There are a lot of options for selling your jewelry online. Read on to learn the benefits of having your own website and which e-commerce platforms are popular. Make sure to find the best website building platform for your jewelry business.
What is Jewelry eCommerce?
E-commerce covers any digital transaction for a product or service. Sounds easy right? If only it could be. Platforms such as Etsy and Amazon Homemade have made it easier for makers to sell their items digitally to a much wider audience. But without having your own website, you’re missing out on opportunities to grow your business and connect with your customers.
Why have a website (even if you have Etsy)?
Even if you’re comfortable selling on a platform such as Etsy or Amazon Homemade, it would still be a wise business decision to have a website of your own. Having your own website gives you far more control over your e-commerce sales and digital branding. Your website allows you to design from the ground up with photos, text, and graphics/logos. You can also fully brand your website with colors and fonts. You can also control what, if any, advertisements are allowed on your site.
A fully branded website is also much easier for customers to recognize and share for referrals! When asked where someone bought a piece of jewelry, they may say “a shop on Etsy”. Even if they pass on the name of your shop, their friend may get distracted by other competitors on Etsy. If someone purchases from your website, they’ll easily be able to remember your business and give it to a friend to directly look up.
Generally speaking, a website is also more cost-effective than a platform that charges fees per purchase and/or listing. The initial setup cost of a website can be a turn-off compared to the free-to-setup shops, but the monthly maintenance fees of a website are often much less than the purchase fees. E-commerce platforms, such as Shopify, have made building your own website as simple as drag and drop templates. If you choose to have a professional web designer build your website, the setup costs will depend on what the designer charges but are generally going to be higher.
Most importantly though, you never want to sell your jewelry on a single platform. What happens if a platform's fees or policies change? What happens if they change algorithms and stop showing your products? You have to deal with it if it’s your only option. Some shops get shut down for inadvertently going against certain policies. What then? Something can always go wrong in the digital world, so it helps to have backups for your loyal customers. Etsy and Amazon Handmade are great options to find new customers – but there’s also quite a bit of competition on there. You may even occasionally find an advertisement for a competitor on your own shop.
What are the best website builders for jewelry?
With the rise of the importance of having a website, you have a wide range of website builder options to easily build your own jewelry e-commerce site. *Note: The pricing for each platform is subject to change without notice. We will try to keep this updated, but the prices listed may not be current.
Squarespace
Squarespace is easily one of the most popular website building platforms for jewelry makers and other e-commerce businesses. Their platform features easy-to-customize templates, password protection options, search options for your site, and an app to help you keep your website up to date. Their e-commerce features include merchandising and categorizing options, inventory and order management, the ability to give discounts and sell gift cards and so much more. They also offer custom domains, email and social media marketing integrations, and analytics to help you find what works. See all of their features at https://www.squarespace.com/ecommerce-website
Shopify
Shopify is also one of the most popular website building platforms. They give you access to more than 70 templates that are easily customizable, a custom domain, and easy mobile shopping features. Use their app to easily manage your store and connect your website with fulfillment locations, such as Amazon. Their sites feature unlimited product support, product organization, and social media integration. You’ll also have access to a suite of analytics, a mobile app, and web hosting services. See all of their features at https://www.shopify.com/online
Wix
Wix is perhaps best known for being an easy, simple, basic website builder. But they do have e-commerce options! Wix also offers easy to customize templates that are drag and drop. They offer secure online payments, unlimited product listings, abandoned cart recovery, and integrations with social media and review sites. See all of their features at https://www.wix.com/ecommerce/website
Weebly
Weebly offers e-commerce plans powered by Square. Their features include a free domain and SSL security, shipping label options, payments through PayPal, abandoned cart emails, and insights to help grow your business. As with the others, the templates are easily customizable and you can make edits to your site from their app. Check out all of their features at https://www.weebly.com/features/ecommerce-website
Other options to build your own website
Although these are the 4 most popular e-commerce website building platforms for jewelers, there are other options as well. Wordpress integrates with WooCommerce to create a highly customizable e-commerce site for businesses from small to large. They also have a library of other free and paid integrations for your site. However, WooCommerce isn’t always beginner friendly so may not be as easy to learn and customize. Big Cartel is also a popular option for jewelers since it’s designed for artists. It has all the basic features you need to create an e-commerce site, but it doesn’t go much beyond basic. You can only do limited customization and branding. The pricing is also based on number of products you list. Big Commerce is also a highly customizable option, but is again not always beginner friendly. They do have options to help create wholesale website options though!
Depending on where your business is at and how large of a scale you might need, another option is to hire a website designer to create a fully custom website. However, this is going to likely be your most expensive option and may require the most work.
Which website platform is right for you?
There will never be a one-size-fits-all solution to building a website. Every jewelry business will have different e-commerce needs, but here are some of the most important things you’ll need to consider.
Payments – You'll want to make sure all online payments are secure with an SSL Certificate. Some platforms give this to you, others you have to purchase yourself. Check if your platform has payments integrated or if you’ll need your own solution. If you already have a payment solution, will it integrate with the platform?
Marketing – Think about what marketing options the platform has. Capturing abandoned carts is always a helpful marketing tactic. Does the platform have an email integration or can you integrate another solution? You should also think about what SEO resources the platform has. Having good SEO on your site is the best free marketing tactic!
Shipping – What shipping ability does the platform have and what do you think you’ll need? Some have shipping solutions integrated while others may have you find your own.
Future goals – You don’t want to overbuild a website now, but you also don’t want to have to rebuild a website too soon. Think about where your business is at now and where you hope for it to go. Will your chosen platform grow with you?
Wholesale – Does your business do wholesale? Some platforms have solutions for wholesale and B2B sellers. Think about if you would like to have the ability to sell wholesale directly on your website.
Website hosting – Most of the drag and drop templated websites host your site on their servers. However, if you decide to go a more custom route you may have to figure out hosting your website on your own server or renting space on another. The same with creating a custom domain. Does your chosen platform allow you to create a custom domain or do you need to figure out buying your own?
Selling Jewelry On Multiple Online Platforms
There are so many places and ways to sell jewelry online. When deciding what platforms will work for you, first think about your time and how many you can realistically handle. Some may think the more places the better, but if you cannot maintain more than 2 or 3 do not spread yourself too thin. Think quality over quantity. Not only do you need to be updating listings, photos, etc; you also need time to respond to inquiries and engage with your potential customers. We talked to 3 jewelers to find out how they manage selling their jewelry across multiple online platforms.
Both Rocky and Mary have found great success selling directly through their social media pages. Rocky Pardo has her SquareSpace website linked to both her Instagram and Facebook pages so you can buy directly from her social sites. She finds that selling through her Instagram DMs has been the easiest way for her to connect with customers and has been her most profitable sales channel. Mary Karg created a Facebook group for her VIP customers. She has special events in her group where she sells her one of a kind pieces. This has been a very successful sales avenue for her.
All three of the jewelry artists have their own websites but all use different platforms. Aisha uses Shopify and is very happy with it. She has both a retail and wholesale site. She says Shopify retail “hands down is her most profitable site”. Formanski also uses Shopify to keep track of all her inventory. She reconciles weekly for items she pulls for other sites. In addition to selling on her own website Aisha’s brand Everthine Jewelry is on Etsy and offers wholesale on Faire and Abound. Rocky uses SquareSpace for her website and Mary uses Wix.
Stay Organized
When selling jewelry online across multiple platforms you need to stay organized. When you sell jewelry online there is so much to keep track of. How will you manage your inventory? Your sales? Correspondence with customers? Try to keep all alerts, notifications and communication in one place. When creating your website, social pages and setting up shops on marketplaces use the same email. Within your email create folders to organize your emails by platform.
When selling directly through a FB group or in Instagram DMs this can be tricky. Rocky explained “I try to get people switched over to e-mail as much as possible so that the majority of my correspondence is in one place, especially if it becomes a more involved sale (custom work, size adjustments, etc.). FB messages are the easiest to lose, so I make a point to check those every morning. I've recently employed the use of a desk calendar. I make notes to follow up with so-and-so on whatever platform and that has helped tremendously.”
Rocky and Mary both sell mostly on social media and create one of a kind pieces which makes tracking inventory very easy. If your collection has a lot of ready to wear pieces or you offer wholesale this can get very complicated. Aisha tracks all over her inventory through her Shopify website but has to manually update it on a weekly basis to account for her sales on other platforms.
Each platform has a way to track sales, fees and tax but you will still need to combine everything for your records. Accounting usually isn’t a strong point for most creatives, but you need to be keeping track of your financials! Mary uses Square spreadsheets, but does not recommend Paypal’s sheets. Rocky loves google spreadsheets but is also super lucky to have a computer programmer husband who created an app for her! Aisha admits this isn’t her strength and has hired a bookkeeper and CPA. QuickBooks is also a very popular way for small jewelry businesses to keep track of their financials.
Be Consistent
Having the same terms, shipping fees and prices across all of your retail sales platforms is important. When you sell jewelry online it is very easy for someone to find all of your sites and compare. Consistency will not only make it easier for you to keep track of everything but it is also helps build trust with your customers. You never want a customer to see inconsistent pricing of your pieces.
Also, be consistent with your branding across all platforms. You want all of your online “shops” to have the same feel and look. Having people recognize your logo, jewelry and imagery is the first step in converting admirers into customers.
Pro Tips
Here are some final tips to help you be successful selling on multiple platforms. Aisha recommends to “save each sales channel to your 'bookmarks bar' on your web browser, and check them every day. It's simple, but it will help you stay connected to each platform.” Being proactive and checking in on each platform daily will ensure you don’t miss any correspondence with your customers.
I know a lot of creative people love hand written lists or like having a physical piece of paper or planner to stay organized. So this tip from Mary may be a great way to help track orders. “I'm old school, so I like my 2 part sales receipt books. Keep one copy with product in stackable trays until I do shipping.”
Prior to 2020 Rocky hardly had an online presence since she was very successful selling in person at shows. She was nervous about the forced transition to sell jewelry online and found connecting on Instagram was easiest for her. Rocky explained “I've molded my online presence to be more like an experience in my booth than just online shopping. I feel less pressure to be constantly updating and sharing because I'm making connections with the people like I would have in person and I'm showing them the work. Less energy spent showing it to the whole void of the internet and showing it directly to my clients.”
Everyone works differently and has preferences on how to manage their tasks. Finding the right way for you to manage multiple sales channels will take time and dedication. Having a multi-platform sales strategy is key in expanding your reach and growing your business. Remember quality over quantity. So be realistic with your time and create platforms that truly represent your brand.
Thank you to Aisha Formanski, Mary Karg, and Rocky Pardo for their contributions.
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