Recently I was asked about the viability of selling Jewelry online. I didn't know the answer right a way. But after a little research I've discovered something interesting.

According to data from Framingham, Massachusetts-based research firm IDC, online jewelry sales will grow from $77 million (US$) in 1999 to over $1 billion in 2004 and outpace the growth of consumer e-commerce as a whole. (For the whole story: http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/3680.html)

Established brick-and-mortar jewelers that have begun selling directly over the Web, include Tiffany , the Zale chain and Kay Jewelers (a division of Sterling Jewelers). Among the online upstarts are Blue Nile, Denmans, Miadora, and luxury goods seller Ashford.com.

"Shipping small items that weigh only a few ounces results in nominal shipping costs and little need for warehouse space, increasing profit margins and dramatically reducing an online jeweler's cost of doing business," says Tod Francis, a general partner at Trinity Ventures, a founding investor in Blue Nile.

Selling jewelry online may be a very smart investment. What do you think?

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We have a customer who sells gold jewelry online at http://goldhaus.com - they've been online since 1996 and get quite a bit of traffic. Over the years, they've learned a lot about what works and what doesn't. For them, niche marketing has been very effective (ie. sticking with just gold jewelry). The biggest problem has been with fraud - the merchant has no real recourse if the credit card companies approve the card purchases and then later reverse the charges because they were fraudulent. For that reason, the average price of products on the site has come down substantially since the site's begining, in order to reduce their potential losses. Just something to keep in mind when selecting your inventory.

Simply addressing Denise's post on fraud.

It's a huge problem. I've worked with a leading internet marketing company for a couple of years now and here is what we do to try to prevent fraud.

1. Check the ip address on all orders. Make sure that it resolves to the same country that the customer gave on the order form.

2. Call every order. Call the customer up. Thank them for their order. In our case it works nicely because they need to access their product via download - so we can make sure that they didn't have any problems accessing the file.

If the number is disconnected, or the person you call has no clue about the order - or the ip is from Indonesia and the order says Kansas - you can void the order before it actually gets processed. If you don't catch it that quickly you can at least refund the order before the real owner of the credit card does a chargeback which hurts your merchant account.

3. In addition to this, you can become pretty proficient at identifying fraud orders. Sometimes they are just blatant -- the email address they list is something like, "joecheat@youwerehad.com". Or there may be typos that raise red flags. Keep a close eye on email addresses from free services like yahoo or hotmail. Often these are fraud - certainly not always, but we've found that a lot are.

These methods aren't fool proof - but if you stay on top of your orders, they can really help you to avoid some serious losses.

As for jewelry sales online --
the stats you came up with sure look promising :)

Good luck!
Lori

Jeweler reputation or name recognition sounds like the key factor to on-line success. We have gotten some of that on our mineral, gem and jewelry show circuit as we return to cities we were at last year.
The face to face contact and customer interaction in selecting or designing a piece gives us and the customer the most pleasure. Our on-line communication with customers from shows has been by e-mail. We have only had one unresolvable credit card losses so far from our shows. It was helpful to read the posts on fraudulent card use that you don't find until goods are shipped. That sounds like a plus for using Pay-Pal.

Interesting that I didn't see this thread last year wynn... did you take this any further?

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I've thought about using the information more productively, but my business keeps me hopping. Not to mention all the additional fun stuff I do, like moding ;)

There's a couple of local jewelry businesses that could use A LOT of help, specially with their online presence. They haven't made it to the top of the list yet, but they are getting closer.

How about you Fathom? Jumping on the Jewelry wagon? ;)

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For some reason I do not get notified for all posts - like this one.

Current developments.

1. Heavily into cultured pearls

2. Acquired a China manufacturer/exporter

3. Set up a retail outlet in North Carolina (storefront and virtual presence)

4. Currently setting up one in Saskatchewan, Canada (storefront and virtual presence)

5. Developing direct suppliers from French Polynesia, Australia, and New Zealand

6. Currently doing GIA gradulates course as staff as well.

7. Developed relations with gold and semi-precious jewelers

8. My firm (Spherica) primary role is obvious

Should jewelers wishing to partner and share their knowledge in their area of expertise @ http://www.jewelry-pearls.com to expand this informative resource I would be more than happy to assist in developing their online exposure.

Good solid informative content (similar to what I add here [in my area of expertise]) at about 60 posts per month (2 per day) and/or answering consumers questions in lieu of SEO fees.

Additionally private forums are included - if they wish direct exclusive assistance - "post away!"

Note: maximum available openings 2 per industry segment.

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