Pendants - Sell with a Chain or Separately?

by Joyce Goldsmith
(Bellmore, NY)

For 19 years I have been selling sterling silver jewelry. I always stock a lot of pendants and chains & sell them separately, with the selling point that you can "choose your own chain."

I wonder if I would make more sales if I put the pendants each on a chain.

If I continue as I have been, what is the BEST way to display the pendants? I have used so many different ways over the years.

Chain display is not a problem.

Thank you so much for your help!

Answer:

Displaying Pendants

© by Rena Klingenberg; all rights reserved
I've also tried all sorts of pendant, chain, and cord display combinations over the years!

In my experience it's best to display the pendants alone, off of chains or cords.

Otherwise people don't seem to see the piece as a "pendant". Visually, putting it on a chain or cord seems to turn it into an inseparable "necklace".

And if they don't like something about the chain or cord (color, length, clasp, type of links, or whatever), then they pass by the entire "necklace" they're seeing, without considering the pendant individually.

So in my experience, putting my pendants on chains reduces sales.

What I've found works best for me is to display the pendants separately from the chains or cords, in compartmented jewelry trays. Next to each pendant I have a small jewelry card stating the materials in the pendant and my contact info, with a small removable price sticker.

Inside the trays I organize the pendants by color, because many people shop for jewelry in colors that go with what's in their closet (or for their gift recipient's favorite color). Also, a large pendant display area needs to be visually organized in some way.

So I'll have a tray of green pendants, a tray of turquoise pendants, etc., and people simply gravitate to their preferred color, which automatically narrows their choices and makes shopping easier for them.

(If your pendants are all metal, with no color variations, try organizing them by size, price, theme, or some other method to simplify the selection process.)

I elevate the jewelry trays so they're not just flat on the tabletop. You can see my elevated pendant trays on the front table in this jewelry booth photo. (By the way, at the show where this photo was taken, I sold out of pendants each day of the show and had to make more during the show and each night after the show. It's been a very effective pendant display for me.)

Debbie Moyer uses a similar system for raising up her jewelry trays, and describes her invention for elevating jewelry tray displays.

Anyway, next to the pendant trays, I have a few standing displays holding assortments of chains and leather cords in various colors and lengths. Once people choose a pendant, they can move along to these chains and cords to select the one that looks best with their pendant, in their preferred length.

Of course, many customers say that they (or their gift recipient) already have a chain, and they just want the pendant. That's fine, and keeping the chains/cords visually separate helps them concentrate on the pendants.

Often, if I have space in my booth, I also set up a couple of elegant necklace busts, modeling some of my most eye-catching pendants mounted on whatever cord or chain makes the pendant look best, just to attract attention to my pendant selection.

Here are two more fabulous, easy-to-make pendant displays created by jewelry artists:

The Quickest Pendant Display

The Pendant Tree