Improve Your Earrings Buying Experience
Earrings should never be bought casually since there are too many financial risks. The best way to reduce the risk of buying earrings is to familiarize yourself with the specific earrings you want to buy. While you may not be able to make the same judgment as a professional jeweler who has scientific training and years of experience, you can learn to judge the gems within the earrings based upon cut, clarity, color, brilliance, and weight. Learning about these factors and spending time shopping and researching will help you get what you want at a fair price.
Make an effort to learn as much as you can about the earrings you want to buy. Examine the earrings owned by your family and friends. You may also want to ask a friend to accompany you when comparing earrings at different jewelry stores, mall, or gallerias. A second set of trusted eyes is always a good thing. Moreover, it gives you an edge when you and a friend are speaking with a salesperson as opposed to just you alone.
There are a few simple questions you want to ask yourself before you begin shopping for your earrings. First, what is your desired color or style? Second, what shape are you looking for? Third, do the earrings match your personality? Finally, are the earrings within your budget?
Once you have found the earrings you want to buy, there are four basic rules you need to follow before making the purchase. First, make sure the earrings are clean. If you are working with a jeweler, ask them to clean the earrings for you.
Second, place the earrings under proper lighting. Many jewelers use multiple incandescent or fluorescent spotlights, usually recessed or on a track lighting system. The purpose it to make the earring gems look super brilliant. However, once you bring the earrings to a typical place with normal lighting, the gems will not have the same brilliance. Simply take the earrings away from the display glass and look at them in normal light.
Third, rotate the earrings in order to view them from different angles. Lastly, if you are using a loupe, focus it both on the surface and into the interior. To focus into the interior, shift the gem up and down until you are able to see all the depth points.
Selecting a Respectable Jeweler
The best way to select your jewelry wisely is by shopping around. It is a good idea to go to several jewelry stores, gallerias, and websites. Compare the services they offer, the quality of their jewelry, the knowledge of their sales staff, and their pricing. This will give you a good idea as to the market value of the jewelry you are looking for. Whether you are shopping in a store or on the phone/email with an online salesperson, there are seven important questions to ask.
The first thing you need to know is how long the company has been in business. A check with the Better Business Bureau or the local Chamber of Commerce may reveal whether or not the business has received significant complaints.
Second thing you want to know is the gemological credentials of the jeweler, manager, owner, or salesperson. Is there a gemologist on staff? If so, does the company have an onsite laboratory?
Third, what special services are provided? Does the purchase of your earrings come with custom design services, educational programs, engraving, or lifetime cleaning?
Fourth question you want to ask is how would you describe the storefront window or website? Is the jewelry displayed in a quality manner? If you are shopping online, do the photos of the earrings look professional? Is the website easy to navigate?
Fifth, how would you describe the overall environment of the store in which you are shopping? Are the sales people professional, respectful, and helpful or are they pushy and intimidating?
Sixth, what is the policy with regard to returns? Do you only get store credit or do you get a full cash refund? How many days after the purchase are you allowed to return the earrings? What is the basis for return or is there a circumstance that will not allow a return?
Seventh, does the company have a lifetime guarantee on their earrings? Does the company have a repair or replacement policy? You want to make sure that the jeweler will stand by any defective pieces. If you are not clear about this, be sure to get something in writing that explains the guarantee policy.
If the company cannot or will not provide an answer to the abovementioned questions, you should continue shopping around. Don’t allow yourself to be intimidated by a salesperson who wants you to trust them without getting all your questions answered. Remember that you are buying a fine piece of jewelry, not a used car. You will always be in a more advantageous position if you have been able to shop around and get all your questions answered. Unless you are a professional, it is important to shop around, ask questions, and examine the earrings. After going through this process with several jewelers, you will be able to buy with the utmost confidence and feel good about your purchase.
Selling Earrings Online
Take a deep breath! You don’t need to limit yourself to a target market. Let your market come to you. The reason I suggest that you not limit yourself to a target market is because there are several excellent sites that will allow categorize your earrings so that people can find them. Target marketing is crucial to develop an advertising campaign if you plan to build your own website. However, if you are just starting out, I would not recommend creating a website out of thin air and paying tons of money in advertising. It is very likely that your budget will run dry before very long and you will get discouraged and quit. Keep in mind, the most expensive part of owning and operating your own retail website is the advertising and the infrastructure. If you are an experienced web designer and have been around the block then I would not want to hold you back. However, for the majority of us, there are established websites like Ruby Lane, Ecrater, Etsy, and Ebay. And since these sites are already established, you do not need to advertise because the buyers will come to these sites looking for the specific earrings you are selling.
Make sure you have descriptive photographs of your earrings. Quality photographs give you credibility with a buyer. If you are not talented with photography, you may want to hire a professional or seek help from a friend who is good with a lens…especially with earrings. Remember that your viewer will not stay on your website very long if the photography is not quality enough to catch their eye. You also need an articulate description of the earrings you are selling. You would be amazed at how well your earrings will be received with a few quality photos and a good item description.
If you already know how to buy earrings on the Internet, it should be a breeze for you to set up an online store. The following sites (listed below) will walk you through the process of setting up an online venue to sell your earrings. And the best part about these sites is that they each have a built-in merchant account so you don’t have to purchase one.
Established in 1998, Ruby Lane has an excellent track record of buyers and seller from around the world. The items within your web store are sold at set prices rather than in an auction format. However, their website has special software that can automatically accept, counter or reject offers for you.
Ecrater allows you to easily create your online store in minutes. You will receive free website hosting, a free subdomain, and a powerful administration tool to manage your online stores. All products are posted to Google Product Search as well.
When you sign up to be a seller, Etsy will give you an easy-to-use online shop. You can customize it the way you want. Etsy sellers can also participate in a feature on their site that allows buyers to post requests for custom made items and allows sellers to bid on the buyer’s requests.
I am certain that you are no stranger to Ebay. With more than 88 million active users globally, eBay is considered the largest online marketplace in the world. They are always improving their features and I believe they have come a long way since they were founded in 1995. They provide easy-to-follow steps for you to get your items on the web in minutes.
Advertising Earrings on Craigslist
Craigslist is an excellent way to advertise your earrings on the Internet. Unlike recommended websites like Ebay and Ecrater, Craigslist is free. However, it acts like a classified ad so you have no platform for doing transactions. On the other hand, you can use your Craigslist ad to link to your online store if you have one. Or you could have your customers pay through a PayPal account if you have one. As mentioned in Part I, you can set up an online store on websites like Ebay, Ecrater, Ruby Lane and Etsy. But a way that you can create additional traffic to your online store is through Craigslist. Craigslist actually has an entire section devoted to jewelry. This would be a great place to advertise your earrings. In fact, if you go on Craigslist and search under the For Sale section and click the jewelry link, you will find thousands of ads for all types of jewelry.
And it is so simple to post an ad. Simply click the Post to Classifieds link near the top left corner and you will go to a screen that acts for a category. Choose the For Sale category and you will go to the next page which has jewelry as one of the categories. Click the jewelry category and then choose a location. If you have an actual store where people can walk through the doors, the location aspect is very important. On the other hand, if you only have an online store, the location is not as important since anyone from anywhere can buy from you. Once you choose a location you will be taken to the advertising template where you put in a title and then a description of your earrings. It is crucial that you provide quality photos. Craigslist will upload four photos for you.
But I would recommend using Craigslist mainly as a way to link to your website or online store. If you go to the jewelry section of Craigslist, you will see that most people post a small ad and then place a link to their website. On the other hand, given its huge popularity, you could actually sell your earrings on Craigslist without a website or an online store. Simply provide a good title, detailed description, and nice photos. And make sure you provide your customers with a way to contact you for payment. Again, I would recommend PayPal since most Craigslist users are familiar with it and you don’t have to deal with checks or money orders.
Selling Antique Earrings
Do you want to turn your antique jewelry collection into a full-time or part-time business? You could set up an online store or go the tradeshow route. Examples of antique jewelry may include period jewelry, costume jewelry, fashion jewelry, wedding jewelry, handmade jewelry, vintage jewelry, earrings, necklaces, wholesale jewelry, bracelets, silver jewelry, rings, gold jewelry, tiaras, and estate jewelry.
Although you can find antique jewelry that dates back further, most of the recorded antique jewelry is found beginning in the 1700s. There’s something amazing about jewelry pieces from another generation with a story all their own.
If you choose to explore the option of an online jewelry store with your antique jewelry pieces, you should be able to tell a story about each jewelry piece in your collection. The history of your jewelry should create a bird’s eye view into your family’s history and culture. Beauty, romance and intrigue play important roles in the story of your jewelry. Antique pieces attract the most sentimental and scientific buyers. Let your buyers know that wearing a piece of jewelry from a historical era is a way of respecting the past and bringing original flavor the present. The popularity of antique jewelry continues to grow as more people discover the beauty and craftsmanship of each period.
For the sake of example, let’s assume that you look into your portfolio of antique jewelry and you decide you want to learn how to sell earrings online. People who learn to sell earrings online understand how to market their earrings in a creative way. Or you may decide that you want to sell your earrings at a craft show or jewelry tradeshow. There are many ways to sell earrings. How are people selling earrings in your circle of friends? Could any of your family and friends show you how to sell earrings in a creative way? Could they show you how to sell earrings online?
Before your venture into the world of the online jewelry business it is important to identify the following key facets. First, identify your antique jewelry and set aside what you want to keep and what you want to sell. Second, antique jewelry could include (but is not limited) to period jewelry, costume jewelry, fashion jewelry, wedding jewelry, handmade jewelry, vintage jewelry, earrings, necklaces, wholesale jewelry, bracelets, silver jewelry, rings, gold jewelry, tiaras, and estate jewelry. Third, be prepared to tell a story about your jewelry pieces. Lastly, seek advice from your family and friends who have ventured into the business or hobby of selling jewelry.