an online jewelry business means you are going to be in a highly competitive market where you will be up against small businesses, independent creators, and large corporations with thousands dedicated to marketing.

This is not to say that opening an online jewelry store in this climate is a bad idea, as there has never been a better time to make money online than now.

But to ensure it becomes a successful jewelry business, you need to become familiar with various tools and features used across the industry. In this guide, we are sharing the benefits that getting into the jewelry industry can bring for store owners in 2022 as well as how to grow your business for consistent success.

Why Open An Online Jewelry Store?

Most shopping done these days takes place online, which means the internet is a great place for any new business venture you may be interested in.

This is especially the case for the jewelry marketplace, where a large percentage of brands have products available online, whether this is through their own storefront or another website. The jewelry market has seen a great boom over the past few years, especially when it comes to selling jewelry online.

While online shopping has always been popular, the global pandemic has cemented this as one of the best options for customers across the globe. People can buy anything online these days, and many choose to purchase jewelry online because of how easy it can be.

From fine jewelry products to handmade jewelry, everything you can imagine can be bought online, and you can become a part of that with your website.

During the pandemic, when most people were stuck indoors, eCommerce businesses, including jewelry brands online, caused a great boom in sales, and this has continued years after the fact.

Now is a great time to start an online business, and selling your jewelry can be a lucrative move to make. Jewelry is one of the most popular purchases made across the globe, as it applies to all ages, genders, and demographics, and having an eCommerce platform means you can connect directly with your customers.

Ecommerce platforms, like an online jewelry business, have a higher profit margin because they connect sellers directly with their customers. There is no middleman, which means a great profit margin for both the seller and those behind the production methods.

With a greater profit margin, sellers can offer jewelry closer to wholesale prices, which means consumers are getting a better deal online than in physical stores. This brings more customers to the online marketplace, and the cycle begins again.

Due to the boom that online shopping has experienced in the past few years, there are more investors involved in this sphere now, and this includes those who are interested in jewelry companies specifically.

Now is a great time to get yourself online and start a jewelry business. While timing is a large part of any successful business, there are some other things that you need to work into your business plan to ensure this success continues.

How To Sell Jewelry Online?

The first step in opening a jewelry store online is to decide the main platform for this. There are many eCommerce platforms out there, each offering its own benefits depending on what kind of online store you are going to be opening and the target audience for this.

In this guide, we are going to be discussing the different platforms you can use for your own jewelry business online and the benefits they can bring. Once you have decided where your jewelry store will be, you can then move on to developing a marketing strategy and improving site operations to ensure success.

As we have mentioned, there are several eCommerce platforms that you may be interested in for your jewelry store, including:

Setting up your own online shop

This is the most professional way of starting an online jewelry business and is also the most time-consuming. This requires technical skills and patience, but having your own website where you can sell jewelry and interact with customers gives out a good brand image and makes your company appear professional from day one.

To make a website, it is best to pay for both a host and a graphic designer to ensure it looks good and runs well.

If you are wanting to run a successful jewelry store that maintains this success for a long time, then having your own website is the best way to go. With a dedicated website, you can not only sell jewelry online but also develop a good brand reputation and consistent image, which can then be shared elsewhere.

Any brand aims to be memorable and to remain this way with its target audience. Whenever people think about a specific kind of jewelry, you want them to think of your jewelry business. Developing a website is a key element of any marketing strategy as here you have somewhere to direct your audience and everything within your company is consistent.

There are various ways that you can go about making your own site, with some platforms offering more support than others which ensures even without HTML and coding experience, you can develop a website for you to sell jewelry online.

Online marketplaces

If making your own storefront is not something you have the time, budget, or skills for, then you can use any existing marketplace to sell jewelry online.

Many jewelry businesses have seen great success using online marketplaces such as eBay or Esty. Here you can have control over your own page and the kind of jewelry that you have available, but there is not as much freedom as you would expect when running your own site.

Using online marketplaces does offer many benefits, especially to small businesses that are just getting started with their first jewelry line. Working with these existing eCommerce platforms takes less time, and you can set up your jewelry business within minutes, as all it takes is an account.

No matter what eCommerce platform you choose, there are likely many other jewelry stores using the same site, which means there is going to be a lot of competition. However, you can find that many people come to your own store based on their searches for similar jewelry items which they could not find elsewhere on the site. Referral traffic is a great benefit to using existing marketplaces for your jewelry business.

When using an existing marketplace, such as eBay or Etsy, it is important to also note that anything you sell online is subject to commission. Usually, store owners have to pay the site they are using a small percentage of any purchase for having this space on the marketplace in the first place.

With this in mind, you may not have as much control over your jewelry prices and how you interact with customers when using existing platforms. This is something to note if you aim to offer an affordable price for your pieces, as this commission will impact this.

Social Media Platforms

Social media is an amazing tool for all forms of online businesses. Not only will these sites be a key element of your marketing strategies, where you will aim to increase brand awareness and attract potential customers, but they can also be used for selling jewelry online.

Most platforms are kitted out with all the tools you need to open your online jewelry store and can be used as an eCommerce website. These platforms are a great location to reach potential customers and interact with your audience, and you can now also start selling here for a seamless process.

Using social media as the platform for your jewelry business can be easy and is a low-cost option when this is done right. In most cases, however, it is more effective to use social media as a promotional tool that links to your jewelry business rather than having everything on one page.

No matter what you aim to sell online, there will be the right eCommerce platform there for you.

For jewelry businesses, it is usually a good idea to make your own site, as this can be a storefront for everything you offer and contribute to your brand image.

However, this is not the only option, and store owners need to consider where their target audience is and the profit margins they can work with to determine the best location for their store.

Find Your Niche: The Types Of Jewelry To Sell Online

A key aspect of any business plan is determining your niche. As a business, your niche is what makes you unique, and this is what will draw customers to you compared to anyone else in the same market.

The jewelry market is highly competitive, which makes finding your niche even more important as this is the key to standing out. While a lot of jewelry is the same and you may be using the same wholesale jewelry as any other company, there has to be something unique about your company that will draw people in.

For example, take a look at the fashion industry. While all brands offer the same kind of thing, mainly clothes and accessories, they each have their own unique style or niche that helps them stand out. It is this niche that draws customers in and makes a fashion or jewelry brand successful, compared to those without anything distinguishable about them.

The rest of your business plan will fall around your niche, as this is the backbone of your brand. With your niche, you can determine your ideal customer and everything in terms of marketing, product pages, and even the design of the site depends on this.

To help you determine a suitable nice for your online store, take a look at other jewelry brands and what you admire about them. There are various kinds of jewelry available at online jewelry stores these days, but each one has something unique to them that makes them stand out.

As a starting point, let us consider the kinds of jewelry that you can sell online, as this can be part of your niche. Taking a look at the online jewelry business as a whole, some of the most popular types of jewelry include:

Handmade Jewelry

When you make your own jewelry, you have a definitive niche and this is not something you can get anywhere else. Handmade jewelry is a highly popular item in any online store because it is unique.

The modern consumer is very conscious of where their money is going and handmade items, such as jewelry, usually make money for the artist or small business directly. Likewise, with such an oversaturated market, handmade jewelry can give customers something truly unique and unlike anything they can get elsewhere.

They are certainly unlikely to get handmade pieces in any physical jewelry store, which means your niche works to actively pull in customers.

Costume jewelry

Costume or fashion jewelry is a very popular market and the one that experiences the most trends. This kind of jewelry is made for everyday wear which means it uses a lower cost process and materials to create it compared to fine jewelry.

The materials will be lower cost and usually imitation materials, such as synthetic diamonds, copper, wood, plastic, brass, and other low-end metals.

Most people use costume jewelry or fashion jewelry daily, and not all items have to be cheaply made to fit into this category. It is possible to run a high-end costume jewelry business these days, as long as you find the right manufacturer for your products or make items yourself and many fine jewelry bands currently available online started as fashion jewelry brands.

It is common for an affordable jewelry brand to start branching out and offering more luxury items once they have developed a good reputation within their market. With this in mind, costume jewelry can be a good business model to consider if you are looking to start in affordable jewelry and want to see long-term success from selling jewelry.

Fine Jewelry

As we have mentioned, this kind of jewelry is the opposite of what most people wear daily, but this does not mean it is not a good venture for your eCommerce website.

Selling jewelry in this category can be very successful if you have a curated selection. A fine jewelry brand can also make a lot of money from the wedding industry, offering items such as engagement rings and wedding rings in their catalog.

Whereas fashion jewelry is made from lower-end materials, fine jewelry is the real thing, with items being made from precious metals. Most brands within this category will offer precious metals and diamond jewelry which is associated with a luxury lifestyle.

This kind of jewelry brand costs more to make and source, which is why there will be a higher price tag here.

Other Niches To Consider

Based on your target market, you may want to offer multiple forms of jewelry, such as how many fine jewelry companies offer rare vintage pieces as well.

This is something you can determine based on competitor research which will give you an insight into what is already available in your particular market and any obvious gaps that may be present. For a successful eCommerce business, it is important to have a unique and relevant niche to ensure you are reaching the right people.

When it comes to selling jewelry, there are various categories you can consider adding to your store, including:

Vintage Jewelry

These can be fine jewelry pieces, such as rare items made from precious metals and real gemstones like engagement rings. Vintage costume jewelry can also be a good option for cheaper retailers and this is now a popular market with more conscious consumers.

Fair trade jewelry

This is common to find in handmade jewelry stores. For this kind of jewelry, the niche is the fact the materials or items themselves are fair trade which means they are sustainable.

How To Promote Your Brand Online

Now that you have an online store set up and ready to go, it is time to start promoting what you offer. While people can find your site organically by searching for specific items, this is close to impossible with how much competition is out there.

Instead of waiting for people to find your online store, you need to get out there and advertise. Digital marketing is a way of getting your brand noticed and putting your name in front of your target audience so they are more likely to interact with what you offer, which leads to jewelry sales.

There are various ways that you can promote your jewelry line and bring customers to your site. The following are some of the most useful and successful tools for any jewelry brand to consider using:

Search engine optimization (SEO)

There are various aspects of SEO that you can work on to promote your website and make sure it is noticed by the right people. The purpose of SEO is to increase the ranking of your website in search results, ensuring it gets noticed by more people.

Whenever customers are searching for something, whether this is engagement rings or jewelry sales, they will turn to the internet to find it. Searching any of these key terms, along with the countless other relevant terms, will bring up thousands of results, and your website can get lost in this.

SEO is a way of generating organic traffic by working on aspects of your website and content, from keywords to website design, so you can rank highly in search results. There are various things that search engines, like Google, look for when it comes to their results, and you can manipulate this to rank higher and get noticed.

While you can do SEO tactics on your own, there are also digital marketing agencies that can help with this, so you have time to focus on other aspects of your business.

Sponsored Content

Paying to appear on other relevant sites or to be promoted by people with large followings can be a great way to promote your jewelry line. There are many jewelry blogs out there that take sponsored content, allowing you to be shown in front of a wide and relevant audience who are going to be interested in what you offer.

There are various forms of sponsored marketing that you can try online, including paying influencers to promote your brand or working in collaboration with other relevant brands to host giveaways. No matter what the content is, the aim always remains to inform people of your work and get them to use your website.

A lot of sponsored content can be found on social media, where influencers and brands with a large following will be paid to showcase your product or brand to their audiences.

You can also send these people products for them to showcase on their platform, meaning there is no monetary cost, but you are giving away items for promotional purposes.

Appear On Multiple Platforms

It is a good idea to have some kind of brand presence on various platforms to increase awareness and reach a wider audience. For example, as well as having your own website where you sell jewelry, it is a good idea to have dedicated social platforms for your business.

This is the way most brands operate these days, as consumers spend a lot of time on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. These platforms can give you a direct line to your customers and allow your brand to interact with people intimately.

Social media can also be used to garner customer feedback as well as to promote upcoming products, connect with influencers, and generally get your brand out there. You can determine which platform will be the best option for your brand based on your ideal customer and where they spend their time.

Many jewelry brands find that image-based platforms are the best way to promote their work, as it allows customers to see what is coming to the store and what they can buy, but this is not your only option.

In terms of social media marketing, some agencies can help with this and ensure your brand is getting noticed on these platforms.

Customer Reviews

This is a very important aspect for all online businesses, but especially small businesses, because customer reviews give insights into the way your brand operates and what people can expect from you.

As customer reviews are not under your control, if you want them to be genuine, it can seem like a risk to allow these to be such an important part of your marketing. However, it has been proven time and time again that customer reviews are good for business, and this is something all kinds of audiences look for before finalizing their purchase with a company, especially when it is a new brand to them.

You can have customer reviews on a range of platforms, and these will likely appear in searches related to your brand as well. As long as you operate a fair and good business, it is unlikely for you to get negative reviews.

However, it is also true that you cannot please everyone and in the event of a negative review, remember that the customer is always right, and it is a good idea to respond to all comments professionally and kindly.

Other Marketing Techniques to Try

While these are the main promotional tools that you should use for your jewelry business, some other options can take things to another level, such as:

Email marketing

You can get customers to sign up for your email notifications and newsletters on your website. Many sites offer a promotion to those who sign up with their email and then continue to contact these customers with promotional content.

SMS Marketing

This is similar to email marketing, as promotions for your brand are going directly into the hands of your customers. However, this time it is in the shape of a text message, and you can get the information for this from their contact details once they have checked out with your company.

Paid advertising

Much like sponsored content, you can pay other platforms to promote your company for you. There are some prime locations for advertisements, such as in Google searches or on other sites like Instagram, where you can reach a specific kind of person and attract them to your site.

It is a good idea to try and get your brand noticed through various means, especially when it is the early days of your business.

However, this does not mean you should overuse any of these techniques as this can have a negative effect, especially in terms of search engine rankings where spam content is considered a black mark against your brand, causing it to be hidden by other results.

Summary

The jewelry business is booming online these days as more people rely on online shopping for everything. If you are wanting to launch a jewelry business in 2022, then you will benefit greatly from being online in some way, and having an online store is going to get you the success you are looking for.

Creating a brand and store site is only the first part of the process, as we have explored in this guide. There are many options for jewelry businesses these days, and you can run a successful online company by making the right choices.

From developing a storefront online to promoting your products, you can do everything for your business on the internet, and many in the same field have seen great success this way.

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