Another option: if your customer is purchasing wholesale rather than carrying your work on consignment, offer to provide a display if they purchase a minimum amount of your jewelry. Be sure your minimum can cover the display cost as well as the jewelry, with a profit margin.

A display is a great thing to have in a shop, because you can brand it to match your colors, your logo, etc. You can include an “about the artist card” on the display, and generate interest from your potential customers.

I have since changed to my own cabinet and displays as I wanted to be able to have a certain look that she wasn’t able to do – all of the display is mine and would be taken back if I stopped doing business there.

If I was selling wholesale, I would either include a display in the cost to the retailer (or rent/loan them a display) if they did not have one of their own that fit with what I wanted my product to look like.

What I did is go to Goodwill, Salvation Army, etc. and I found some used earring trees and other displays. I look for the sturdy metal ones, no matter what color they are. I once found a small earring tree and bought it for $.50. It was bright purple, pretty scuffed up, but a $4.00 can of black spray paint made it look like new. That was a few years ago and that can of spray paint has freshened up several metal displays that I have.

I also look for sales or closeout items at local craft stores, have bought several necklace or bracelet displays for a few dollars each.

Peggy

My jewellery is displayed in a hair salon, and the owner was more than happy to provide a cabinet for it. Any little display props, like a ring display, earring display, etc. we provided, but continued to belong to us.

Like Rena said, she was very enthusiastic about selling the jewellery and was very helpful. And the sales there have been very good overall.

I can see where places that have a business that has nothing to do with jewellery won’t even want to be bothered with those details, even if they’re interested in having jewellery.

Personally, I would probably provide the display items myself (the written “contract” about the display items could be a good idea). If I didn’t want to or couldn’t afford to spend much on that, see what you can come up with creatively (visit secondhand stores, make props, etc).

See if you can create a situation you’re both comfortable with, while facilitating things as much as possible.

If they’re purchasing your jewelry wholesale, you might offer a free earring rack when they place a minimum opening order of $x.

Or you might sell them the rack outright but pay for the shipping yourself. Free shipping can be an effective incentive that gets people to agree to a transaction. (It sounds like you’ll be working mainly with shops in other towns?)

I’m not sure about usual procedures for who provides displays – I’ve mainly worked with one-of-a-kind shops and businesses.

In my experience, galleries and shops that carry jewelry or clothes tend to have displays they can use (or they create an artsy way to display my jewelry in a glass case, an artistic board, etc.).

Businesses that don’t carry those things don’t tend to have jewelry displays – but have been very willing to either purchase a display from me, or sign an agreement that they may use one of my displays (and put only my jewelry on it) as long as they carry my jewelry in their shop.

For the ones that don’t purchase the display outright but sign the agreement instead, when they decide to discontinue my line they must return the display to me or pay a replacement cost of $x.

One unrelated caution I want to mention here (and I may be mistaken about the shops you’re working with, but I’d feel better saying it):

When you mentioned “But if we can talk these businesses into carrying jewelry, I don’t think they will want to pay for displays” – that raised a red flag for me.

If I had to talk someone into carrying my work, I’d feel like they wouldn’t be a successful wholesale client for me.

My best wholesale accounts have been the ones that were enthusiastic about my jewelry and about offering it to their customers.

But when I first started wholesaling my jewelry, I talked a couple of reluctant shops into “trying” my jewelry for a month; needless to say, since they had no enthusiasm for selling it, they didn’t make any sales for me and my jewelry basically just sat there for a month.

If you can, focus on working with businesses that really like the opportunity of carrying your work, and are enthusiastic about adding this stream of income to their business.

Then build really excellent relationships with these businesses as you work with them!

Wishing you every success with your (and your husband’s) jewelry business, Cyn! Please keep us posted on how it goes.