New Designs
for Your Line of Jewelry

variety is the spice of life
that makes customers return

© by Cindy Cherrington; all rights reserved

It's a new year, time to add new designs or new items to your line of jewelry. Each year I make it a goal of mine to add at least one new item to my line. I may not carry that item forever; sometimes it just runs its course and needs to retire after a while, especially if it's a trendy item. But I always offer my customers something new to entice them to buy from me again and again, instead of buying from the guy next door.

After several years of making jewelry, I finally have a following of customers. Small as it may be, I have several customers who come back to me looking for new and different creations.

I wire wrap dichroic glass cabochons that I fire myself. Though each piece of glass is as different as the wire wrapping itself, I feel that is not enough to keep people coming back to me for all their jewelry needs. If I continually change or incorporate new ideas to my line of jewelry, then I offer more to my repeat customers and constant variety to new customers. After all, variety is the spice of life!

At the beginning of each new year I decide on at least one new item. I work on the idea and present it at the spring shows. I don't attend a lot of spring shows, but enough to have a good test market for the new creation. If it works, it stays and makes an appearance in the fall shows.

Sometimes the design needs to be tweaked or enhanced before the fall show. If it sells well during the fall shows, then it stays and runs as long as it sells. The customers during spring shows are more than happy to let me know what they like and don't like about the new addition and by the start of the fall shows, changes have been made and the enhanced design is ready to make a second appearance.

For example, in the beginning of 2006, I added a sterling silver adjustable ring to my line of jewelry. It's simple, quick to make, yet attractive. I bought the ring component and glued a small cab to the ring base. It was such a success in the spring when it was introduced that I expanded a little to include a ring component with a loop that I wired a cluster of beaded dangles to.

Not only did these sell like hot cakes, the cluster dangles made everyone smile and made great conversation starters. This year, I found a simple wire and bead ring sized to fit that I will offer this spring.

There are plenty of free ring instructions on the internet that I want to elaborate on and enhance to my own style and offer to my customer base. For the record, my sister introduced them to her office and everyone wanted one.

If I have a particularly creative year, by summer another new idea or two comes to mind. Sometimes it's stimulated by requests from the spring show customers. Other times it's brought on by a picture and how-to from one of the wonderful jewelry magazines.

Then it's developed and made ready for the fall. I would rather have tested the crowd's reaction before the fall market, but when I get the idea and really want to try it, I do everything in my power to get it exposed to as many people as possible. Waiting on an idea can be the difference of success or failure, repeat customers or looky-lou's. It can also mean being the first in your area, market or show that has this particular item.

New designs or a new "twist" on an old design is all about being a step ahead of the game. If the design is a good one, news will travel fast. You want to market it before others do. YOU want to be the one to offer it to your customers first to keep them coming back for more.

Foremost, you want to stimulate interest in YOUR jewelry so they will want to come back to YOU. Make it your goal this year to try something new to your line of jewelry and watch them return for more. Don't be surprised if they introduce their friends to YOUR jewelry!

Return to Home Jewelry Business Success Tips home page.