Secrets to Selling Jewelry Online Part Three
How to Sell Jewelry Online, Branding and Filling a Need
This is part three in a series of "Secrets to Selling jewelry Online" to see part one.
This topic is as individual as the artist doing the selling and everyone will find their own unique way. I am writing from experience and information gathered from sales training webinars. It covers a few tips you might want to keep in mind while you are finding your niche and style.
Be Where the Buyers Are
When selling online this means being where your clients are. This was covered in the article "Secrets to Selling Jewelry Online Part One". To take this one step further being where your clients are also means you are easily found. A future article will cover advertising but for now I want to stress that you really need to be out there.
Even Nike and Coca Cola still need to put themselves out there. Obviously they are known, discovered, and popular yet they still spend millions on advertising, events, and gimmicks. That tells me that the sales part never ends. If you are not interested in selling your jewelry yourself check out the articles in the blog on Selling to Boutiques, and How to Run a Jewelry Business.
Have you ever seen a famous painter's work and known for a fact that you know painters who are much better but why have they not been discovered? You can bet that the ones who are discovered are connected and have friends in the industry, they show up to every gallery opening, and they are present everywhere art curators and art lovers are. That seems to be the biggest factor in getting an art career off the ground. There is no formula for this. Be where your clients are, have a way for them to remember you, and meet a need they have. Who you know accounts for most success. Of course having an awesome product and having some talent helps a great deal as well!
Have a Product That is Unique
There are two aspects to this. One is a style that can be easily branded and the other is having a set of skills that rocks people's worlds. Having both is the goal. That just takes time honing your skills and your style.
If you look at people you know that make a living from their jewelry you can spot their work and know it is theirs. Why is this important? If you were to find a famous designers work in a pawn shop for one you will know right away whose it is and the value of it and you will grab it immediately since it is an investment.
The same goes for designers who are doing well. There is a need to get the latest piece before it is sold. I am talking specifically of one of a kind pieces. The sales and tactics for mass produced is a bit different. You need to find your style your gift and work at your craft so you have a distinctive style or slant.
Some people fear doing this then they believe they will shrink their potential clients. Look at it this way instead, you make dog necklaces and you get to be known in the dog show circles. Everyone who shows dogs suddenly knows your name and everyone wants one. Your known, your jewelry is desired, and it is an investment for the buyer either in money (the value will increase) in esteem (look my poodle girl has an original __________) or an investment in self (they feel good about investing in their dog and increasing the dogs likelihood of success).
Make it an Investment
How do we make our jewelry an investment and express that to the client? Somehow we need to convey the reality that this is something they will get more out of than they pay for. That could be that the value of the stones will increase, the value of the work will increase as you become more famous, or it fills a need that could not be filled in another way.
Jewelry intrinsically does this when sold in real life since it will express the buyers image of self to the world and will make them more beautiful. Those are strong motivations for buying jewelry, I would say almost etched into our DNA. Convincing someone of that online is much more difficult when you only have their eyes to work with.
You need to go the extra mile in expressing the value of the piece. The story almost always makes the sale. What it was made out of and how but in a way that expressed the care and love and time that went into it not an ingredient list other jewelry designers love to see. A story of where the pieces came from, the lore of the stones, the way it will make you look, the way it will make you feel when you put it on, the way others will feel when you give it to them. Those are the things they invest in. Tell them the emotions your piece elicits in you and what the piece says.
See Themselves Owning it
Put it on them virtually. Every salesman knows that once they take the test drive or try it on it is pretty much sold. Our clients can't do that so we need to do this for them. "The bright yellow citrine drop glows against the skin and lays just in the crock of your neck giving off a shimmer that is eye catching and will make heads turn". Yeah that was sappy but it was the best I could do at the moment. Just think about helping them visualize it on them as you write up your descriptions.
Many great sellers do a narrative that is like a scene from a novel, the reader puts themselves in the narrative and the seller then links the narrative to the piece. "Sitting on a rocky ledge, looking out over the emerald jungle and a water fall crystal clear and sapphire blue, the mist wafted up and gently touched my face. I visited _______ and the raw beauty of the place came to mind when I hand coiled this sapphire and emerald necklace. It encompasses . . . . " You get my point. Take the client to the necklace, the feeling the necklace emits, or the final result of owning the piece. Help them get a feel for it with nothing but their eyes.
Fill a Need
Every purchase must fill a need. Toilet paper, food, cars those are simpler needs to understand. The need for jewelry is deeper and sometimes harder to pinpoint yet just as valid. In the example of the dog jewelry the need people have to buy is to be noticed by other breeders and judges, to feel like they belong since I also have one I will belong to the group of people who have a "Susie's Dog Charms", to feel they are loving their dog and when they look at their dog and see the beautiful jewelry on them they will be reinforced in the fact that they care for and provide and love the pouch.
Think about what need your jewelry will fulfill and try to express how your jewelry can do that for people. This does not need to happen on each piece but maybe in general on the bottom of every page or the About Me section. This can seem daunting but just to always keep this in mind when selling you will find a way to express it. Look at diamond sellers and see how they express what needs will be filled by their clients purchasing from them, they have done such a great job we intrinsically know what diamonds are suppose to do for our love lives.
Use social media to create need. If a piece you made is being passed around the online circles you hang around in by others they are doing the selling for you and the piece selling is much more likely because people want to belong and feel a part of something. They will buy it so they can say they did to everyone who was lusting after it. It fills their need to have won something and to be a part of a group.
Possible Needs Jewelry Fufills
- Expresses self
- Demonstrates stature
- Reminds the owner of a powerful memory or person they hold dear
- Shows they support the arts
- Expresses their value in being unique
- Enhances their beauty
- Makes them more interesting
- Helps them fit into a group or identifies them with a group
- Reminds them of a time in theirs lives
- Anchors strong positive emotions
Can you think of more?
Ask For the Sale
It's ok to do. Have a clear place on your site to add to cart, buy now, etc... Help them decide. They hopefully got lost in visualizing and feeling your piece and now need some help seeing the buy it now button. It is not rude to tell them how to buy, it is a service.
Don't make it hard for them, remove every obstacle you can. Have a shopping cart or a very clear call to action on how to get the piece. Give them a phone number, tell them where to email you and that you will send them a paypal invoice etc...
At the same time soft sales build trust so don't be a loud hawker. I have seen a few of them online and I just delete them. Soft sales will get your point across and you will keep people around to buy when you have a piece that fills their particular need, or a jewelry need that they must fill. To learn more about Social Networking.
Make It Scarce
Scarcity will incite people to buy. I don't need to explain that . . . we all know it. Your work as a One of a Kind jewelry designer makes this an obvious . . . . to you. Your clients may not understand that these stones, this pendant, that bead can not be found again, this can not be reproduced. This is truly one of a kind and when it is gone it is gone. Be sure they understand that.
Make it No Risk
Take the worry out of the purchase. Offer a 7, 10, 14 day (whatever works for you) no risk money back guarantee minus handling charges. Very few items will be returned if any but you want them to not feel any fear buying from you. Have a reasonable guarantee on your work. Stand behind your product. Have testimonials so they can see you are real and that others are happy with it.
There is so much more I know, but this is my experience and my opinions on what I have seen work in the field.
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