Retail advice / help needed please

[Nick martin]

Hello all,

I'm after a bit of advice regarding selling my jewellery, but in a high street retail environment.

At present my websites not setup to sell online, and I'm not interested in 'trying' to sell via Etsy, or NOTHS.

No offence to anyone using those avenues for selling their creations, it's just jot for me. Mainly because I literally don't have the time to turn around new pieces quickly enough due to the jewellery side of things not being my main occupation.

Currently selling pieces via word of mouth, and via my modest Facebook page which I use for publicity. However my other half suggested putting my jewellery into a few local shops. These shops are best described as very nice independent clothes / boutique shops and I reckon they would be a good match for me.

I've no qualms about pitching myself to the retailers etc, but I'd like advice on the following points if anyone's got any experience in such matters?

1. If I had for instance £2000 worth of completed stock, do I ask the retailer to buy it all up front from me and then feel free to add their own level of markup on?

2. Alternatively do I let them have my stock, keep an up-to-date inventory, and then let them pay me on a 'sale per item' basis?

3. Or do I setup some kind of rrp / trade price / commission deal?

Basically I'm asking if any of you established guys have a similar setup, and if you don't mind me asking, how do you personally go about it all please? I am of course aware that everything needs hall marking for legal reasons.

Many thanks,

Nick

[caroleallen]

I think it's very difficult to sell jewellery if you're not able to put your heart and soul into it. Making jewellery as a hobby will always be just that no matter how good your work is. It usually takes years of slogging away at it before you make a name for yourself and people seek you out.

It's unlikely that a boutique owner will want to invest £2,000 in buying jewellery. The best you can hope for is that they take your work on a sale or return basis. They won't have a clue though about looking after your jewellery, so you'll have to visit regularly to clean your stuff and make sure it's secure.

I think you'd do better approaching galleries. My experience of galleries though is that sales have taken a bit of a dip in recent years. I think this is mainly due to people buying from places like NOTHS or direct from the seller.

I can't speak for Etsy but many people do really well on NOTHS - in fact there are several (some of whom are jewellers) who literally make millions.

My best advice would be to set your website up as a selling site.

[Dennis]

Carole has given you lots of good advice, Nick.

I would only say beware of sale or return. As a seller to a shop or a gallery, you are very low in the pecking order and won't be treated with the same courtesy as would a buying customer.

What is more you might well have to nag the owners to pay you for pieces sold and eventually have the rest returned in poor condition. The worst case scenario is that you might find the shop closed and a warning notice in the window from the receivers. Dennis.

[pearlescence]

Also agree that it is tricky. There has to be a good reason why the shop will stock your items rather than routine bought in stock and it can be fraught with problems. I have a few pieces of specific stuff in a local very good men's shop and the owner is the man always there. Keeping track of stock, who is insuring it, what happens if it gets stolen, lost, broken, returned. Since this is more of an ongoing experiment than a big selling strategy I'm not over-fussed about how it goes.
You'd probably be better to turn your website into a shop and sell from there? But first decide whether you want to sell ready-made or use the website to attract commission work and go from there.

[Nick martin]

Thanks everyone,

I feel you've all given me some great advice there, and have even made me think about a couple of points I'd not yet considered.

Shops going bust, or nagging them for payment once an item is sold is going to be a potential headache. Also keeping track of stock and visiting an outlet in order to check on the condition of pieces is not ideal, and to be honest I'd not have the time to do that kind of thing.

Carole: I completely take on board your point about the time invested into a jewellery business equates to the success you get out of it. In my case, my heart and soul is definately in it and theres no doubt about it, however as I dont have a dedicated sales outlet at present then my earnings arent sufficient or secure enough for me to quit my career and therefore invest more time towards the jewellery.

Guess the best step for my situation is to revamp my website, and set it up for online selling so I can guage how it all goes.

Thanks again everyone, your advice is much appreciated as always.

Nick

[enigma]

Just looked at your website Nick and you have some fantastic designs, really like your style!
I would suggest getting the website sorted and then maybe advertising via google ads.

[camalidesign]

Hi Nick,

My comments would be, having a few different avenues of selling will probably be the best thing to start off with, becaue you need to get your name out there.

Just starting off selling online from your own web site is not as easy as some people seem to think. Me and my husband build web sites for a living (my second job!) and have built numerous shops that never come to much, becuase they are just not maintained or cared for by the owner, mostly due to lack of time and knowledge, and they very rarely want to pay someone else to do it for them (i.e. us!) so it gets them nowhere and gets closed down pretty soon. Having a web site to sell from requires a lot of work, it's not just a case of slapping it up there and wait for the orders to roll in! There is SOOOOO much competition out there, you need to stand out, or be "found" by customers somehow, before they will even come to your web site, let alone buy anything.

A lot of people start out doing a few events to spread the word, get lots of business cards out there and network with people to find out where is good to go, what shops/galleries to try for, which ones not to etc. It is difficult to find good ones, try for some juried events if you can find some relatively local to you, avoid craft markets/events because although they used to be quite good on occasion, they have gone downhill completely in the last 5-8 years. People are not looking to spend in excess of £100 or even £50 at most of them, so you end up not selling much and that is very demoralising.

Approach a couple of well chosen galleries or specialised shops and see if they will take your work on a sale or return basis, but try to keep them local to you, so that you can "look after them" as Carole said. Start small and make sure they work, you get on well with the owners and that they pay you on time, look after your stock etc. Try to pick shops/galleries where people actually go specifically to buy jewellery, I am not sure a clothes shop is the right place, because you are "just" an accessory there, not the star of the show, if that makes sense! :) Also, a lot of galleries and shop prefer to stock you if you have collections to provide, it makes it much easier for them to display and create impact than various one off pieces, but this does depend on the kind of gallery they are. I have both, some who prefer to have 1 or 2 collections, and I also have one that only want my one off pieces, it's just the kind of shop they are. You, of course need to find the latter ones.

Sometimes quality organised ladies nights and charity events (but it needs to be posh ones, not the one at the local coffee morning!) can be very good, and they would give you the opportunity to get your cards out there too.

I think generally also it is not a bad thing being a bloke selling to ladies, and you sound pretty confident, so you should have an advantage in selling face to face. :) I'm not being sexist, but I have seen it numerous times, ladies get flattered being helped by a guy choosing a piece and seem to quite happily part with their money!! :)

Finally, is there a quality arts collective near you perhaps? Sometimes they can be good, you may need to help out but could possibly do that on the odd weekend rather than in the week, when I assume you have your other job.

So, sort your web site out, which by the way already looks pretty good, with a shopping facility, a good contact form for taking commission enquiries and give as much information as you can about what you can do for the customer, outline the process of having a piece commissioned etc. Then, make sure you have decent business cards/postcard or any other relevant marketing materials. I would suggest doing all of that first, so that you can point people to your web site and leave materials for them to peruse. Having a half baked site and home made cut up cards doesn't give a quality feel to go with your jewellery, not that I am suggesting that you would! Cherry pick a few shops, don't go to the one you really, really want first, pick another one for practise. Your work is lovely, so I'm sure you will find a good one that is willing to take your stock. Have a look at The Indie Retail Academy web site, it's a UK site that advices on how to successfully approach shops.

Sorry, I ramble on, I'm sure I've missed stuff too, but this is a subject that I think everyone struggles with until we find our niche or nichES, because I think there are very few out there who really have ONE single way of selilng their work, correct me if I'm wrong, but I certainly don't! Although I am working on it and slowly getting there...

Carin

[Patstone]

I have had a website for about four years and not advertised other than handing out about three thousand business cards and sold one item from it. Not tried any sort of advertising, but its a hobby, and we do a couple of craft fairs a month which I enjoy as most people that have stands are friends. Its quite nice to have previous customers visiting us too, sometimes to buy.

[Goldsmith]

Hi Nick, a lot of good advice given already. Although I did not sell jewellery, I did try sale or return only once and this was with a well known and named shop in Mayfair. After I had completed a commission from this shop, I let them have two of my pieces on sale or return. They were gold and enamelled items. They had them in their saleroom for three months and when I enquired about whether there had been any interest I was told that my prices were too high and I should reduce them. The items I had left with them were on sale from me to them at prices of £3,000 and £7,500, and I had sold other similar items for these prices to other customers on commission. So I did a test, one of my old antique dealer customers went into this shop and showed interest in my goods on display and he asked for prices. This shop wanted £11,000 for my £3,000 piece and £27,500 for my £7,500 piece. So within a week I had taken my pieces away from this shop and never tried sale or return again.
I think if I was starting out at this time and making jewellery I would definitely go down the route of website sales.

James

James

[enigma]

Wow! that is some mark up! =:-O

[Nick martin]

Thats a whole lot of VERY interesting and relevant advice, and once again thankyou to all of you for contributing to, and answering my naive qestions!

Following this advice, I've already decided in my head to go down the website selling route even though I was reluctant to consider it beforehand, and before I gave this topic some ernest thought. But after reading everyones comments, it seems a logical first step.

I also like the idea of galleries, and posh events as opposed to the high street route. Although Im certainly not lacking in confidence, it would most definately be very demoralising if shops treat the jewellery items shabbily or returned them and the packaging in poor condition.

James - Your work is of the utmost quality and wouldnt look out of place in Aspreys or somewhere similar, so despite the hideous markup your shop was adding, it was ultimately probably worth that kind of money to the right buyer!

Thanks everyone, lots for me to think about and consider, brilliant!

Nick

[Gemsetterchris]

Wow! that is some mark up! =:-O

Mayfair! seriously it`s normal for retailers to whack on an automatic 200-300% automatically plus VAT.
I had similar with a local store, after finding out their average sale price & working backwards to find the price I had to play with (material & work),
It wasn`t worth bothering & left it to the big manufacturers.

Your better off selling yourself but it`s a tough market.

[pearlescence]

Just remember that a successful website takes a lot of time and effort. It isn't a matter of slapping up any old Wordpress and sitting back and seeing the money roll in like it was a few years ago. Today's web shoppers are sophisticated. You also need to comply with the law.

[Tabby66]

I agree with can be fantastic, generally I have found that Carin, especially when you are trying to get established!!

A lot of it is trial and error though, some places (be they shops/ galleries/ fairs), are just not the right place for you. Yet others are fantastic, I have also found that my work does well somewhere that a friends doesn't or vice-versa......in that sense it really is testing the marketplace with your product and not taking it personally if you don't do as well as you hoped.....learn from it and try some other avenue!!

In terms of where to start, I think that the suggestions of the steps to take initially are good advice. Good luck with it all Nick!!

[caroleallen]

Although it should be easier now to get established, with everyone shopping online, it's actually harder as there are so many people competing. I'd say the best way would be to find a niche that no-one else is doing. Generic run of the mill jewellery just won't get noticed, even if it's beautifully made. I'd also suggest that if there are any quality craft fairs being held in a local town over Christmas, that would be a good way to start. People are in town doing Christmas shopping anyway. Shows in out of the way places aren't so good.

[KarolinaMoon]

I am in a similar position to yourself in that making jewellery/silversmithing is not my main job. I have a part time admin job (3 days a week), and my jewellery is done during my two days not working in my 'other' job, weekends, and in the evenings....
My jewellery started off completely as a hobby. It has since progressed quite quickly to more of a small business. I tried etsy too...and didn't like it. I use facebook, my website and sell my work in 5 or 6 different galleries across the UK and Ireland. I find this works for me, and sell really quite well in most of the galleries....I couldn't do it any other way really. I find the galleries good, as it gives me more freedom to experiment with new pieces, and I decide what work goes into the galleries...with regards to going in to clean your jewellery, I have given gallery owners cleaning cloths, and they are fine with this. But with the galleries I live closer to, I can call in regaularly myself. Most do it on a sale or return basis. Goodluck with whatever way you decide to sell your work...what works for one person may not work for another, you will find the way that is best for you! :)




Thanks everyone,

I feel you've all given me some great advice there, and have even made me think about a couple of points I'd not yet considered.

Shops going bust, or nagging them for payment once an item is sold is going to be a potential headache. Also keeping track of stock and visiting an outlet in order to check on the condition of pieces is not ideal, and to be honest I'd not have the time to do that kind of thing.

Carole: I completely take on board your point about the time invested into a jewellery business equates to the success you get out of it. In my case, my heart and soul is definately in it and theres no doubt about it, however as I dont have a dedicated sales outlet at present then my earnings arent sufficient or secure enough for me to quit my career and therefore invest more time towards the jewellery.

Guess the best step for my situation is to revamp my website, and set it up for online selling so I can guage how it all goes.

Thanks again everyone, your advice is much appreciated as always.

Nick

[Nick martin]

More brilliant advice, thanks very much. This kind of info is invaluable to me.

Nick