Wholesale Jewelry

Finding Your Niche in Wholesale Jewelry

If you look online, many companies and individuals are operating wholesale jewelry businesses.  In a field with so much competition, it’s important to define your own niche – what your business is going to specialize in.  If you concentrate on one aspect of the market, your business will have a greater chance of success.  The specialty you choose will help define the look and tone of your business.  And by specializing, you can concentrate your financial resources on obtaining the best and widest variety of jewelry within your price range.  There are many different ways to define your specialty, but the best way may be to choose jewelry you yourself would love to wear.  And with all the choices and variety out there, specializing won’t be limiting – it’ll be fun!

One way to specialize is to offer only a certain form of jewelry.  Perhaps you’ve always found yourself more interested in bracelets – bangles, clasp, metal, beaded -  than in other types of jewelry.  A search through the catalogs of most wholesale jewelry companies will show you a virtually unlimited choice of bracelets available in a wide price range.  While specializing in bracelets, you could also carry anklets, childrens, teens, and adult bracelets for both men and women.  Or you could specialize in earrings, or necklaces – the choice is yours!

Another way to develop your business niche would be to offer only one type of jewelry.  Do you really like gold jewelry?  Or jade?  Pearls, opals, silver, beads?  You can choose and sell necklaces, bracelets, rings, chokers, anklets, all in the type you prefer and in the price range you want to pay.  For example, you can offer your customers only gold jewelry, but in a wide range of prices for every budget.  You could even specialize further, perhaps by offering only men’s gold rings with stones or insignias.

Hand-crafted jewelry is also available, and can be developed into a very viable business.  These items can be a bit pricier than machine or mass-produced pieces, but they have a great appeal to your potential buyers.  Knowing that you’re supporting individual artisans is personally satisfying, as well as  offering a great marketing concept to plan your wholesale jewelry business around! 

Other ways to specialize include themed jewelry, such as western, ethnic, Native American, or animal (horses or seagulls or…).  You could specialize in jewelry for children, or teens, or men.  Whatever you choose, do some solid research first – and then have fun choosing your favorite pieces!

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Increase Your Wholesale Jewelry Sales

Whether you deal in wholesale jewelry or any type of goods or services, with either a web-based business or a bricks and mortar site, maximizing your market reach is the most important thing.  You can do this in the same ways for both types of wholesale jewelry businesses by keeping your customer’s interests – and how they shop – in mind.

If you run a bricks and mortar business, discover what makes your area unique, and theme your wholesale jewelry business around that uniqueness.  In a tourist destination town, this may prove difficult – everyone’s selling seashell earrings by the seashore!  But you can do some research by going online and finding unusual seashell jewelry items (body piercings or toe rings, for example) other stores aren’t carrying, and prominently display them in a catalog you send to local jewelry shops. Once retail sellers realize you have a variety of items easily available, your sales will increase.

Whether you have a storefront or only an online presence, an inviting, attractive website is a must.  Make yours quick to load (shoppers won’t wait around for a slow website!), interesting, and easy to navigate.  Learn how search engines reach your website, and design it with your customer’s shopping habits in mind.  Carefully choose what goes on the home page of your wholesale jewelry website, since it’s the first chance you have to entice customers to explore the items you have for sale. 

The first thing a customer needs is a quick overview of what you have to offer.  Place smaller pictures of your most unusual pieces near the top, with easily-navigated links.  If you specialize in a particular type of jewelry (beaded or ethnic, for example), make that clear with both text and pictures.  Also indicate what methods of payment you accept – PayPal may be the easiest for most customers.  You can also start a blog, join Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking sites, and provide a way for customers to sign up on an email list so that you can send them news on your latest sales.  For those sales, discounts on holiday-themed items (red and gold jewelry for Christmas, perhaps) should be offered far-enough in advance so your customers can get their orders in time.

One last thing – offer a donation to a choice of non-profits with every purchase.  List links to these non-profits, and theme the choices to the items, if possible.  Then, when your customer chooses those lovely dachshund toe rings, the ASPCA will benefit, your customer will be glad they choose to shop with you, and you’ll see your sales start climbing!

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Choosing Wholesale Jewelry Outlets

Once you’ve made the decision to buy wholesale jewelry, whether it’s for discount resale or for retailing individual pieces, you need to choose one or more outlets to make your purchases from.  There are a number of important things to look for, other than the jewelry!

One thing that’s very important when you’re just starting purchasing from a wholesale jewelry business is whether the company you want to buy from allows changes in the order before it’s shipped.  Until you really know your market, you may find yourself having to change your order.  Many discount jewelry companies will allow you to, but only within a certain time frame after you place your order.  Unless you have some experience in the business, you will want to look for a company that lets you change the order within a reasonable time.

Another thing to look for is the minimum purchase amount.  Some companies have no minimum dollar amount per order, while others require orders of $100, $800, $5000, or more.  What you can afford to purchase will depend on your business plan and financing, as well as on how you will be marketing the wholesale jewelry you choose.  If the business you’re starting is a smaller boutique jewelry site, you may want to order from wholesale jewelers who have no or a low minimum order.  Payment terms are another important factor.  Some companies will accept partial payments before shipping and the balance when they ship.

Lead, or production, time is another important consideration.  How long it takes a company to ship the jewelry to you after you order will determine when you can start selling and then restock.  Reliable wholesalers will list this on their sales policy or FAQ pages.  They may also state if they can do rush orders, and whether they charge extra to get your discount jewelry to you so you can keep selling.

Carefully read the company’s return and refund policy as well.  When you are investing to start a new business, it’s important to know if a product arrives broken or not as stated that you can return it for a refund.  Most companies have some policy for refunding money on your wholesale jewelry purchase, but many list certain limitations, such as the time since the order was shipped or whether they still carry the product or not.

Check every policy page on the wholesale jewelry outlet site, then you can get to the fun part – choosing the jewelry you want!

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