Jewelry stores: increase your sales and success

Jewelry stores proliferate.

For best chances of good sales, choose the “best” possible ones for your jewelry. There are lots of jewelry designers like you selling their own products on consignment, try not to bury your jewelry among loads of competitors.

Why would you want to do that?

• To maximize your chances of selling,
• So that your product stands-out and catches the eye,
• To minimize the time between making the consignment agreement and selling,
• To differentiate your product

Take some time doing a bit of market research for as many jewelry stores as possible before approaching a specific store or gallery.

What is market research?

What I suggest while you walk around looking at potential jewelry stores is taking a look at these strategic factors:

• The location of the store or gallery (is it in a high traffic area?),
• The style of jewelry already being sold, (is it similar to yours or do they prefer a different style?)
• The way they display and talk about the jewelry they are selling (do they know what they are doing?)

Lets analyze each factor, one by one.

Location, location, location

This is about analyzing the context of the jewelry stores you´ll research. Take into account the amount of “traffic” the jewelry store front has. If its tucked away in a lonely corner or at a dead end, chances are your jewelry will not be easily seen. You´ll want to consign in a shop located in a busy street or corridor (if its inside a mall).

Will they have customers walking in throughout the week as well as on weekends?

Also have in mind how easy or difficult it is to access the jewelry stores your researching, do people have many transportation options, or can you just get there by car?

Is the jewelry store visible? Do they call attention?

This can also be a measurement of professionalism and give you clues of the kind of advertisement they give to themselves.

If your seeing galleries, have a feel of the kind of artistic style or preference the gallery displays, is it coherent with your jewelry design?

Style of jewelry being sold

This factor is about considering the merchandise the shop or gallery sells, looking at the “products” of the store. Stroll around each shop as if you were a regular customer.

Look at the style of jewelry being displayed. Do they sell jewelry sets, individual pieces, or other? Do they specialize in gemstones, contemporary, vintage, etc? Is that convenient for you?



Is there any other jewelry artist there exhibiting jewelry very much like yours? Will you be able to compete with them in terms of design, craftmanship and price? Try knowing what type of jewelry they will not accept, just to make sure you won´t be wasting your time sweating a dead-end deal.

When asking about their jewelry designers, how do they refer to them?

Do the jewelry stores carry their own packaging or will they use the packaging you give them? How will they use your information, particularly your business card. Try asking about shipping, travel and any other events that customers may require and how the shop handles that.

And most importantly, how have they priced similar jewelry? Check for prices everywhere to get a feel of the price ranges.

Display options and sales power

This factor is about how they go about commercializing their jewelry and astutely examining if they know about jewelry at all.

Check if the jewelry will be kept dust-free (in glass cases or the like) or are they mostly displayed on wall hangings and any other system.

How do they secure each piece, or don´t they? Also evaluate the way they have displayed jewelry.

Is the jewelry displayed in such a way that it may easily be tossed by accident? Will your pieces be having exposure to direct sunlight (not good at all, specially if you use gemstones)?

Will people be able to touch them freely (this might be good or bad, depending on your designs)? Will new designers´ pieces be exhibited at the bottom or in a better position for eye view?

You may even ask to have some of the jewelry shown to you and try some on.

Look how the sales people treat the jewelry, do they tug at it? Are they gentle? What do they say about it and how it looks on you?

This is all about trying out the experience your customers will have once you make a deal with the jewelry stores or galleries with which you reach an agreement.

Try knowing how certain jewelry gets to the window and why the other ones are displayed elsewehere. This will give you an idea of the criteria they have and how they value what gets most sales. Use astute questions to tease out the answers.

You can go to jewelry stores for your market research as a fake customer or as an unwitting jewelry designer, dressed with your best jewelry set to show it off. Maybe you´re jewelry will raise interest and spark a conversation that may lead to a deal.

Having all this valuable information, you´re better equipped to start approaching shops and galleries to initiate a consignment agreement. Read more below.

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