Starting an online jewelry business is the dream of many young entrepreneurs. However, just like any other business, it isn’t as easy as it sounds. Many people may have the perfect idea for a jewelry business, but they are unable to execute it. Making a mark in the jewelry industry can be tough, but it comes with its own set of rewards and satisfaction.
However, no matter the reason for wanting to start an online jewelry business, 2021 is the perfect time to do so. With the COVID-19 pandemic running rampant globally, many large-scale business sectors have been affected significantly. The jewelry industry is no exception either. Already, the jewelry market is booming due to the circumstances of last year.
As of 2020, the net worth of the jewelry market worldwide is around 230 billion dollars. This amount is expected to rise up to 292 or 300 billion dollars worldwide in the next 5 years.
10 Step Plan for Starting an Online Jewelry Business
To be able to successfully start a jewelry business online, there needs to be a proper plan. After all, it can be insanely challenging to start a new line of jewelry and run an online store efficiently. Hence, a proper plan is the key to starting a successful online jewelry business.
Given below are 10 steps that can help in starting a jewelry business online properly.
1. Identifying the Opportunity Present in the Market
Before your business even starts, you should come up with a business idea. It’s important to establish an idea that many customers will want to buy as soon as it’s launched. Hence, proper research is essential before attempting to make and sell jewelry.
It can be very frustrating when one spends a lot of time and other assets on designing jewelry, only to find out that it has no demand. So, researching is a compulsory action. Research regarding jewelry taste can be done in various ways. There are multiple resources that you can use for market research.
These resources can help you find reports that have been already conducted in the jewelry industry. Usually, in order to obtain this data, you will need to buy reports. This can add some extra expense – however, it is worth it.
Identifying the best opportunity available also depends on the kind of jewelry that you want to sell. For example, high-quality fine jewelry and costume jewelry are two of the most preferred jewelry types according to customers. In the case of high-quality fine jewelry, a seller will have a higher expense on buying the initial materials. At the same time, sales can be made at a much higher price, and the brand identity can be retained.
If costume jewelry is being considered, then the initial design costs will be much lower. However, it will be important to price your products well to recoup costs and make a profit.
It can also be extremely helpful to conduct your own product research. New sellers should start by analyzing their competitors. This will help in recognizing what other jewelry businesses are doing correctly and incorrectly. The correct steps should be implemented, while the wrong steps should be discarded. Thus, your brand can be differentiated.
It is also a good idea to run some surveys. There are many people who are highly interested in jewelry and information related to jewelry. If surveys regarding shoppers’ favorite types and most-demanded designs are conducted on social media, a lot of people will give their opinions. Implementing these opinions into your business can be extremely helpful.
In order to identify new opportunities in the jewelry market, jewelry blogs can be followed too. This will help in keeping an eye on the latest jewelry and fashion trends. There are many famous bloggers who publish content on jewelry and fashion from time to time.
Google Trends can be checked out too. With an analytical tool like Google Trends, it is very easy to identify topics in the jewelry industry that are currently trending. Pay attention to jewelry items that are currently trending, and those that have been popular in a sustainable way.
2. Defining the Target Audience
After identifying opportunities available in the jewelry market, you can now move on to defining the target audience. While you do need to know what demand is present in the jewelry industry, it’s vital that you understand the audiences that are creating that demand.
No matter how hard may try, it isn’t possible to please every type of jewelry customer. Each customer is bound to have a different taste in this regard. If you’ve already determined the type of jewelry you want to sell, you’ll need to find out what type of customers are interested in it. The more the audience is identified, the easier it will be to reach that target audience with brand promotion and ads.
There are a lot of factors that should be considered here. For instance, you should establish what demographics you’ll be targeting. This will differentiate the audience on the basis of their income, age, gender, geographical location, and so on.
Similarly, target audiences can be differentiated on the basis of their hobbies, lifestyle, fashion preferences, dislikes, and interests. Also, if your target audience’s demands are pain points, and buying your jewelry can solve them, that’s another factor to consider.
In highly busy and competitive markets such as jewelry, categorizing a particular niche makes things easier. If the customer base for a particular niche is easily available for a seller, they should definitely go for it. Based on the demands of the customers, the target audience can be easily defined.
3. Creating a Business Plan
Most new entrepreneurs who are interested in starting an online jewelry business believe that marketing is one of the first steps. However, creating a sound business plan is as important as anything else, and it is often overlooked. As sales start coming in, your business plan will act as a guide to help guide your overall business growth.
If your business plan is done properly, your business’s mission and next steps will be clear. If the seller is looking to take out a loan and manage investors, they will also demand to see the business plan. Unless and until there is a solid business plan, no one will provide a loan or investment. It is obvious that, unless people can see that your jewelry business is going to be successful, they won’t invest in it.
To create a proper jewelry business plan, you should include an executive summary. This will provide a simple explanation of your business. Next, there should be a description of the company, covering its aim and target.
After that, some market research statistics should be included. This will show where your jewelry business lies in the industry. Then, the details of the products or type of jewelry sold should be explained.
Near the end, there should be mention of all funding options. Finally, the selling and marketing plans of the jewelry business should be clearly laid out.
4. Jewelry Manufacturing
For creative business owners, manufacturing your own line of jewelry can be very exciting. After the business plan has been formulated, a jewelry line can be imagined. The market research data and statistics you’ve gathered, alongside current trends and opportunities, will help inform how you design your jewelry. This will help you make unique jewelry that can compete in the market.
Rather than manufacture isolated pieces, you should consider creating jewelry collections. Customers can relate to the product more when there is a story behind it. Collections can be modeled after many popular themes, which can be a great hit among the customers.
It is also important to get a proper education while manufacturing jewelry. Production methods should be clearly known, and proper equipment and materials should be used. There are many courses that offer jewelry production methods. This can help in improving your business’s overall jewelry manufacturing process.
To create your own jewelry, you’ll also need to have the right tools. Any ideas you come up with, however vague, should be recorded and looked at later. With modern technology, new software types are available that can help in visualizing and designing jewelry digitally before making it finally.
Materials should be carefully considered while making jewelry as well. Apart from gemstones, metals, and other accessories that go with ornaments, third-party manufacturers may also be needed if you don’t intend to make the jewelry yourself.
Before the final products are manufactured, small-scale samples should be ordered and tested out. These samples can also be showcased to potential customers as product photos on the store website. These visual show-offs are key to gaining the interest of customers online.
5. Hiring Jewelry Manufacturers
In order to be realistically able to meet the demands of the customers, you’ll need to form a partnership with a third-party jewelry manufacturer. It is no surprise that it takes a lot of effort, time, and skill to be able to make jewelry.
Managing a good online business is all about fast launching and scaling. Having a jewelry manufacturer to do that will help you reach these goals.
In such cases, the business owner will need to decide how they want the manufacturing process to go. Either manufacturers can be hired, or wholesale jewelry can be bought. If the owner wants to implement their own designs on the jewelry, then custom manufacturers are required.
A lot of things need to be considered when choosing to work with a jewelry manufacturer. One of them is the quality of the jewelry. The manufacturer should be skilled, trustworthy, and able to create authentic jewelry pieces from the materials provided. No customer will buy from a store that fails to provide good quality or authentic jewelry pieces.
Manufacturers should always be asked to provide samples before starting the entire production process. Only when the business owner is satisfied with the work and quality should more orders be placed.
To save money, sellers sometimes hire international manufacturers. The cost may be lower, but it can also delay the complete delivery process of the jewelry. So, if it’s necessary that your products arrive quickly, you may want to partner with a manufacturer within your country.
Alternatively, your business can use dropshipping. Here, the manufacturer delivers the jewelry pieces directly to customers, which are sold on the business owner’s website. After getting an order, production and delivery is carried out by third-party suppliers. For business owners who do not want to initially think about shipping the orders, but want to spend more time on business promotion instead, this is a great option. In the initial stages, dropshipping can help ease the process of building up a brand-new jewelry business from scratch.
6. Brand Building
It is no surprise that most customers buy jewelry from stores with which they have a good emotional connection. Building a brand in the jewelry business is very important in this regard.
By building a brand identity, business owners can develop an affinity with their customers. As a result, the target audience will be able to appreciate the store and its products more. With more missions and events, more customers will feel attached to it.
To create a good brand, a memorable name, logo, color combination, design, and a responsive website is required. However, not every jewelry business owner is a brand expert. In such cases, it is best to enlist the help of online tools to create one. Otherwise, branding experts can be hired.
There are many online tools that can help you build a brand. These include logo makers, video editors, business name generators, and domain name generators. These tools are usually pretty simple to use and can provide quick results.
7. Choosing the Product Price Point
Choosing the correct pricing point for your jewelry pieces is vital. If your jewelry is priced too high, customers will most likely avoid buying them. If the price is kept too low, the customers may not be convinced that the jewelry is of good quality. Also, the profit margin will decrease significantly.
Initially, the manufacturing cost of the jewelry items needs to be noted. Next, the total selling cost of the jewelry pieces has to be considered. These include costs of the material, cost of production, and cost of labor. Running the online store also needs some overhead costs.
Physical locations may be needed too. In the case of online business, domain hosting, website designing, and other charges are also present. Finally, there has to be a shipping charge for the deliveries as well.
There are different strategies to deal with the pricing. Ultimately, it is the decision of the owner regarding the product prices. Most sellers usually charge the selling price as double the cost of the manufacturing cost. The key is to make as much profit as possible while selling as many jewelry pieces as possible. Optimally, the best price is what balances these two conditions.
8. Finding the Right POS for the Online Jewelry Business
To run an online jewelry business properly, having the right POS or Point of Sale system is very important. Your entire online payment system will be digital. This means that the customers will place orders either via credit or debit cards, UPI payment, online wallets, or net banking.
Shift4Shop’s eCommerce platform seamlessly integrates with several highly intelligent POS systems. With all modern technologies, transactions can be carried out directly, irrespective of the location. When your online store is fully synchronized with a POS system, the management of your sales and inventory is accurate, be it online or offline. Irrespective of your business needs, the POS systems that Shift4Shop integrates with have solutions for all possible cases. They have a simple procedure for setup and integration, mobile checkout, and multiple payment options – all for the benefit of the customers.
In physical stores, however, customers would definitely want to pay digitally as well. To be able to pay via cards, a POS system needs to be present. This will accept the card payments and keep a track of the payment record alongside online payments.
However, to run your online jewelry business smoothly, having a proper POS system is crucial. Before taking any final step, it is always strictly advised to compare different platforms that provide POS services. POSQuote can help in comparing multiple POS services.
Different POS systems have different pros and cons. Only after reviewing the best POS systems side by side should one make a decision. This way, a suitable POS system for your online jewelry business can be determined. When it comes to reviewing different POS systems, sites like POSQuote can be a great source of support.
9. Marketing Your Jewelry Business
At this point, you (as a jewelry business owner) should have your products and prices ready. Now, it is time to earn cash. However, profit is only possible when a notable amount of customers buys your jewelry. To do this, more people need to know about the jewelry products available from your business. The only way to achieve this is by proper marketing methods.
Before starting your online jewelry business, it is absolutely necessary to learn about marketing. With multiple methods and marketing procedures, online jewelry business owners can choose what fits their model best.
If you’re trying to target a large audience digitally, ads on social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, are a great idea. These advertising methods can be extremely specific, which is why they are quite popular. Online jewelry marketing can also be done via influencers on social media.
To maintain traffic and engagement long-term, eCommerce SEO is important. When an online jewelry business is started, the first priority should be to rank high in the local market.
According to Outreacheo, there are many low competition high volume keywords for jewelry businesses.
Through in-depth content writing and building relevant niche-specific links, it is possible to rank high on these search terms. It is always a boost for marketing to be able to reach more of your target audience, and gaining organic traffic is one of the best ways to do it.
Another effective method for marketing is via emails. With every purchase, the customers will have additional communication regarding future products, offers, and events. All of these are essential to make sure that the customers remain loyal.
10. Setting Targets for Sales & Distribution and Seeking Market Opportunities
As a jewelry business owner, you will also need to set targets that your business should hit. It is imperative to set goals before you start to sell jewelry online. When a proper goal for sales and distribution has been set, your business can proceed in the right direction.
For instance, a jewelry business owner can set targets regarding how much the business should grow in a year. When the goals set are growth-oriented, progress can be easily tracked by using sales numbers. The same thing applies to distribution goals as well.
Once your goals are set up and your products are complete, a soft launch can be initiated. The entire brand plan starts here, and the marketing strategies are put into action. It is important to seek out the proper market opportunities while growing and learning. Partnerships can be created with other retailers and other businesses can support your own.
In case additional capital is required for enabling the growth of the online jewelry business, owners should look outside the sphere. This includes taking note of potential investment opportunities. If your business plan is solid, getting investments won’t be very hard.
Final Words
When all of these steps are followed, it is possible to be able to start and run a successful online jewelry business. However, you should always keep in mind that no business can start fully functioning in a short amount of time.
It will always take a huge amount of time and effort, and some investment too, to establish a jewelry business properly. Owners need to do research, take care of the customers’ demands, and check the market conditions. As your jewelry brand grows and evolves, your online business will start taking off as well.
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