You’ve recently aligned with some of the finest jewelry makers in your vicinity. Or you probably enjoy making jewelry in your free time. Either way, you have found a potential market opportunity and have decided to sell jewelry online. So you automatically start searching for ‘how to start a jewelry business online’ or how to ‘sell jewelry online’.

Considering how the global online jewelry sales are predicted to reach a market value of $340 billion by 2023, if you’ve decided to start an online jewelry store, good decision!

Now you thought that getting exclusive jewelry made was the tough part. But now you’re bombarded with thousands of articles and ads that claim to help you set up an online store. So which one should you read when each of them is just focusing on highlighting what they offer? How do you get a comprehensive guide on how to make a website to sell jewelry online?

A lot of business owners that come to Motif are often seeking these answers. So we thought that instead of keeping it behind closed doors and Zoom conversations, we create a comprehensive (read, massive) guide on how to start a jewelry business online.

Disclaimer: Going through this guide isn’t going to be easy. So remember to take notes and bookmark the URL to refer to later. This will help you get answers to how to start a jewelry business online whenever you get stuck at any step. As a luxury eCommerce agency, we want to make it easier for you to start your business online. 

Step 1 – Choose an eCommerce platform to start an online jewelry store

Now when you start looking for an eCommerce platform, you’re going to come across a number of options. Before you get down to exploring each one of them, let’s first take a look at the must-haves based on which you should be choosing an eCommerce platform.

Must-haves in an eCommerce platform or your online jewelry store

1. Easy to set up

Consumers are moving online for the smallest of purchases. What makes you think they won’t buy jewelry online too? And the market is quick to pick up on consumer trends and changing purchase behaviours. That’s why you need to start an online store as quickly as possible. Especially, before your competitor grabs your customer’s attention and pulls them to make purchases from their store. This is why we always suggest that one of the first must-haves of a good eCommerce platform is that it should be easy to use, easy to set up, easy to customize and easy to design to match your brand – basically, just easy is the word that should come to your mind when you’re looking for an eCommerce platform.

So take a look at the interface, the available templates and themes that you could make use of, the customization abilities, the tools available for free and for paid purchases and the help available to assist you in starting an online store for jewelry business on that eCommerce platform (eCommerce experts that you can reach out to for help).

This criteria is important for both eCommerce solopreneurs and established brands that may be going online now.

2. Easy to navigate

Imagine wanting to purchase a custom jewelry piece and then struggling to even find the first step to customizing the jewelry. You’re probably going to use the search widget on the store, sift through the navigation menu. And if you don’t find the product you’re looking for, you’ll probably go searching for another online jewelry store that may have a similar piece with them.

Now unless you’re planning to give customers to your competitors, make sure the eCommerce platform you choose to start an online jewelry store offers easy navigation to shoppers. You don’t want them going to bed thinking how tough it is to buy jewelry.

What’s more? The longer they take to find what they’re looking for and completing the purchase, the greater are the chances of them abandoning the purchase. Tch tch, that’s not what you want!

3. Secure

Talking about nudging them towards completing the purchase. What’s the one thing you want to be absolutely certain about when buying jewelry online? It’s a purchase that’s costing you some money – especially if it is a luxury jewelry online store.

You want to be absolutely sure that you’re transacting over a secure platform. The payment details you share are important information that you don’t want being misused. No matter how good that jewelry piece is, you’re probably going to abandon it if you’re not sure about the payment security.

So ensure that the eCommerce platform you choose offers top-notch security! No compromises on that one.

4. Smart integrations

Selling jewelry online is not just about choosing an eCommerce platform and setting up your site. You will need to leverage a lot more channels to make sales. For instance, you’ll need to run Facebook ads, Instagram ads, collect customer information, offer live chat to help customers make a purchase and so much more.

That is why, the eCommerce platform you choose should offer a plethora of integrations with marketing and analytics tools. This is especially important for those who are planning to grow their online jewelry business. So make it a point to look through the integrations offered, the capabilities to include custom integrations, the plug and play solutions available, the apps in its app store, and the ease of it all.

5. Search engine friendly

Remember how back when we started blogging, everyone praised WordPress for its SEO capabilities? How we kept raving about tools like Yoast that made it so much easier to optimize content pieces and the website in general to rank on search engines for the right phrases? Well, the same logic holds true here as well.

Almost 60% of a consumer’s journey starts from the search engine. No matter what they’re intending to buy, it’s often the search engine that leads them to the ‘right’ store. For your online jewelry store to be recommended as the ‘right’ one to buy from, you need to optimize for what and how your target customers are searching for the jewelry you sell.

So make sure that the eCommerce platform you choose is SEO-friendly. It should give you the ability to choose your own domain name, add comprehensive product descriptions, add additional pages like the blog or an about us page, collect and display customer reviews and ratings – basically anything that qualifies as what the search engine uses to rank your online jewelry store.

6. Mobile-friendly – 100% responsive

Online purchase behaviour is changing every day. But the one thing that has stood out in the last couple of years, is that mobile shopping is the new normal. According to a report by Statista, mobile retail revenue is projected to reach a whopping $3.56 billion by 2021. Considering how the COVID outbreak has changed how we go about our day to day tasks, you can expect this number to hit higher!

So when searching for an eCommerce platform for your online jewelry store, ensure it offers 100% responsiveness. Your mobile shoppers should be offered the same shopping experience as those who access your site on desktop.

It’s better to address mobile shopping right at the beginning when you start an online store for your jewelry business. Leaving it for later may result in losing a lot of sales.

7. In-depth analytics

Retail is changing. What consumers buy is changing. What consumers are willing to pay for is changing. Everything is so dynamic that it is important to continually keep tabs on what’s getting your online store for jewelry, more traffic and what’s turning that traffic into sales. Yes, we’re talking about analytics.

An eCommerce platform should offer performance analytics that help you identify which products are selling the most, which channels are getting you more traffic, which ones are contributing the most to your sales, what customers are looking for on the store (discounts, free shipping etc), and more. If not natively, the eCommerce platform should offer integration with an analytics tool that helps you gain visibility on this data.

Since jewelry is a high-ticket industry, you don’t want to be playing the guessing game. It’s better to optimize your inventory and your marketing to suit the current consumer needs.

8. Customer support

Whether you’re starting an online store for jewelry alone or with a team, you’re going to require professional help at one point or another. Now trying to look for solutions and answers every time you get stuck somewhere is not just time-consuming but also ineffective as those answers could be outdated. That’s where the importance of customer support comes in.

Double-check if the eCommerce platform has an active customer and tech support. You don’t want to endlessly keep waiting for an answer whenever you get stuck. They should also have a resource library that offers extensive help docs and how-tos’, so that you can figure your way out of roadblocks too.

This aspect is especially important for those to whom terms like HTML, CSS and JavaScript sound like alien languages!

9. Payment methods

Every online shopper is different. They’re going to want to pay differently for the purchases they make as well. While some might opt for cash on delivery, others may seek online payment options like digital wallets or credit/ debit card payments, or even instalments. This is especially important when you’re setting up an online store for your jewelry business. As the items being purchased may or may not be something that the consumer can pay cash down for in one go.

So make sure that the eCommerce platform you choose integrates with multiple payment methods that are popular amongst your target customers. PayPal, Apple Pay, Stripe, Instalment Pays, Credit/Debit cards are just some of the staples that need to be there on your online jewelry store.

10. Cost of platform

Whether you’re just starting an online jewelry store or taking your jewelry business online to reach more customers, there’s a considerable investment that you will need to make for finally selling jewelry. This includes the cost of setting up your store and then marketing it proactively to drive in more shoppers.

Now some eCommerce platforms offer a standard monthly fee, some offer flat rates, some charge per transaction made on the store and some will require you to purchase add-ons apart from their own subscription (for example, hosting).

So before you pick the eCommerce platform you want to start an online jewelry store on, calculate the costs to see if it leaves room for growth.

Some questions that you should be typically asking yourself while evaluating the above parameters are:

• Am I planning to grow my jewelry line?
• Am I planning to expand my jewelry business to a bigger market?
• Am I willing to spend this much on setting up an online store?
• Am I saving enough to market and advertise my online jewelry store?

Now that you know what parameters you need to take into account when choosing an eCommerce platform, let’s present you with the options you have.

Best eCommerce platforms to choose from to start an online jewelry store

1. Shopify

Shopify is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms when it comes to the ease of starting an online store for your jewelry business. The platform offers a DIY drag and drop store builder and comes with plenty of free and paid apps that you can add to the store to enhance the shopping experience on it, or to market your jewelry better. Since it requires almost zero technical knowledge to get started with, it is a popular choice amidst hobbyists, brands with a set number of SKU counts, a straight select product and purchase model and those that are simply looking at going online in less than a week!

Also read: How to start an online store on Shopify 

Ready to start an online jewelry store? Sign up on Shopify today to get a free trial.

2. Bigcommerce

Another popular eCommerce platform is BigCommerce. An open SaaS platform provider, this one comes with the ability to customize the online store for your jewelry business at a much intricate and detailed manner. The flexibility it offers in terms of both design and development makes it a leading choice for brands that need headless commerce. For example, brands like Pandora, where they require to build separate modules to enable a purchase for their range of bracelets.

But the learning curve here is slightly higher than Shopify. So you either might have to set aside time and resources for it, or seek help from eCommerce experts.

Also read: BigCommerce vs Shopify – Which one is right for you to start an online jewelry store.

Want to start an online jewelry store on BigCommerce? Sign up here. 

3. Magento

Another eCommerce platform that is popular amongst bigger brands that have massive teams to support their tech, is Magento. The open-source solution gives you 100% control of your eCommerce infrastructure. But that also means you will be responsible for the entire site’s smooth functioning and setting up a secure channel for customer data to be stored.

4. WooCommerce

If you already have a site on WordPress, you could consider this eCommerce platform to take your jewelry business online. The open-source platform offers a cart solution in addition to the content that you have on WordPress. It’s a common choice for jewelry businesses that are just starting out or are selling handmade jewelry online. So if you’re starting an online store for your jewelry business alone or at a very small scale, you can consider this as one of the options.

5. Demandware

Also now known as Salesforce Cloud Commerce, this eCommerce platform is often chosen by the high-profile, luxury jewelry brands. It offers an open SaaS model which is similar to Shopify and BigCommerce but offers a much deeper level of customization and complex integrations that can enable bigger brands to offer an almost in-store like experience to their shoppers. But since it is complex to use, you’re going to require the help of eCommerce experts.

6. Ecwid

Another popular solution amongst small business owners, solopreneurs in the jewelry industry or simply those who want to start an online jewelry store on a small scale and then grow as per market viability, is Ecwid. This one’s not exactly a platform, but a widget that enables you to add a store to your existing website.

7. 3dcart

Whether you want to start an online jewelry store for your luxury brand or handmade jewelry, 3dcart is another competitive platform to set up your store on. It’s ease of use is what makes it one of the most common choices to start an online store. The eCommerce platform comes with competitive features as the others.

And that’s not all.

You will also come across names like OpenCart, Wix, Shopmatic, Volusion, Squarespace, Episerver and others. Each eCommerce platform comes with its own set of pros and cons. While each one’s as powerful as the other, it is important to evaluate them based on the parameters or must-haves we listed in the section above.

Not sure which eCommerce platform should you choose for starting an online jewelry store? Reach out to us to get a consultation from our eCommerce experts.

Step 2 – Choose a look and feel for your online jewelry store

Once you’re done picking the eCommerce platform you want to use to take your jewelry business online, the next step is to work on your branding. You need to decide the look and feel of your store according to your brand – this holds true for both new businesses and those that have an established customer base in the market.

Now you can find ready-to-use templates and themes for most of the above eCommerce platforms. You can simply choose one based on what you find appealing to the eye and then further customize it to get the look and feel you want to offer to the online shoppers. Since jewelry is a high-ticket purchase, we recommend paying attention to this step. How your online jewelry store looks to the customer has a big impact on your conversions and sales.

Some questions you need to ask for choosing a theme to start an online jewelry store are:

• What kind of experience do I want to create for my customers?
• What are some desired features my customers would want in the store?
• What are similar online jewelry stores doing and how can I be better?
• How do I want my jewelry product range to be displayed?
• How many products will I be displaying in my store?
• Do I have the resources to choose a paid or a custom theme or should I start with a free theme?

Now depending on the average price of your products and the target market you’re addressing, your answers to these questions will vary. That’s because each tier of customers expect different experiences from brands when they’re willing to pay a certain price for the products. That’s why jewelry brands often find this step tricky.

Many times, you may have to consider setting up a custom theme by using a basic template for your online jewelry store. This is very common because we see a lot of these jewelry brands wanting to offer a more immersive experience to shoppers – especially since these shoppers are not getting a direct look and feel of the products they’re about to purchase.

Think about Tiffany’s. Now think about how their presentation of the brand actually does half the convincing to make the purchase!

Even if this step takes time to complete, make sure you don’t skip it or make a hurried decision. Whether or not you choose to build a custom design for your store, or go for a ready-to-use template.

Here’s a glimpse at LACE, a luxury jewelry brand that is known for its 3D printed exclusive pieces. If you notice, the entire theme is in sync with how they manufacture the products, giving the shopper a ‘feel’ of the high-end technology they use.

Minimal. Modern. Perfectly in sync with what their brand is known for.

Struggling to find the right look and feel to start an online jewelry store? Or need help with building a custom design that is exclusive to your brand? Reach out to our eCommerce experts today.

Step 3 – Set up your product pages for conversions

Chose an eCommerce platform and have your theme as well as all the functionalities all set up on the store? Great!

Now it is time to take your gorgeous and carefully crafted jewelry pieces online. If you have multiple products, you can create a CSV file with all the details – right from the product name, description, variants, pricing etc.

Most of the eCommerce platforms offer an easy upload functionality. So once your CSV is ready, all you need to do is upload it to the eCommerce platform you choose to start an online jewelry store.

If you have custom-built modules for different product ranges, you might have to upload the products individually.

But the point here is not about uploading your products to the new online jewelry store of yours. It’s about making your product pages high-converting. They’re the ones that will make or break the deal with online shoppers wanting to purchase jewelry. To cut to the chase, here are some conversion-driven best practices you need to follow to turn visitors into customers from your product pages when you start an online jewelry store:

• Use big and clear images
• Make your call to action button (buy now) prominent
• Add a secondary call to action (add to wishlist)
• Ease navigation between pages
• Create urgency with countdown timers or real-time sales notifications
• Add depth to your product pages with videos
• Add price comparison (if you’re offering a discount)
• Add trust badges (very important for high-priced products)
• Include social proof (customer ratings and reviews)
• Write crisp and informative product description (use jargons only when talking to sophisticated buyers)
• Make the variant selector user-friendly (if there are product variants)
• Help shoppers discover and purchase similar products with recommendations
• Clearly enumerate shipping and return policies
• Enable live chat to offer assistance (very important as no one wants to put in their money buying the wrong product)
• Make sure your product page loading speed is good

Here’s taking inspiration from the one brand that is known for its luxury jewelry collection, Tiffany’s:

Here’s another example from the brand that is known for its day-to-day jewelry as well as luxury jewelry collection:

Step 4 – Optimize your cart page for conversions

Once you’re set with the product page, the next step is to ensure that when a shopper does add one of your products to their cart, they move towards completing the purchase and not abandoning it.

With luxury jewelry, cart abandonment is a very common scenario. Every consumer obviously thinks twice about making the purchase due to the high investment. So you want to give them very little reason to leave without making a purchase! Make this step a priority in your plan to start an online jewelry store.

You need to make the product look worth the investment. You don’t want anything to distract them from the complete payment button. And more importantly, you don’t want them to leave the page without trying to convert them at least.

The same holds true for all online jewelry stores. So when you start an online jewelry store, make sure you don’t forget to optimize your cart page for conversions in the zeal to launch the store – you don’t want to lose visitors to a poorly optimized cart page.

Here are some cart page best practices our eCommerce experts absolutely swear by:

• Place the shopping cart icon in the upper right corner of the page
• Set up a sticky cart drawer for easy view and access
• Use the shopping cart icon to display the number of items in the cart
• Confirm when someone adds an item to the cart
• Provide information about shipping
• Lead customers towards checkout by making the button prominent and removing distractions
• Add the option to checkout as a guest or to create a customer account (most luxury jewelry shoppers are loyal to brands and would prefer creating accounts, so make it easier by offering easy email and social sign-ups)
• Allow the shoppers to print or email the cart details and payment receipts (very important for shoppers making luxury product purchases)
• Make it easier for the shopper to review and edit their cart
• Include a product summary before the final checkout inclusive of additional charges, highlighting them clearly
• Make adding coupons/ discounts easy and have them readily available (if you have an ongoing promotion)
• Clearly display order details, tracking information and your contact information (luxury shoppers also tend to have high order anxiety)
• Offer an estimated shipping and delivery date to give shoppers something to look forward to
• Create an order confirmation and thank you page that nudges the shopper to create an account or join your loyalty program (finding luxury shoppers is difficult, so make sure you have a way to retain them)
• Implement an exit-intent popup to re-capture a shopper’s interest if they intend on leaving without making a purchase
• Offer multiple delivery options (based on what’s viable to your location, of course)
• Offer multiple payment options (not everyone has the ability to buy luxury jewelry or any kind of jewelry in one go – more about this in the next step!)

Here’s an example from our all-time favorite online jewelry store, LACE:

Pro tip: Continually monitor the conversions from your cart page and how it impacts the checkout funnel. Remember to analyse consumer behaviour to optimize your cart page and checkout process for higher conversions.

PS. Don’t forget to get our eCommerce conversion checklist for FREE!

Step 5 – Integrate popular payment channels and methods

Jewelry shoppers aren’t necessarily people who can make high-value purchases on impulse. There will be those who would want to make the payment in instalments. Then there will be those who want to make the purchase on their credit card, and others might just want to make use of popular digital wallets like PayPal, Apple Pay and others.

Now we know how it’s impossible to practically integrate with every payment solution out there. So start by adding those that are the most commonly used by your target consumers. Then analyse which out of those are they using the most, or which ones they are actively requesting for.

Add payment channels and integrations based on consumer demand.

Remember to probe the eCommerce platform you decide to make use of, of the payment integrations available before starting an online jewelry store.

Step 6 – Develop a system for integrating your product inventory

Irrespective of what level your business is at and how many product ranges you have to offer in your jewelry line, effective inventory management is critical to your success because depending on which niche you’re in, the jewelry sales can be strongly influenced by seasonal trends.

The everyday, affordable, fashion jewelry sales remain fairly consistent. But niches like luxury and fine jewelry are sure to pick up around the wedding season or the holiday season or during events like Mother’s Day.

If you manufacture exclusive jewelry or are into handcrafted jewelry, this is important so that you can plan your inventory accordingly. All without the risk of overstocking or understocking, so that you don’t run into losses. So when you start an online jewelry store, get an inventory management system in place right from the beginning.

• If you have a small product catalog, you can probe the eCommerce platform you’re making use for the inventory management system/ tool they support. Some platforms offer an in-built inventory management system, while others may offer simple integrations to those.
• If you have a jewelry business that has a larger product catalog, has stores across different locations and operates via omnichannel, you should consider managing your inventory through your POS system. This way you can keep tabs on your inventory, based on the sales you make both online and offline.

Pro tip: If your jewelry business comes up with a range of limited edition products or often features designers, make sure you communicate the inventory availability to your customers.

Step 7 – Figure out shipping and fulfilment for your online jewelry store

Jewelry. Fine jewelry. Luxury jewelry. Order placed online.

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you read these words as a consumer?

You’re probably thinking about who will deliver these to you, whether they will handle the package carefully and how efficiently is your order going to be fulfilled.

Now as a business too, that’s exactly what you need to think about while choosing a carrier and shipping service for your online jewelry store.

Based on the size of your product catalog, the number of orders you’re sure to receive and the size of your team, an online jewelry business may consider handling shipping and fulfillment in-house. Although, if you don’t fall under that category, you can partner with other cost-effective options such as third party logistics, dropshipping or a combination of in-house as well as a third party to ensure timely fulfillment.

Your job doesn’t end at getting a successful sale for your online jewelry business. The post-purchase experience matters as much – especially when you want to start an online jewelry store and grow sustainably.

So make sure that when you start an online store for your jewelry business, you also plan how to package your jewelry orders. It needs to be an extension of your brand, communicating the values your brand stands for and making the customer feel that the order was worth the value.

We told you, to start an online jewelry store is not just about setting up a website. As a luxury eCommerce agency that has worked with some of the best brands across the globe, we know the amount of hard work it takes.

Step 8 – Start your online jewelry store and launch your brand with a bang!

Whether you’re a new brand or one that has been known in the offline market, this is the make or break scenario. This is the stage where you will know whether or not all the steps that you invested so much time and resources on, were a success or not.

This is when you launch your jewelry store online.

Right from announcing the launch of the online store to existing customers to setting up prospecting ads to attract new customers, it’s time to set things in motion with a growth marketing strategy.

How?

Well, we have a story from LACE, which is an American luxury and high-end jewelry brand that is best known for its 3D printed pieces.

By running data-driven prospecting ads to setting email marketing campaigns to nurture high-intent shoppers into successful sales, LACE was able to do it all and succeed, resulting in an 8x increase in traffic and 6x increase in the revenue from their online store. Read about their strategy to get inspired for yours, here. And start an online jewelry store with a bang!

Think understanding a consumer’s expectations and reflecting them on your online jewelry store is too overwhelming?

We understand. To start an online jewelry store is no easy feat.

With the consumer trends, market scenarios and purchase behaviours, starting an online store for a luxury jewelry business can be tricky. You might end up investing more than you see returns on. That’s why our eCommerce experts work with global brands to help them set up a conversion-driven store and a launch strategy that helps them reach the right customer at the right time, with the right message!

Interested in knowing how our luxury eCommerce agency does it? Reach out to us here.

Did the above guide help you start an online store jewelry store? Looking to now take the last step and launch your brand with a big bang?

Talk to us to get a consultation on how you can use your existing data alongside market trends to strategize for growth and sell jewelry online!

All you need to do is drop our luxury agency a message here.

But if you’re someone who likes to do it all themselves and would like us to guide your strategy, remember to subscribe to our blog to get more insights on how to start an online jewelry store.

That’s because, in our next post, we’re disclosing all the important growth strategies that an online jewelry business needs to use to sell more online!