A Quick Checklist Before Starting an Online Wholesale Jewelry Business (Part II)

Earlier in this blog, we started with giving you the first half of a basic checklist one should have when thinking of selling wholesale jewelry over the internet. While the first half covered the most important things such as having enough time, effort and skills to start an online wholesale jewelry store, we finish this article by completing your basic checklist for setting up an internet-based wholesale jewelry shop.

1. Website – Selling anything over the internet is just as competitive as selling it in the real world. To rank with and higher than your competition, create a website where visitors can navigate and browse through wholesale jewelry collections and accessories. Remember that having a website plays a vital role in your business so don’t overlook this step. Professionally-taken photographs and well-displayed products are essential to keep audiences interested enough to look through wholesale jewelry products. A Paypal account to manage online payment transactions and an e-commerce application to virtually run your store are critical requirements to your website.

2. Product Packaging – The end look of wholesale jewelry products should also be prioritized. Invest in jewelry boxes, velvet bags, satin purses, and cardboard boxes to provide wholesale necklaces, wholesale bracelets, and wholesale rings with an elegant finish. Delivering wholesale jewelry items in an elegant fashion will help make your business stand out.
3. Correct Price – In the wholesale jewelry business, fixing the correct price means including the cost of resources and supplies, packaging expenses, overhead costs, and most especially the time and effort involved if you are selling handmade wholesale jewelry. Research competitors’ prices to give you an idea how to price wholesale brooches and wholesale earrings.
4. Marketing – The absence of a physical store means making up it up to internet marketing. A variety of both online and offline internet marketing techniques are available to spread the word for your online wholesale jewelry store. Register with search engines, sign up at forums/communities/blogs, and create a blog to do online marketing. Distribute flyers, brochures, catalogs, send emails, and include the web address of your store in business cards, letterheads, and all correspondences to network your store.

Setting up a business, whether online or offline, is never easy. This quick checklist aims to help you gain a competitive edge over competitors while also making a start-up wholesale jewelry business easy for you. At CERIJewelry.com, thousands of competitively-priced wholesale jewelry products are available for interested jewelry retailers.

Addressing the Business Side of a Wholesale Jewelry Business

A business—whether a start-up or established—is not all creativity. No matter how good your concept is or how amazing your product is, if you do not have a solid business plan, your business is forecasted to fail. For start-up wholesale jewelry entrepreneurs, especially those that are home based, dealing with the “business side” of the business can be a challenging road to navigate. Setting up a wholesale jewelry business is not only about creating a website, finding a supplier, marketing your products, packaging, shipping and counting your profits. It is also about abiding your local laws, regulations and performing mandatory paperwork. All these are part of being a dutiful citizen and a successful wholesale jewelry entrepreneur.

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Here are some tips to help you address the “business side” of your wholesale jewelry business.

1. Get in touch with your local chamber of commerce. This organization was created to advise entrepreneurs like yourself. They can guide you on how to operate your business and point you to the right people when it comes to marketing and networking. You can also find and join business groups in your community. Being part of an organization helps you build your network and protect your business.

2. Seek the help of a professional accountant. While you are understandably trying to reduce your overhead costs, hiring the services of an accountant is a good investment for your business. An accountant can help you navigate your way through tax laws, deal with your financial questions or problems, and keep track of your business financially.

3. Make sure you obtain all the necessary licenses and permits required to run a business. This usually depends on which state you are in, but one way to get started is to go to your local city hall and ask your local authorities about the process. Paperwork takes time and money but do not let that keep you from addressing these concerns. Customers will always prefer to purchase from legally registered business organizations, so make sure you are.

More wholesale jewelry business tips available on this blog.

Tips for Packaging Wholesale Jewelry

First impressions are strongly based on physical appearance. And this is true not only for interacting with other people, but for packaging your wholesale jewelry items as well. The way you package your products creates a perception on you as an entrepreneur and on the value of your wholesale jewelry business to your customers. Naturally, you want that perception to be good, so you can establish a solid business reputation. One highly effective way to ensure this is by putting careful thought into the packaging wholesale jewelry purchases.

Unlike face to face transactions, packaging wholesale jewelry that is purchased online can be a bit challenging. You should desire for it to be unique and creative, yet “fit for travelling”. You certainly do not want to allocate resources to creating a fancy package for a product, only for it to be damaged on the way to the customer. Thankfully, there are many ways to do this. Here are some of our tips.

1. Come up with a theme or a unique identity. This can be achieved through a uniform color scheme or a logo that is always present in your packaging style. This will help you establish your business identity and help your customers remember you better.

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2. Always insert a flyer. This is one way of touching base with your customers. The flyer can indicate your upcoming sales, bazaars you will be attending or new wholesale jewelry items to watch out for. Make sure it has your business name and logo in it, as well as your contact information so interested parties can get in touch with you. Do not think of this as a wasted effort, because serious wholesale jewelry retailers keep a database of information of this.

3. Add a coupon. It’s your own version of a thank you note. This can be a discount coupon on their next purchase or a free shipping coupon upon purchase of a minimum amount. Make sure the due date on the coupon is not too distant, as customers may forget about it or too short that it is impossible to use it. One week is an acceptable time frame.

4. Be creative and resourceful. Using a jewelry pouch bag is a popular way to package jewelry. For wholesale jewelry, you can separate the items in these pouch bags then pack them in boxes afterwards. You can also make your own paper boxes instead of buying pouch bags. Go online—there are many tutorial videos or articles you can refer to.

For more wholesale jewelry business tips, read other posts in this blog.

Tips for Shipping Wholesale Jewelry

Shipping your products is the final step in completing an online transaction. With several shipping partner options available, sending purchased items to your customers can seem simple. The majority of the time, it actually is. However, if your product is wholesale jewelry, then the process is quit different. It is well known that wholesale jewelry is a prime target for theft and with the volumes involved in most wholesale jewelry transactions, exercising extra caution in shipping wholesale jewelry purchases is not an option. It is essential.

Even if you are a novice in the business, you do not have to compromise the quality of your shipping standards. Here are some easy tips in ensuring a smooth transition of wholesale jewelry from your stock room to your customer.

1. Invest in good mailing or shipping supplies. This includes, bubble wraps (all that travelling can “stress” your wares so keep them tight), bubble padded envelopes, high quality packaging tapes, and boxes of all sizes. In the same way that you do your business online, you may also find that it may be cheaper to purchase these supplies online especially if you buy in bulk.

2. Do not attract unwanted attention from thieves by putting your business name in the return address outside the box, especially if it includes the word “jewelry” in it. Instead, put in a business card inside the package.

3. Go online for quick and easy postage. There are websites such as, USPS.com or Stamps.com, where you can purchase and print your own postage from your computer. This will save you the trouble of going to the post office with your wholesale jewelry packages or waiting in long lines. These websites also allow you to insure your precious packages without filling out extra forms.

4. Use crumpled paper to fill out the empty spaces in your box so your wholesale jewelry pieces will stay in place. Include a business card inside, but make sure to put in a small ziplock bag so it won’t be thrown away together with the crumpled paper.

5. Do not hesitate to use Priority Mail. It’s cheaper than first-class/parcel post shipping and the post office usually provides you with free boxes for shipping.

Check out other wholesale jewelry business tips in this blog.

Blogging about Your Wholesale Jewelry

Right now, you are reading this article from a blog. You are receiving new information about wholesale jewelry courtesy of this online journal. Imagine what it would be like for other people to read about your wholesale jewelry from a blog. Entrepreneurs starting out in the wholesale jewelry industry depend on the Internet heavily for marketing and promotion. The online marketplace is easy to penetrate but unfortunately, it is not as easy to survive. As an entrepreneur, you need to utilize every tool available, and that includes blogging. Blogging about your wholesale jewelry is not the most novel idea but you can still stand out in a sea of wholesale jewelry bloggers with the help of these easy blogging tips:

1. Do Your Research – Before you make your own blog, scour the web and check out what other bloggers are doing. Look for the wholesale jewelry blogs with high traffic volume. Identify the best features of each blog you visit.

2. Customize Your Blog – Once you are ready to create your own blog, customize it to give your blog a distinct online identity. Make sure you exert effort to upload good photos of your wholesale jewelry products as well as clear and concise descriptions of your products.

3. Communicate with Your Readers – A blog is an effective way to establish communication with your customer base. Be sure to respond to their comments and listen to their feedback. News on the web travels fast and you want to make sure that positive news is travelling around about your wholesale jewelry.

4. Communicate with the Community – It’s not just with your customers that you need to build links with. You also need to build links with the rest of the wholesale jewelry community. Show some “link love” to your wholesale jewelry supplier by adding a link to their website from your blog.

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5. Engage Other Bloggers – You can set up a “wholesale jewelry showcase” where you invite some bloggers to try on your items. In exchange, they can blog about it and you can give them discounts on your items. It is an easy, affordable, and effective way to spread the word about your business.