The following article was submitted to The Star's Citizen Blog as part of the public relation efforts to promote Handmade-Jewelry-Club. Click here to go the the article or simply just read the article below.
People often wonder how to get started selling their jewelry online, so I thought I'd jot down a few tips. These are just my personal recommendations from my experience of running an online Handmade-Jewelry-Club and participations on other marketplaces.
I've found the web is the most conducive venue for young brands as it is virtually zero cost in terms of barrier to entry, overheads are exceedingly low and there are some excellent marketplaces which are themselves already established thus guaranteeing a certain level of traffic.
As promoting your creations online through your own website can be very time consuming. Instead of starting your own website straight away, I would recommend you start with some craft related marketplaces. Etsy could be a good place for you if you are new and testing out as it is "a place to buy and sell all things handmade"it really is a great deal because all your products get put into their catalog so people can search and find them. Etsy is charging relatively reasonable insertion fee as compared some other marketplaces. There are also free venue for posting your creations for sale or for sharing such as Handmade-Jewelry-Club.
More marketplace websites:
In one of my interviews with Malaysian Handmade Jewelry Artists – Sheela Goh who is on her way building her brand internationally, she has given the following advice: “I'm sure you've all heard this before but it's true - be unique. Create something different, differently you. Be patient. Rome wasn't built in a day and despite what you hear about so and so being discovered and becoming a millionaire in 2 months, real life doesn't work that way. Be patient and work really hard, work really smart to carve your own design identity and promote, promote, promote. Another very important thing to remember - don't overstock on the gems. It's a natural addiction for all jewellery designers. We hoard more than we use which makes for lovely personal drooling but does nothing in helping to pay bills :) so buy what you need, don't buy more until you've used up what you have on hand. That's an adage I'm still trying to come to terms with.”
Hope you are able to see some lights on where to start. Good luck!
Regards
Jane Chew
Community Chief Editor
