Archive for » April, 2010 «

Thursday, April 29th, 2010 | Author: admin

Keeping the wholesale jewelry pieces you buy sparkling makes them more valuable in the eyes of your customers.  Everything from fingerprints, to skin oils, dust, and tarnish, blur the beauty of jewelry and keep it from shinning with a high quality appearance.

If you want to increase your sales and charge high prices, keep your jewelry clean.  The sparkles that clean jewelry produce are the reason why it is sold so successfully, so you, as a jewelry home business owner, must work to keep your pieces clean and free of tarnish.

You can even give added value to your customers by offering to clean their other jewelry pieces. This will help you create a good relationship with them because they will feel nurtured and you will establish yourself as an expert in the field.

Nevertheless, you have to be very careful when cleaning jewelry.  First, you must make sure the piece is in good condition, no lose stones or weak parts, and never use abrasives or bleach, which will damage the silver and the stones.  Discard toothpaste, scouring powder, baking soda, and creamy opaque jewelry cleaners.

When using a toothbrush, use a new one, and use it only to clean jewelry.

If you are thinking about seriously offering the jewelry cleaning service to your customers, you may want to be safe and make your own jewelry cleaner.

Here we give you a recipe that has worked wonders; you can use it for your business and even give it to your customers as an added value gift. Just print the recipe on a small card and include it in the shopping bag with every purchase:

Mix together:

-2 tablespoons of liquid hand soap

-1 cup of water

-½ a teaspoon of ammonia

Add a drop of food coloring if you want to make it look like a brand cleaner.  Store it in a clean glass jar, where it can last a year or more.  This cleaner can be used on gold, silver, and costume jewelry, but not on opal or other porous stones.

How to apply it:

-Soak the jewelry piece in the cleaner for a moment and rinse it with water.

-Pat dry it with a soft cloth.

If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.paradisojewelry.com as the original source).

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Tuesday, April 27th, 2010 | Author: admin

Just as it was for Melody Stuart.

Melody buys wholesale jewelry and sells it for a nifty profit. Although she had tried selling her pieces in every way imaginable, she had never considered a trunk show.

One day in January, she set out to visit stores that may accept her jewelry on consignment.  She gathered her best pieces, and in the company of her best friend Alyssa and her daughter Mary, began parading around town presenting her jewelry to all kinds of storeowners.  As the day advanced, she grew less optimistic; each store she visited was like enduring a job interview.

Towards the end of the day, when her energy was almost gone and she was feeling pretty down, they arrived to a secondhand clothing consignment store.  She immediately knew shoppers went there looking for a deal, so she understood this place was not the best option for her jewelry pieces.

As she decided to move to the next store, Alyssa insisted she shouldn’t let any chance go by, so she walked up to the counter and asked to speak to the owner.

A very enthusiastic mother and daughter, who fell in love with the jewelry at first sight, owned the store; however, they didn’t think it would sell in their shop at the prices Melody was asking for.

Melody thanked them and was about to leave when the daughter asked, “What are you doing Saturday?”  The store was having a Customer Appreciation Day with food, massages, makeovers, and a lot more, and they invited Melody to set up a table in front of the store to see what happened.  In this way, the women agreed to a trunk show.

Saturday came and it was a mutual success.  Melody sold jewelry pieces to some of their regular customers, and the beautiful table setting she designed attracted new customers to the store.

Every time she sold a piece, the customer had to go inside the store to pay, and Melody, and the storeowners, noticed many of them came out with purchased clothes too.

Melody took the opportunity to add new names to her mailing list, and she gave tons of business cards away.  Also, the store kept a commission of only 10% of her sales, which is very rare.

She was invited back with her trunk show during a popular street fair, and it worked even better.  Melody had lots of exposure and didn’t have to pay for a booth, so she made three times more than on her last trunk show, and the storeowners took their 10% commission in jewelry pieces.  Melody is now invited regularly to do trunk shows with them, and the earnings keep growing.

So, stay open to the opportunities out there.  As a business owner, you must think outside-the-jewelry-box.

If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.paradisojewelry.com as the original source).

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Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 | Author: admin

Your jewelry business could benefit greatly from a catalog.  It doesn’t have to be very elaborate, and by displaying your jewelry pieces in a catalog, you can get more sales than by just trying to explain what type of jewelry you sell.

You can give catalogs to your friends and family for them to show around, and you should always carry one with you just in case your jewelry business comes up in a conversation.

Additionally, if you throw jewelry parties, a catalog can help you sell more.  After the party, you can give your hostess two or three catalogs for her to show to the people that couldn’t attend, prompting additional sales.  You can ask for the catalogs back, to save on costs and to protect your ideas.

And, how do you make a catalog for your jewelry?

-Well, all you need is a digital camera, a good quality printer, and software that can print catalogs.  You can use Photoshop or any other photo-editing program to crop and edit your photos.

-Avoid taking close-ups that may appear blurry, prefer wider shots that show the pieces clearly and in detail.  Place each piece over a white surface or background because the flash from the camera will brighten up the picture and emphasize the jewelry when it hits the color white.

-Limit the use of props in the photos, because although they are very creative and enhance the image, a catalog has a lot of content, and the props may clutter the jewelry in the photos.

-After you have taken the photos, download them to your computer, and edit and crop them one by one to perfect the images.  Save your photos and move to the catalog.

-Get the catalog template, type all the information you want to share in it, for example, your contact information and the benefits of being hostess of a home jewelry party, transfer the photos, and organize them by collection, by color, by type of material, by category, or any other way that suits your and your customers’ needs best.

-Assign a catalog number to each jewelry piece and put it next to the photo along with a description and the price; this makes it easier for the customers to order.

-For each catalog number, create a file card that records that specific piece.  In this card, specify the piece’s cost, materials, any specifics, and the final price.

Once you have designed your catalog, print it in good quality paper.  Although it may not look like one of those big company shiny catalogs, if the photos were well taken and the colors are kept simple, your catalog will look very nice and original.

It will demand time and effort on your part to make your wholesale jewelry catalog, but it is worth it.  You will boost your sales and will look more professional.

If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.paradisojewelry.com as the original source).

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Tuesday, April 20th, 2010 | Author: admin

This is the way your next sale could start.

As it turns out, a blog is an excellent tool to sell jewelry online.  You can grab your readers’ interest in your pieces by blogging about how they were created, about interesting data regarding the materials used, about what’s unique in a specific jewelry piece, or about what it meant to one of your clients and personal stories they share with you.

The idea is to give your wholesale jewelry pieces a history and a meaning amid the ocean of options out there.  In a few blog posts, you can create an interesting story that adds value to your pieces and sets them apart.

Stories sell, they most definitely sell jewelry, and if they are told in episodes, each episode will bring more readers in.

Through a blog, you can build expectation around a new jewelry piece or collection you’ll be launching, you can make your readers desire your new pieces, and then disclose them.  Make a big deal out of the occasion and encourage your readers to comment.

Put an unobtrusive “buy now” button below the jewelry photo in your blog.  The majority of blog readers, besides wanting information, want to be entertained, and the more and better you do that, the more often they will return, the more they will recommend you to others, and eventually they will buy.

Think of it this way: you gather a crowd by telling interesting and amusing stories about the jewelry pieces you sell.  Once a story is told, you have an interested group ready to buy, and the rest will tell their friends and family about this amusing jewelry seller.

People pay for what they love, no matter the price; thus, your mission is to make your readers fall in love with your jewelry pieces so that they feel the need to buy them before someone else does.

Once in a while, offer your readers funny stories and episodes about things you and they care about. Make it a personal conversation, pour your words, heart, and soul into it.  Maybe comment on something you saw on TV, another blog entry, or a newsletter.  Make your readers laugh, cry, and feel deeply.

Emotions are powerful; if you can make your readers feel, they will come back for more, they will share it, and they will want to be an active part of it.

If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.paradisojewelry.com as the original source).

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Monday, April 19th, 2010 | Author: admin

Are you for or against using live models to photograph the jewelry pieces that you sell?

Here are the pros and cons in regards to using live models:

The benefits
-A live model helps a lot in showing how the jewelry looks on a woman.  The client can see the length, the size, and the fit of each piece.

-On a live model, you can really see how the pieces work together as a set; you can’t do this without someone wearing them.

-The jewelry can be enhanced and complemented by the model’s wardrobe, making it even more appealing to the customer.

-It is a nice touch to offer pictures of the pieces both alone and modeled by a person.

The disadvantages
-If your customer does not look like the model, she may find it difficult to relate to the jewelry being worn by one, and this may work against you and your business.

-Close-up photos, besides showing the piece’s details, also show the marks and other imperfections on the skin, distracting the customer from the beauty of the jewelry.

-Some people will never think of wearing a jewelry piece that has been worn, no matter how briefly, by another person.  Since your stock is most probably limited, this may happen in your case.

-There is the risk of spreading skin infections and disease through ear wires and other pierced jewelry.  Thoroughly clean every piece after the model has worn them.

Most jewelry photos on renowned websites, catalogs and ads do not show live models wearing the pieces.  The occasional photos that use a model have these characteristics:

-If it is a close-up, the skin looks perfect, obviously retouched and edited with a computer program.

-Most photos are full-body shots that show the model having a fun or romantic experience while wearing the pieces.  They are selling a feeling, a lifestyle, and not so much the jewelry piece itself.

-In some cases, there is a beautiful model in the photo but she is not wearing the jewelry, she is just located next to it to imply that she likes and wears that piece or line.

However, since most of the big names in jewelry do not use models wearing their pieces on the photos, this means they sell more when the pieces are presented in other ways, so you should do the same when photographing your wholesale jewelry pieces.

If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.paradisojewelry.com as the original source).

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Wednesday, April 14th, 2010 | Author: admin

Read this article to find out what jewelry and accessories are the hot trends for the Fall of 2010 and what you should be buying from your jewelry wholesaler.

Bold statements and mixed media
Put your eye on big and bold pieces of jewelry.  These could be chunky, oversized, or opulent, but most definitely, this season, size matters.  This trend looks great when centered on mixed media, this is, the mixture of different materials when creating the big pieces.

Strong motifs
This season, encourage strong images like snakes, elephants, flowers, birds, and coins.  Strong motifs add a unique mood to a jewelry collection; so, find one that will appeal to your clients.  Look for pieces that highlight a motif by using it in different ways.

Metals
Plating finishes offer the right mood message.  Shiny surfaces convey a more traditional feeling, and burnish platings offer an antique and nostalgic mood.  Find pieces that mix these to offer your clients a really modern and adaptable look.

Fringe fun
Fringed necklaces, in chains, beads, and mixed media are hot today and will be hot in the Fall and Winter of 2010.

Earrings
The larger, the better.  If you want to go modern, go big, and then go bigger, and bigger… however, you will always find someone looking for small and medium sized earrings.  Large earrings in 2010 are lightweight and colorful.  Look for murano glass beaded jewelry, which offers a delightful finish and sells very well.

Colors
The colors of the season are deep greens and rich purples set in antique worn gold or gunmetal gray platings.  These colors can be accented with teal and fuchsia.

Jewelry sets
Look for trios of looks; every necklace should have a pair of earrings and a bracelet to match it.  Most women like to match their jewelry, and helping them complete their look will make their shopping experience much more enjoyable and efficient, and you will sell much more!

If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.paradisojewelry.com as the original source).

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Friday, April 09th, 2010 | Author: admin

Whether you are starting your own jewelry business from scratch, or are an experienced crafter, finding the best and most affordable supplies to work with can make a key difference in the overall success of your business.   It is not uncommon for many new jewelers starting out, to overextend themselves in the buying process of expensive jewelry supplies, and not have enough money left over to market their product effectively.  This reason, among many others, is a key example of why buying wholesale jewelry supplies, can make a large difference in your overall bottom line.

Naturally, one of the main reasons why many jewelers purchase mostly wholesale jewelry supplies is the cost factor.  Getting cheap, but yet high quality supplies, is crucial to your jewelry making efforts, especially if you are planning on reselling the merchandise back for a profit.  The simple fact is, that if you’re paying top dollar for jewelry supplies, then obviously you’re going to have to charge even more if you hope to make any kind of profit whatsoever. This can oftentimes cause your jewelry to be way overpriced, and thus harder to sell to customers.  This is why buying wholesale jewelry supplies can be so important.

Buying wholesale jewelry supplies helps your company to remain competitive.  Because you won’t have to pay top dollar for wholesale jewelry supplies, you will have more money to spend and build a bigger inventory, as well as put together a wider selection.  You will have more money to spend on other key facets of your business like marketing, and promotions.  If your company has a large selection of wholesale supplies available in stock, then you’ll have better chances of selling your finished jewelry items at a lower price, and thus be more competitive in the marketplace.

Because jewelry making has much more to do with just using the right gems and stones, having a large inventory can be very important to your finished product.  For example, when finishing a piece of jewelry, there is much more that goes into it than you would think.  For example, an item may need clasps, a variety of threading materials, ear wires, bead tips, just to name a few.  If your company does not have a large inventory of supplies to work with, you may have many items that are left unfinished for long periods of time, when they could be getting sold.

Another great reason for purchasing wholesale jewelry supplies is the ability to buy in bulk.  This is can be a great opportunity for any jewelry business starting out, because it can give you the opportunity to buy a lot of affordable supplies in the very beginning, giving you more to work with as your business grows down the line.  Buying in bulk can also be more convenient for many shop owners, simply because they have more products available to work with.  Although it may seem costlier at the very outset, the savings down the road will soon become very apparent to your bottom line.

If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.paradisojewelry.com as the original source).

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Tuesday, April 06th, 2010 | Author: admin

There is no question that jewelry can be one of the best gifts for your girlfriend, wife, or fiancée, on any occasion.  No matter how deep in the doghouse you may be, buying your significant other a nice piece of elegant jewelry will surely get you on the road to redemption in no time.  But when choosing jewelry for your significant other, it is important to remember, that sometimes any old piece of jewelry just won’t do.  Because women have keen built-in senses to sniff out fake diamonds and gems from miles away, it is important when purchasing your jewelry that you be precise.

Not only can jewelry shopping be confusing at times, it can also be downright expensive.  If you find yourself in the doghouse every month or so, buying your significant other costly pieces of jewelry, will only land you in the poor house just the same.  So how can men go about not only finding the highest quality jewelry that is always in season, but yet at an affordable price so as not to break the bank?  The answer to this question is actually quite easy: it is wholesale jewelry.

Not only can you find some of the trendiest and most unique styles on wholesale jewelry websites, but you will also find that their catalogues are much more reasonably priced than many standard jewelry outlets.  Because wholesale jewelers buy their merchandise directly from the manufacturer, this usually means a substantial savings being passed to you, the customer.  Wholesale jewelry is also found to be as fine, or even higher quality than most traditional jewelry stores, primarily because it is not processed by many different jewelry middleman outlets.  Because it comes straight from the manufacturer, it is not only cheaper, but far less tampered with.

Wholesale jewelry includes any specific kind of jewelry that is being sold at a wholesale rate.  Wholesale jewelry includes earrings, bracelets, necklaces, charms, brooches, hair ornaments, body jewelry, you name it.  It also includes many items containing sterling silver, turquoise and men’s jewelry accessories.  Just because wholesale jewelry may be cheaper, this does not necessarily mean it is not made from the finest quality diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, pearls and any other precious stones in the jewelry marketplace.  Oftentimes, not only is the quality of wholesale jewelry just as good as traditional jewelry outlets, but it usually has a larger selection and variety as well.

The whole idea behind jewelry wholesalers is to provide the consumer, or retail jewelry outlet, with high quality jewelry at a fraction of the price.  Oftentimes retail jewelry outlets will buy wholesale jewelry merchandise at a wholesale rate, then turn around and sell it back to their customers for a profit.  However, even though some wholesalers demand that purchasers order their product in bulk, many do not, and offer significant savings to the casual jewelry shopper.  Next Christmas, or Valentines Day, when you plan on getting your special someone something nice and affordable, why not give wholesale jewelry a try.  She’ll automatically think you’re a jewelry connoisseur, and you’ll be on your way out of the doghouse permanently.

If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.paradisojewelry.com as the original source).

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