Success Tips for Selling Jewelry via Shops, Shows, and Online

[Note from Rena: Selling jewelry is as individual an endeavor as the artist who creates it. The method that works best for you depends on your personality, the customers you target, the style of your work, and the amount of time you put into it. Amelia Thatcher has interviewed a number of jewelry artists to write this great article outlining success tips for different ways of selling your jewelry.]

Candi Fleming has been making jewelry for years, ever since her high school friends in Orlando, Florida bought one-strand beaded necklaces from her for a dollar.

Those necklaces eventually became more complicated in design and made their way to a friend of a friend's coffee shop, and later a flea market, for sale.

Now, she wants to know how to make some real money selling jewelry.

Consignment stores such as Not Too Shabby, situated in New Hope, Pennsylvania, are one of the many venues looking for items from artists such as Fleming.

"Don't come on a weekend," advises Not Too Shabby's owner, Rhea Rawley, who meets with people showing off their handmade wares. "Find out the store's busiest times and avoid them."

Storeowners say that newbies can "break into" selling jewelry by starting with local consignment stores, such as Rawley's; art galleries, and flea markets. By doing this, they say, it is easier for them to judge the market. Artists attempting to make a profit can figure out where their jewelry strengths lie, what customers like best, and how well individual designs sell.

Mary Duitsman, owner of Cloverleaf Creations in Mackinaw, Illinois, advises approaching stores in the most professional manner possible. She even started her company in order to do better business with retail stores.

"It is really, really helpful to have yourself established as a genuine business entity," she wrote on the online jewelry forum hosted by Bead & Button magazine. "This lends a lot of credibility to your sales pitch, and makes the store owners more comfortable working with you."

For jewelry artists who don't want to take such a huge, income-taxed step into the business world, the rest of Duitsman's process is plenty helpful:

- Write a letter introducing yourself and the types of jewelry you make.

- Describe recent and best work, and stress that more is or will be available.

- Include pictures of your work.

- Note that you know how busy the store must be and that you'd love to have a meeting in person.

-Tell that you will call within a week, and then do call within a week.

"Follow-up is important," Duitsman adds. "Get to know your client's needs and you can be ready to supply them with pieces they can easily sell."

Walter Hazzard, owner of the Topeo Gallery in New Hope, acknowledges that stores selling the same types of things always want different things.

"Every store is different as far as what sells best," he said. "We sell beautiful things. That's our criteria."

All stores, however, look for excellent quality and pictures of the work with prices (mailed or e-mailed) before considering purchase and display. Most stores will take a cut of the profit, which will be anywhere from ten to thirty percent. Wholesale purchases by stores are completely different; stores will buy a large quantity of merchandise at a low price, then at least double it for retail sale. This can compromise a fair price for the artist.

One of those artists, Jaki Mathews of Cheltenham, Pennsylvania, is a bead veteran of six years and dismisses the shopkeepers altogether. "I don't deal with them because they want things on consignment," she said. "I'd rather sell my merchandise myself unless a shop owner makes a wholesale purchase. Most don't want to."

Mathews has had more luck selling jewelry at craft shows.

"I started in the business because I saw a bracelet I loved and I simply copied it and it took off from there," she said.

Buyers at craft shows love to know the origins of a piece of jewelry. Mathews says that knowing a lot about what you are selling makes you a better salesperson. Her knowledge of the gemstones used in her work helps with selling jewelry quickly off the shelf.

"Buy top quality items (raw materials) to create with," Mathews advises. "It is worth it, if you are talented, to pay more for items. People will compensate you for it. Expensive looking items bring top dollar."

Craft shows are as widely diversified as stores. Peggy Woods, a frequent seller at shows, says that most of them require slides and photos of work to be sent in to the directors first. But for juried shows, only jewelry measured in karats and carats generally make the cut.

"The craft shows that sell high ticket items are juried and a crafter such as myself does not qualify to participate in those," said Woods, who sells her wares at shows near her home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She tries to keep her merchandise priced between $7.50 and $50.00, "so there is something for everyone."

Other alternatives for selling jewelry are music festivals and flea markets.

"Show fees can be quite inexpensive; festivals usually only require that your items are handmade," says Amy Schneider, owner of Amy's ArtWear in Wautoma, Wisconsin. "The only drawback is that you are subject to the whim of the weather... At my regular festivals I've built up a 'fan base' of repeat customers."

Fleming sold her work at a local flea market for two years. "Many people were appreciative of the work and skill that went into the pieces," she said. "One little design made a great profit for me!" Fleming noted the downside of flea markets as being the buyers themselves.

"Flea markets are hard for selling jewelry because the patrons want a deal," she added. "They want to haggle and reduce the price to nothing."

Other hagglers reside online, in eBay, the fastest growing - and largest - marketplace in the virtual world. Beaders are split over eBay's usefulness for selling jewelry. Some say the fees eat them alive and sales are poor; others say the unsuccessful simply don't know how the game works.

Author Cheryl Coccaro of Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts knows the 'key to eBay,' having written a book on the subject entitled Easy Internet Selling.

"Using the proper title for your listing, for example, is one of the keys to a successful auction," she writes. Her example of this is a rose quartz bracelet, and titling it "Bracelet 8 Inches Handmade" versus "Rose Quartz Gemstone Bracelet Sterling 8" Designer."

"Now the difference is that you are telling exactly about the bracelet," Coccaro wrote.

Other jewelry artists aren't buying Coccaro's advice. "I have checked the hand-crafted items on eBay and do not feel that people are paid enough for their work," said Woods.

"I agree... eBay is a complete waste of good hard earned money," added Linda Brown of Norfolk, England, owner of the online store Looking Glass Gallery. "I have put several pieces of my jewelry on there recently and was very disappointed with the number of hits and no sales! I get more hits on my website."

Another venue for selling jewelry online is through a personal website. Suzie Wilburn is the owner of Jade's Jewelry Box, an online store which branched out from Wilburn's success in storefront selling.

"I actually only started my site so that I could use it more as a virtual business card, to show the quality of my work to people who do not live near our store," Wilburn said.

Her jewelry ventures began after becoming a digital photographer for Multistone International, a company in Strasburg, Virginia specializing in supplies for the lapidary arts. Now three years later, Wilburn is its vice president. As for her in-store jewelry sales? "Lately it has been impossible to keep up with the demand."

There are as many ways of pricing jewelry as there are markets to sell it in. EBay starting prices are generally low, while retail prices are high and wholesale prices are rock bottom. Online, flea market, and craft show proprietors are basically on their own, and most sellers can't quite figure out how a good profit is calculated.

For that purpose, Schneider, with her experience with her online store and music festival selling, came up with a basic formula.

She multiplies the number of hours the item took to make by how much her time is worth, and adds the cost of materials. This formula isn't set in stone, especially when it comes to quick and easy items like earrings, or labor-intensive beadweaving projects.

Schneider noted that some people sell more when they drop their prices to let their customers think they're getting a good deal, but that others raise their prices and sell more because in that case the customers think the items are of better quality.

"It is up to you to know your costs and your market," she said.

The general jeweler's consensus says this: up the price for galleries, drop the price for consignment, know how much a store will charge for items before letting them make a wholesale purchase (as not to get ripped off), and don't try to make too much of a profit off of friends and family.

It only takes one visit to places like a bead store or the Bead & Button online forum to realize that the beading world is a friendly, encouraging place. It only takes determination and some talent to make it in the beading market.

Consignment stores:

- Call ahead to make an appointment at the store's least busy time
- Have jewelry with prices ready to show off

Retail stores:

- Send a letter detailing you, your ambitions, and your work, including pictures
- Promise to call within a week
- Have jewelry with prices ready to show off
- Do not be afraid to negotiate a price cut with the store owner
- When emailing either a consignment or retail store, make sure to include pictures and prices of the jewelry. Pictures that are included as attachments may have to be sent in a second email, after the storeowner acknowledges you

Craft Shows:

- Find out the deadline for sending in slides and pictures of work, and make sure they will arrive at the correct address on time
- Find out the "class" and costs of the competition, and price your own items accordingly

Flea markets:

- The day starts very early at a flea market, and a table costs about $15. Sellers must be set up at about 6 AM
- Expect to haggle with buyers

eBay:

- Go to eBay's website and follow the instructions to become a seller there. You must be at least eighteen years old and have a credit card to get a screen name.

Online:

- Websites are available on free servers, such as Yahoo! Geocities, Angelfire, and Lycos. They can also be purchased for about $30 a year and professionally designed to your specifications.

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