Comments on: Selling Jewelry Pieces

By: marlene

marlene — Fri, 22 Jan 2016 04:39:20 +0000

I agree about raising your prices. You have to know how much the piece cost, the time it took to make, your overhead and profit to figure a price. Rena has a priceing article here - Jewelry Pricing Formula . Also,you are paying retail prices, and the quality and selection are very limited at Michael's etc. Try online, the selection is vast and the prices are very good. A word of caution, try to stay with companies within your own country. Buying direct from China etc can be a hit and miss experience, plus there are several other drawbacks from ordering from there. It takes a while to get a following and a variety of items in several styles, not just bracelets should be shown as well. Hang in there, learn about selling and business in general as well.

By: Maria A

Maria A — Tue, 01 Sep 2015 16:35:10 +0000

Hi Sue,
How about visiting offices around your area and try to get permission to have a jewelry demonstration in those places. Drive around and make a list of places you could visit, even doctors’ offices might be helpful. I think getting new customers constantly is a good source to expose your jewelry (and keep in contact with existing customers as well).
Good luck

By: Lisa W.

Lisa W. — Thu, 31 May 2012 00:58:39 +0000

Rena has some great ideas. I would add that depending on your personal contacts for sales is a very limited market that will quickly be exhausted. You need to find venues for sales that will provide exposure to both new customers, and to customers that buy. Neighbor hood churches are a good start, but Personally, I haven’t found them to be particularly lucrative. it might be time to branch out into street fairs, farmer’s markets, flea markets, carnivals, or other places where you think your pieces might find buyers.

Since you have already decided to go through all the work to photograph your jewelry and email those photos, why not go the next step and add those emails to your online shop, or etsy or artfire shop? This might add a bit to your sales.

Good luck!

By: Rena Klingenberg

Rena Klingenberg — Tue, 22 May 2012 10:14:58 +0000

Hi Sue,

Of the jewelry you’ve sold so far, see if you can identify what’s worked for you.

Get a clear picture of your buying customers, the pieces you’ve sold, where you’ve sold them, the prices on your pieces that have sold, etc.

Start pinpointing the things that have worked for you and work more in that direction.

And if you haven’t already done so, start building your customer list so you can contact them via email or postcard to let them know about your events, specials, new pieces, etc.

Although some school- and church-based holiday boutiques can be good venues for handmade jewelry, they often suffer from not being promoted very well by the organizer, and from having too many jewelry vendors. So I wouldn’t feel bad about not having much success at those.

Regarding your open house event – you may want to phone people to remind them of your event a day or two before, as many people have good intentions but forget the date because of other things going on in their lives.

Also, you may want to consider raising your prices. I haven’t seen your work and don’t know what materials and time go into your creations, but raising prices also raises people’s perception of the items’ value and tends to result in more sales.

It can take a bit of experimenting and keeping track of your results when it comes to finding the venues, products, and people that work best for you – and it’s an ongoing process. But gradually you’ll be able to hone in what’s successful for you, and build on that.

Please keep us posted on your progress, Sue!