
// Development
How to Start an Online Jewelry Store?
// Development
In our article, you will find detailed instructions on how to open your own online jewelry store. We will tell you about the main features and nuances of the market. We will show you how to choose a niche, form an assortment and find suppliers. We will demonstrate with examples how to make your brand unique.
Veblen effect. If your store sells premium jewelry (very expensive items), then you should be aware of the conspicuous consumption paradox, discovered by the American economist Thorstein Veblen. The paradox is that when goods and services that are inaccessible to most ordinary consumers due to their high price are consumed, there is an inversely proportional relationship between demand and price. In other words, if prices are reduced, then demand will not grow, but will fall (and vice versa).
Veblen saw the reason for this behavior of people in three components:
The minimum level of qualification. To be a successful jewelry seller, you must understand the specifics of the market, terminology, nomenclature, prices and other nuances. To do this, you need to either have extensive experience in this industry, or read a lot, or be trained by specialists. Now this can be done without leaving home.
Here are some resources that can help you with this:
Advantages of the model with its own production:
Benefits of the dropshipping model:
Benefits of reselling individual items:
Advantages of a jewelry marketplace:
Service shop. You can also organize a workshop that will provide services for the repair and cleaning of jewelry, resizing rings, replacing or inserting dropped gems, engraving, and more. It can be a separate business or an additional service in production.
Advantages of a jewelry store:
To find a promising niche for an online jewelry store, you need to choose a general direction of business first, and then find a product category that is poorly represented in other stores, but at the same time is in demand.
General direction. Will your platform sell fashion jewelry (bijouterie), fine jewelry, or anything in between? Each such category implies an emphasis on different materials, price points, customer profiles and manufacturing processes.
Specialization. After choosing the direction, you need to understand what kind of products you will sell in your store: all at once, men's jewelry, gift ideas, jewelry in the form of cartoon characters, jewelry for metal fans, wedding rings or something else.
There are several ways to choose your specialization:
Another option is to launch a store based on an e-commerce platform like Shopify, SaleHoo, or BigCommerce. This approach is similar to using WordPress, but in this case you will have more options for customizing the design and functionality of the site. In addition, they usually have analytics and marketing tools built in by default.
For example, here's what a Shopify jewelry store might use:
The easiest option is to search on Amazon, eBay, Alibaba, AliExpress and other major marketplaces. Each such site has a special section with a listing of suppliers by category, some have a list of suppliers that have passed a special check, for example, Alibaba Gold Supplier.
Another option is to search online supplier directories such as SaleHoo, Worldwide Brands, or Wholesale Central. With the help of such platforms, you can select the company you need by filtering out all candidates using a variety of filters. There you can usually contact the supplier and place an order.
Brand name and logo. If you are reselling jewelry, then this is optional. However, if you are engaged in production or the store sells jewelry of the middle and / or expensive segments, then this is a prerequisite. This will help you stand out from the competition, increase brand awareness, and build stronger relationships with your customers.