Help! My Jewelry Isn’t Selling! The Art of the Jewelry Marketing Turnaround

It can happen if you’re a newbie and even if you’re an experienced jewelry seller. Your jewelry stops selling despite your best efforts at jewelry marketing. If you’re dependent on your artistic efforts as your primary source of income, this can be a very frustrating and even scary experience. There’s no need to panic! It may be time to take a fresh look at your designs.

The first step to correcting this problem is to step back and take an objective look at what you’re offering your customers.To do this effectively, you may need to take a brief time away from your designs in order to release any emotional energy that may be blocking your ability to be objective.  Sometimes we’re so emotionally involved with what we create that we can’t see our own work objectively.

Take a day or two off and do some things that you really enjoy doing. Take long walks through the woods, take some scenic bicycle rides, have a leisurely lunch and don’t think about your business. Soon you’ll be relaxed and ready to start the reevaluation process.

Take our some of your pieces of jewelry on their display cards and place them on a large, solid white cloth to give yourself a neutral background. Try to look at your jewelry as if you’re seeing it for the first time. Ask yourself these questions:

     1. Do your designs look updated and fresh or do they look like last year’s offerings.  

         Customers seek newness! One difficult aspect of the jewelry business is that it’s

         subject to trends which makes people want to always see something new. On the

         other hand, it’s a positive because people have to keep buying in order to be in style.

     2. Can you buy designs similar to yours at local department stores and

          other mass markets. Be honest here. Do you TRULY have something

          unique to offer your customers? If not, you’ll end up trying to

          compete on the basis of price which is not a good situation.

    3.  Is your jewelry display card consistent with your jewelry and your jewelry

         and your overall theme. I don’t expect to see natural stone jewelry displayed

         on a brightly colored, garish card. An understated, elegant card with soothing,

         natural colors would be more appropriate. Successful jewelry marketing is all about

         consistency.

    4. What does your jewelry card say? Does it tell a story about you and your jewelry?

         Does it make people feel good about buying from you? This is what separates

         your jewelry from mass marketed jewelry which is often produced overseas by a   

         disinterested group of workers. Let your customers know about you, the designer

         and why your designs are so special. Establish a connection with your customer

         and you’ll make your customer feel much more comfortable buying from you.

   5.  How about your prices? How do your prices compare to what you see similar

        handmade jewelry selling for? Don’t assume that your jewelry can only be priced

        too high! Underpricing can give the perception that your jewelry is of poor quality

        or that you have no confidence in your design ability. Sometimes raising prices

        can result in increased sales.

  6.  Are you selling your jewelry in the right places? Many of you sell your jewelry at

       craft shows and local boutiques. If you make unique, high end jewelry that rightfully

       should sell for a significant price, you’re most likely not going to have much luck at your 

       local flea market. It may be time to apply to some of the juried, higher end art and craft 

       shows.  Likewise, higher end jewelry isn’t going to be a big hit at a boutique that sells    \ 

       discount clothing.

7.   Is your jewelry consistent with the prevailing color and size trends?Of course, you don’t

      want to be completely dictated by the current fashion mania, but you may have problems 

      selling  little button earrings when the hottest earring trend is a shoulder dusting

      dangle. If the big color trend of the season happens to be pastels, it stands to reason

      that people will be eager to buy jewelry to go with the current clothing colors. You may 

      have a problem if your jewelry consists primarily of dark, muted shades.

Now that you’ve taken a fresh look at your jewelry line, is it time to make some changes? One word of warning, don’t make more than one change at a time. Start with one simple change and test your market to see how it responds. You need to be able to identify which change brought the results. Give this method a try and see if it helps to jumpstart your sales. Thanks for reading. :-)

Kristie

P.S. If you sell your jewelry online and would like an objective evaluation of your website along

        with specific suggestions for increasing sales, I'll be happy to evaluate your site for a one

        time fee of $15.00 payable via Paypal. I'll send you a report with my impressions and

       suggestions via email. The $15.00 feel will be going up to $25.00 in the near future, so

       if you're interested, now might be a good time. You can email me at beadsindeed@cox.net.

       Please allow me up to 5 days to complete your report since I can only handle so much

       volume. Take care. :-)