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Making Your Web Store Stand Out – Something To Consider

by Rita Juhlin.
(Portland Oregon)

You are at a Mall; there are 9000 jewelry stores in that Mall. Oh good grief, which store should I go into?

Well, on the web there are many more thousands of jewelry stores and if you want somebody to go into your web store you need to stand out. In Rena’s fabulous, to say the least, web site, I read a number of questions and comments about sales volume. It is the comments that ring of disappointments that draw me in.

I would like to ask those of you, who are lacking in sales volume, if you think your store really stands out; does it really reflect you and your work? Rena’s recent comments about changing the covers of her great and inspiring books got me to think about web store “makeovers”.

Without losing your branding, could you make your store more appealing? I think you can and here is an example. Most of the brick and mortar stores change their window dressing several times per year. Why? Because the store is trying to attract new and repeat business and they don’t lose their branding. You always know when you are at Macy’s!

The seasons change, the created jewelry collections change, and I believe customers expect a new fresh look now and then. It takes commitment and some time but I think it just might be worth it.

Maybe you could create a new banner, maybe a change in the background of your “perfect” pictures, changing the wording in your descriptions. It just seems to me there are several simple changes that could be made to tweak your store.

Then, when you are all done with that, you just might want to work on your marketing strategy. There are dozens and dozens of articles in this website to utilize, so just do it.

That being said, “If it works, don’t fix it”

My best to all!

Rita Juhlin
Private Stock Jewelry Blog
Home Based Jeweler’s Showcase

 

Comments:

Making Your Web Store Stand Out
by: Rena

Rita, thank you so much for posting these excellent tips on the importance of tweaking, updating, and making your web store stand out from the crowd!

Also, your great tip, “The seasons change, the created jewelry collections change, and I believe customers expect a new fresh look now and then. It takes commitment and some time but I think it just might be worth it.” – More outstanding advice.

Seasonal changes to your business get customers excited and motivated to see your new stuff and do some shopping. You know all the major retailers wouldn’t invest millions of dollars a year into seasonal updates if they didn’t pay off well!

One caution about seasonal updates: Don’t let them linger on your site after the holiday or season – that makes a web business look outdated and unattended. If you’re going to do seasonal looks and promotions, start them well in advance of the season / holiday, and change to your next seasonal look as soon as the previous occasion ends (or slightly sooner).

I also want to mention an interesting side-effect I discovered while updating the look of all of my websites, book covers, etc. recently:

When your online presence always looks the same (as mine did here for several years), it’s easy to get into a mental rut with the way you see everything about your business – your opportunities, ideas, plans, and the way you run things.

But when you make visual tweaks and updates, you start to see new perspectives and possibilities in other aspects of your business too. It starts a chain reaction of improvements, ideas, and growth across the board.

Visual makeovers re-inspire you about your creative business – and this renewed fire carries through everything you do. In making your web store more appealing to your visitors, you also make it more dynamic and appealing to yourself.

Thanks for this great tip and discussion-starter, Rita! (Also thank you for your lovely compliments on my website and books.) :o)

Very Inspiring
by: Patricia Rae

Thank you Rita & Rena. This is a very inspiring article and that I believe is so true. It has got me thinking about how to improve my website.
Thank you.

Great Advice!
by: Gloria

As half owner of a brick and mortar shop, I agree that updating your ‘look’ is very important.
I think we have all been in shops (small ones) or frequented websites that seem stale, and uninviting because they look exactly the same as the last time you visited. It is time consuming, and a lot of hard work to rearrange, add new merchandise, decorate seasonaly….repeat,…. repeat… BUT customers comment that they just had to check out our new ‘look’ because of our windows,and photos we post online. It generates new interest. Hopefully, I will be able to do all of this with greater ease online. Still working on
getting jewelry made for my new site.

Refreshing Changes
by: SterlingCrystal

Thanks for the idea, Rita. It is so easy to say “Whew, I’ve finally set up that website, hooray, I can ignore it now and concentrate on my creations.” Unfortunately, if websites are old and tired, then people will begin to think the same of our creations. It is difficult to divert our creativity from our pieces to marketing, but as Rena said, perhaps we will be inspired to look again at our jewellery as we change our website.

Sam Ryder
SterlingCrystal
www.sterlingcrystal.etsy.com

Website Face Lift
by: Rachel Corrine – Websites for Jewelers

This is great advice – jewelry design is a creative business and prospective customers will judge you based on the look of your site. We recommend a website face lift once per year, but certainly the content and images on your landing page should vary more frequently.