Small Business Growth During Ecomonic Downturn

Your business WILL survive! And I have some data to support this statement…

We are not heading to financial armagedon. How do I know? Because people are still buying jewellery.

I tend to think of myself as a realist and like everyone else in the US and all over the world I feel some anxiety about the state of our world economy and disdain for those responsible. But I temper this feeling with an optimistic outlook. With the right strategy your business can come out of this stronger.

IS MY BUSINESS DOOMED BECAUSE OF THE ECONOMIC DOWNTURN?

Not if you make some smart business decisions. Conversely, if you make a lot of stupid decisions, yeah you could be done for a while! In the past year my wholesale business has declined 11%, and over the past four months it has dropped 23%. While this is a concern, to be honest, I am shocked it’s not worse. I mean, if I could not make my mortgage payments and had to choose between food and gas… wholesale silver jewelry is the last thing I would be buying. I have no idea why, Read the rest of this entry »

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Free Shipping!

 I have been listening closely to all my customers and have decided to make a major change to the way I do business.

From now on, as long as I can afford to do so, I will be offering $0 shipping on all orders over $59. Yes, just $59 for free shipping! Here is something else that I feel sets my business apart from some of your other choices. No pressure. This is not a one-time promotion. I realize times are tighter and value is important. I realize that for some of my customers $100 is even too much to spend and for others they prefer to make smaller more frequent orders. The decision to land at the $59 threshold was based directly on customer feedback. I intend to maintain this policy for the foreseable future. Details on the site.

Have a great week and as always feel free to call with any questions or for business advice.

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Tips To Improve Your Website Traffic & SEO

Over the past couple years I have seen the number of my customers who have websites increase from about 10% to close to 50%. It is a low-cost and time committment, effective way to expand your business. The problem is not building the website, because there are a lot of turn-key solutions out there. Rather getting people to notice your website out of the hundreds of millions out there. So in this newsletter I offer a few pointers, and a few things I offer (no charge of course!) to help you accomplish this. But first, if you have not been on the site since Tuesday, checkout the Wholesale Jewelry New Arrivals. I added a bunch of the best selling items that were out of stock… and some quantities are limited.

BACK LINKS

There are books written on Search Engine Optimization, a bit more than I can go into in an email that someone will actually want to read! But here is one HUGE thing you can do to improve your placement in google, yahoo and other search engines: GET LINKS BACK TO YOUR SITE.  You have probably heard about “link exchanging” - the arrangement of trading links (you put a link to my site on yours and I will reciprocate). Well, it does not work anymore. What google looks for is “relevance”. And a main way they gauge relevance is the number of “inbound” links (from another site TO your site) and the relevance of the originating site to your website. Example: having a link to your Read the rest of this entry »

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Wholesale Jewelry Buying - Best Practices & Tips

What should you get for re-sale? What products sell best? Which stones sell best? These questions can make the buying process frustrating and stressful.  Stunningly, when I look back over the past 14 years in this business, my investment is approaching $1 million; the only reason I mention, is that I realize I must have learned something of value along the way … and am happy to share..  Here are a few kernels of knowledge I have accumulated along the way in regards to designing and producing silver gemstone jewellry:

1) Diversify product types - offer a range of products, even if you only have $100 to invest initially. Instead of buying 15 pendants, get 5 rings, 5 pendants and 5 pairs of earrings. Get most rings in sizes 6,7, 8.

2) Go after bright colored, natural gemstones in your jewellery. I don’t care what season it is, the dull colored, brown stuff does not do well. Really light colored stones (such as s light peridot with no faceting or topaz) do not sell. I personally can’t stand cz - I think I tried once to sell with  no results.

3) Popular stones: based on my sales, the most popular stones are: Read the rest of this entry »

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Free Features For Wholesale Jewelry Customers

I hope you had a great week. We sent 3 kids to 3 new schools so it seems like a a long one! I often get asked by new and even long-time customers what we can do to help your business. Actually, we offer quite a bit but many folks don’t know about them and therefore do not utilize. So this week I want to quickly update you on some great tools we offer to help your business. … And be sure to checkout our New Arrivals which I added in the past 2-3 days… And to try out the features and services discussed below (and more), simply login to your account in the MyAccount tab of our website. Click here if you forgot your password and want it emailed to you. The admin area is available once immediately after your first order has been paid for.

I strongly believe a business should stick to its core competency; for me, that is online wholesale silver jewellery sales. We don’t drop ship, don’t catalog sales, don’t sell on consignment or any of those funky relationships which generally fail miserably. But within the context of web-sales to retailers we offer 2 great tools to help you with ‘pre-sales’ and ‘up-sales’:

1) Printable, customizable catalogs. The Custom Catalog feature allows you to create and print, on our own computer, a handsome catalog consisting of any of the items we have in stock. You choose which items to include, set the price and can also include your own logo. Its a great way to take Read the rest of this entry »

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New Arrivals!

I just added some beautiful new large sterling silver gemstone pendants. See them all in New Arrivals!

   

     

That is just a few. Also some new filigree rings. The silk bags were a favorite - I just re-added them after about a 2 year lapse. Less than $1 each and they areÂ
all unique and beautiful.

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New Wholesale Jewelry Arrivals

 

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I just added more than 60 new designs, including some awesome earrings, pendants and brass fusion pieces.  As usual all settings are sterling silver and gems are natural. The earrings are a great value, with many at just $5.99-$8.99. And the pendants are exquisite.

New Arrivals

We had a great family vacation in New Hampshire last week. I will send a pic on Friday. Hope all is well!

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60 New Wholesale Jewelry Designs In Stock!

I just added 60 stunning new designs! New Arrivals now available.

     

        

     

The new stuff includes mostly silver gemstone earrings and pendants. Many new Artisan designs with a very creative and unique silver and bass mix. Believe it or not fusing brass and silver is very difficult and you don’t see the metals mixed that often. But the look is very clean and nice. Also got some beautiful, simple pendants with large gems, that folks have been clamouring for

All the new items can bee seen on the new arrivals page.

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60+ New Wholesale Jewelry Designs In Stock

TONS of new stuff! Wholesale silver jewelry including rings, pendants, earrings.

 I also added about 5000 pairs of studs, 10 pairs per card. I have about 15 different stones including some faceted sets. The cabachon studs are just over $1/ pair and the faceted gem studs only $2. Great deals. These are among the best sellers I carry and most of my customers get a 3-4 time markup on them which makes them among the most profitable.
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TONS of New Wholesale Amber Jewelry In Stock

Tons of New Amber Jewellery in stock. I just re-stocked the site with some of the most popular pieces…

   

  

 

Here are the categories where you will find all our Amber Jewellery. To quickly see the newest items, go to our New Arrivals Page. Overall, the amber is probably our top seller on the site. And you may have heard me rant about it before - but the quality of our line is exquisite. All the amber is natural and mined in Poland where it is produced by artisans who work in a “cottage-industry” setting. 

   • Amber - Bracelets
   • Amber - Brooches
   • Amber - Charms
   • Amber - Earrings
   • Amber - Necklaces
   • Amber - Pendants
   • Amber - Rings

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Marketing Wholesale Jewelry In A Weak Economy

Let’s get the bad news out of the way. The economy sucks. There I said it!  Now the good news as it relates to your business. There is opportunity - and I will be very specific. Although I am a wholesaler and you are a retailer, our businesses are very similar in many ways. Even though I have been wholesaleing for 14 years, there is still plenty of market share for me to grab. Why such opportunity? Because compared to the Blake Brothers and Blue Ice’s of the world, my business is small potatoes.  While these larger companies may be experiencing losses during a recession, because they have maxed out every marketing resource, there is still room for little guys like us to grow and expand. You see, there are still many strategies that I have not yet employed, marketing channels I have not explored and customers who I have not reached yet. Some of this content may be a repeat, but the information is very relevant still so I thought I would recycle some of it.

See Our Best  Deals

Does your company have something unique to Read the rest of this entry »