Reselling Jewelry Secrets: How to Be a Successful Jewelry Reseller! - Episode #40

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Jewelry Resellers Podcast, your go-to source for all things shiny, sparkly

[00:00:06] and of course profitable. I'm your host Desiree and I'll be your guide on this dazzling

[00:00:11] journey through the world of reselling jewelry. We'll be diving deep into the art and science

[00:00:17] of reselling, uncovering valuable tips, insider secrets, and sharing stories from successful

[00:00:24] jewelry resellers. We'll explore market trends, industry news and even discuss how to find

[00:00:31] those hidden gems just waiting to be discovered in thrift stores, estate sales, and beyond.

[00:00:36] So, if you're dreaming of turning your hobby into a hustle or if you're a seasoned pro looking

[00:00:43] to stay at the top of your jewelry reselling game, join me each week for insights, stories

[00:00:49] and more on the Jewelry Resellers Podcast.

[00:00:52] Welcome to another episode of the Jewelry Resellers Podcast. I am really looking forward

[00:01:02] to this episode because I got a question about this and I thought about it and I decided

[00:01:10] to really sit down and pinpoint what exactly makes a successful jewelry reseller. So,

[00:01:22] if this is one of your first times listening to this podcast, I want to say hello and welcome.

[00:01:29] My name is Desiree and I am the host of the Jewelry Resellers Podcast. I have been a full

[00:01:34] time jewelry reseller for going on for years now and I am still learning, I am still growing.

[00:01:40] But I created this podcast because I wanted to help other people who are doing the same

[00:01:45] thing. And my intention with this podcast is to really provide information and resources

[00:01:52] for you to really grow and have a successful jewelry reselling business. Now, I have made

[00:02:00] a lot of mistakes but I have also learned a lot along the way. And that is what I am going

[00:02:05] to talk about today. I am really going to break down what I believe it takes to be successful

[00:02:14] at this whole jewelry reselling thing. Now, there are a lot of ways you can do this and

[00:02:18] I have talked about that in previous episodes. But today we are really just going to filter

[00:02:24] things down to the basics. Okay? And before we get started, you know I always like to remind

[00:02:30] you to join our weekly newsletter because that is where I make announcements. Sometimes

[00:02:36] I offer discounts on some products and things that are upcoming. And when you sign up

[00:02:43] for the newsletter, I will actually send you a list of the 20 best selling vintage jewelry

[00:02:52] brands that I believe all resellers should know. And if you are just getting started

[00:02:57] doing this, I believe that that list is going to really help you because it's going

[00:03:02] to give you a starting point without being overwhelming. And you can learn some of the

[00:03:08] brands that are on that list and it will really give you some information. And like I said,

[00:03:15] a really good starting point. So when you are beginning this journey or even if you've

[00:03:20] been doing it for a while, you just start increasing your knowledge in a very, like

[00:03:25] I said, simple and non-overwhelming way. Alright, so let's get into today's topic which

[00:03:32] is becoming a successful jewelry reseller. You know what is that involved? What does it

[00:03:37] take? And I really had to think about this. I've been thinking about this for probably

[00:03:46] going on two weeks because someone had asked me, you know how do I really make this work?

[00:03:51] I really love jewelry and I want to do this but I feel like sometimes I just don't know

[00:03:57] enough or I'm learning things, but they're not necessarily helping me make more sales

[00:04:03] right away. Okay, so let's break this down. And I have how many points? I have 10 points

[00:04:11] here that I want to share with you. And even if you've been doing this for a while,

[00:04:19] you know that as you grow and expand and learn, being a jewelry reseller, your journey

[00:04:25] will have all kinds of twists and turns. So it's really about being able to adapt

[00:04:32] as things change, as it relates to reselling and as it relates to jewelry, especially vintage

[00:04:38] jewelry for those of us who really like to focus on that. But it's really about making

[00:04:47] the decision to keep growing and to keep learning. Okay, so becoming a successful jewelry

[00:04:54] reseller really involves more than just having a passion for jewelry. That's something

[00:04:58] I learned early on. You know it requires strategy, it requires knowledge and it requires

[00:05:06] a very, I guess I'll say keen eye for details. And we're going to talk about some of these

[00:05:14] I guess I can call them insider secrets, but they're not really secrets. You know,

[00:05:19] and these are some things that definitely can help you thrive in this competitive jewelry

[00:05:25] reselling market. Alright, so number one is probably not going to come as any surprise,

[00:05:32] but you need to have a deep knowledge of jewelry. Now I know a lot of us love jewelry.

[00:05:38] We either grew up looking at or appreciating jewelry, but that doesn't necessarily equate

[00:05:46] to having knowledge about jewelry. And this is where you really like this is what I believe

[00:05:53] is the thing that's going to help you win because there's a lot of people out there who

[00:05:57] like jewelry, but they don't necessarily know a lot about it. They just know, oh, this

[00:06:04] is pretty. I like vintage jewelry. This is something that I like to collect or whatever the case

[00:06:12] may be. Alright, so you really want to educate yourself and this is where I believe niching

[00:06:18] down is going to be helpful because nobody can be an expert in every type of jewelry that exists.

[00:06:26] There's there's just no way. And the other thing is is like we talked about earlier, you will

[00:06:32] be very overwhelmed if you're trying to learn everything and anything. So specializing in a certain

[00:06:39] type of jewelry is really going to help you and it's really going to make you have that much

[00:06:45] more of an edge, that much more of an advantage for when you're outsourcing because I mean every

[00:06:55] week it seems like someone's telling me it's just getting harder and harder to find the jewelry

[00:07:01] pieces that they like to sell. And maybe in some ways yes, I agree with that but I also know

[00:07:09] that there's people who've been doing this longer than me who have more knowledge than me

[00:07:14] and they have a different set of challenges. It's not that they can't find it but maybe they just

[00:07:20] can't find it in the quantity that they want or maybe they can't find it in the time frame that

[00:07:25] they want. Okay so you really want to take the time to educate yourself, understand the different

[00:07:31] types of jewelry and we talk about that on this podcast all the time, you know from vintage to antique

[00:07:39] to contemporary designer pieces, knowledge about the materials, the gemstones, the hallmark signs

[00:07:46] and markings and so forth. This kind of information is crucial for you if you really want to make

[00:07:53] this work. Okay now the other thing I want you to think about is learning how to

[00:08:00] authenticate jewelry pieces. Now I'm not saying you have to be like a jewelry appraiser or anything

[00:08:08] but the more you do this you'll start to recognize things that could be fake or counterfeit.

[00:08:14] All right and if you if you do invest in learning authentication skills or learning how to authenticate

[00:08:21] jewelry again that's only going to help you. That's only going to put you that much further ahead.

[00:08:28] All right so you really want to learn how to distinguish genuine pieces from counterfeits and

[00:08:32] that again comes down to really niching down about a particular type of jewelry. Now you also

[00:08:38] want to study like we said certain markings, manufacturing techniques and the quality of the

[00:08:46] piece and this could be the quality of the gemstones, the quality of the construction

[00:08:51] and the quality of the materials used to make those particular pieces. Okay so having all this

[00:08:59] knowledge I think is the most important thing to become a successful jewelry reseller but again you

[00:09:05] don't have to know everything about everything as it relates to jewelry. I recommend you really

[00:09:11] figuring out what do you have access to and what do you enjoy studying because you will have

[00:09:20] to study and research this. You will there's just no way of getting around it even if you found

[00:09:25] some gorgeous pieces you know at a thrift store or maybe at a yard sale or whatever

[00:09:30] you may not know anything about those pieces and you'll have to do some research online

[00:09:35] to learn whatever it is you can so you can make sure that you're selling those pieces at the right

[00:09:40] price. Alright that brings me to point number two which is really developing effective sourcing

[00:09:49] strategies. Now this is another challenge when it comes to being a successful jewelry reseller

[00:09:55] because I think a lot of us because we are just learning this we don't necessarily know how to

[00:10:02] find the jewelry pieces that we want to sell and I've talked about this in previous episodes as

[00:10:10] well about how to source jewelry and how to identify jewelry but it really comes down to learning

[00:10:20] and expanding your sourcing for acquiring jewelry because you do not want to rely on just one

[00:10:28] source as it relates to your jewelry inventory. Alright you want to have diverse sources so there's

[00:10:35] different things you can explore again I've talked about these estate sales auctions thrift stores

[00:10:41] online marketplaces even private private I guess people who are selling their collections or whatever

[00:10:50] the case may be and learning how to build relationships with individuals looking to sell their jewelry

[00:10:59] you know that can be a really valuable source I know several jewelry resellers who do that you

[00:11:04] know they have relationships and connections and they network with people and that is one way

[00:11:09] that they find their inventory. Now as it relates to sourcing you also want to get comfortable

[00:11:16] with negotiating because we are in the business of selling and then reselling you can't be afraid

[00:11:25] to negotiate when you are out trying to buy jewelry to sell you really want to be comfortable

[00:11:34] saying hey would you be willing to give me a deal if I bought all of this or whatever it looks like

[00:11:42] because you want to make sure you secure the best possible prices

[00:11:46] because you want to make sure you can have the highest margin possible when reselling your jewelry.

[00:11:53] So don't be afraid to negotiate don't be afraid to ask for a deal or maybe a bundle discount

[00:11:59] or whatever because this is going to help you and not only that but it will it will teach you

[00:12:07] to really study and know your numbers because if you know exactly how much you want to make

[00:12:15] or if you have a certain income goal and we've talked about that as well then you will feel

[00:12:21] comfortable and confident negotiating because you say hey I have a certain target I want to hit

[00:12:28] as it relates to how much money I want to make or how quickly I want to make it. And so when you

[00:12:34] have that knowledge already in your head then you know right away okay this is my price this is

[00:12:42] how much I'm willing to pay or if I'm going to pay more then I have to really negotiate and figure

[00:12:49] out how I can make this work for me okay so effective sourcing strategies is definitely key.

[00:12:59] Okay let's talk about point number three and that is understanding and knowing your audience

[00:13:04] and knowing your buyer. Now it's taken me a long time to learn this and to figure it out but over

[00:13:12] the years I have really come to understand what my buyers are looking for so you want to target

[00:13:20] your market identification I guess. You want to know who your customers are you know in different

[00:13:26] demographics will be interested in different types of jewelry now when I say to niche down that

[00:13:31] doesn't mean you only have to focus on one particular brand or design of jewelry it could be a specific

[00:13:40] era or a specific type of jewelry right because I sell I mean I like to sell vintage jewelry

[00:13:47] but I can't always find it and sometimes I find modern jewelry pieces I find semi-precious gemstone

[00:13:53] jewelry and I know I have a lot of buyers who specifically love that type of jewelry so when

[00:14:01] you're outsourcing you probably will source several different types of jewelry at least I think

[00:14:06] that's the right way to approach it because you do have different types of people who are

[00:14:14] looking to buy the jewelry. You know when it also will help you too learning about how

[00:14:24] you're selling the jewelry because some types of jewelry are easier to sell on certain platforms

[00:14:29] or in certain marketplaces than others and so when you understand what your buyers want

[00:14:36] how they like to shop where they like to shop and what they prefer to pay this is going to help

[00:14:42] you really have the success that you want okay and again this takes time to develop it didn't happen

[00:14:49] for me overnight as a matter of fact I'm still learning these things and sometimes things change

[00:14:54] because I change as a reseller like I said I develop more knowledge or I'm able to access

[00:15:01] better inventory and so all of those will have an impact either directly or indirectly on your

[00:15:08] business and on your buyers as well. All right let's talk about engagement now this is something

[00:15:19] that I think a lot of people don't think about and that is engaging with your buyers through

[00:15:23] social media and email marketing. You want to really understand their preferences you want to

[00:15:29] get their feedback you want to really study their buying behavior so you can tailor your sales

[00:15:36] accordingly. So if you know well I'll share this example I know that I have a few customers who

[00:15:44] like specific types of jewelry when I'm selling in my live shows now right now I am really enjoying

[00:15:51] and really thriving in the live selling space and that is how I prefer to resell my jewelry.

[00:15:57] And so I know that those buyers love the auction format of a live sale they love

[00:16:05] to bid on pieces that they really are interested in or drawn to and so all of these things

[00:16:13] really help me present my jewelry in a way that they are going to be receptive to.

[00:16:19] All right now you don't have to do it the way I do it. You can do this on eBay you can do this on

[00:16:26] Pushmark or Etsy or wherever and you'll learn that those buyers have a preference in how they like

[00:16:37] to shop okay so again this takes time this takes some trial and error and sometimes when you

[00:16:45] when you do something it may not work consistently so you may want to have several different

[00:16:51] methods for engaging with your buyers and you may want to have several different types of

[00:16:57] ways that you can connect with them. Like I said earlier it might be on social media maybe on your

[00:17:02] Instagram page or on your YouTube channel or it could be direct email marketing you know maybe

[00:17:08] you send out weekly newsletters or I don't know anything okay so think about that too because if

[00:17:16] you want to have success doing this you really will have to take into consideration the way your

[00:17:23] buyers like to connect with you. Okay let's talk about point number four and that is online presence

[00:17:31] and branding now this is probably one of my favorite parts of doing this because I love social media

[00:17:38] and I get it not everybody has the same excitement and enthusiasm for social media as I do

[00:17:44] but I really want to encourage you to get comfortable being on social media and creating content

[00:17:53] for your jewelry reselling brand or your jewelry reselling business. Now you don't have to go so far

[00:18:00] as to have a professional website although I don't think that that would hurt you some of the most

[00:18:06] successful jewelry resellers I know do have their own websites in addition to selling on places

[00:18:13] like eBay, Poshmark and so forth but you don't have to do that and of course that is an additional

[00:18:20] expense and additional time management to maintain the website to update it to you know add your

[00:18:27] listings whatever you're going to do but at some point in this journey that may be something that

[00:18:33] you want you want to consider but in all in all regards you want to establish a professional

[00:18:40] online presence where your customers can view and purchase your jewelry. Now this could even be

[00:18:46] done on social media you don't have to have an independent standalone website I've seen some

[00:18:53] jewelry resellers sell on their Facebook page their Instagram page their

[00:18:57] YouTube channels okay so whatever you're comfortable with whatever you can manage on your own unless

[00:19:07] you have employees but I'm going to assume a lot of us are not quite at that stage just yet

[00:19:15] but you really want to learn how to use social media platforms to showcase your pieces and share

[00:19:19] your stories and really engage with your followers and potential buyers all right the other thing

[00:19:27] you want to think about is consistent branding now it'll take you some time to figure this out

[00:19:34] because not all of us really know right off the bat what we want our brand to be or how we want

[00:19:41] that to look or what we want to be known for okay so branding is not just the aesthetics of

[00:19:48] what you're doing you know it's not just your fonts and your website colors and that type of thing

[00:19:53] but it's also about what do you want to be known for and how do you want to position yourself

[00:20:00] as a business or as a public persona right so for me my branding is

[00:20:09] gosh you know I don't even know if I if I have a solid brand developed

[00:20:16] but I know I am a jewelry reseller and I also like to brand myself as someone who is an educator

[00:20:25] and a resource to help other jewelry resellers be successful and in that brand I also sell jewelry

[00:20:36] too because I am out here in the trenches with you all dealing with the same challenges

[00:20:42] and learning the same things and trying to make this work just like you

[00:20:49] now one thing you want to remember is to maintain consistent branding across all platforms

[00:20:57] and I I have seen this where sometimes people do something different on YouTube then they do

[00:21:03] on Instagram and maybe they do something different on Facebook but you want to be recognizable

[00:21:09] regardless of where a customer potentially might find you or might find your jewelry pieces

[00:21:15] so this could be using the same hashtags whenever you make a post it could be maybe having the

[00:21:21] same style of photos maybe having the same background or or having the same type of text

[00:21:28] on your content I mean it could be whatever you want it to be all right but just make sure

[00:21:33] it's consistent so that your brand is easily recognizable now the other thing you want to

[00:21:40] remember is that your brand should reflect the quality and style of the jewelry you sell as well

[00:21:46] okay so if you sell vintage pieces you want to make sure that you communicate that in your branding

[00:21:54] or you know whatever type of jewelry pieces you're selling all right so let's move on to point

[00:22:01] number five and that is photography and presentation now a lot of people get tripped up on photos

[00:22:09] you know some people think that you have to have really expensive cameras or

[00:22:14] that you have to have this whole big photography setup and then you know in time you probably will

[00:22:21] have that just because you will want to take the absolute best photos that you can but a lot of us

[00:22:27] use our phones to take photos and a lot of us don't really do a whole lot of editing I mean of course

[00:22:35] you want to make sure that the the photos are clear and in focus and they're well lit but you don't

[00:22:41] have to really go overboard on this I mean unless that's your thing and that's what you want to do

[00:22:47] but you do want to really learn how to take high quality photos that accurately represent the

[00:22:56] jewelry that you're selling and I want to say the biggest thing that I have seen is

[00:23:02] not having good lighting that's probably the one thing that I think people really do themselves

[00:23:07] a disservice and they don't make sure that their their photos are well lit now you don't have to buy

[00:23:14] a whole lighting setup although you can but if you just use natural lighting in a bright room

[00:23:22] maybe natural sunlight if you have a big window or something like that and you can set up your

[00:23:27] your jewelry in that natural lighting so people can see it clearly I think you're going to be fine

[00:23:33] that's what I did for a long time before I actually had you know the whole light box and the ring

[00:23:39] lights and all that kind of thing okay so you want to learn how to how to do that because I've even

[00:23:47] seen some people take beautiful gorgeous photos and that's how I recognize

[00:23:53] their brand because their photos are so nice or they may have a certain

[00:23:59] you know style that they use when they take their photos

[00:24:03] so you want to learn what's going to work for you and work with what you have

[00:24:08] you know when you don't have to spend a lot of money you really don't

[00:24:13] and they have tons of tutorials and videos on youtube that will teach you how to use your your

[00:24:21] iPhone or your Samsung phone or whatever so you can take really nice photos okay

[00:24:30] now when we when we are also talking about the presentation of your jewelry you want to learn

[00:24:36] how to write detailed descriptions this is very important you want to learn key words

[00:24:41] you want to make sure that your descriptions are accurate for each piece that you're listing or

[00:24:45] that you're trying to sell you want to include the materials the dimensions the length the condition

[00:24:52] and any type of historical significance if it applies

[00:24:57] I can't tell you how many listings I've seen where someone will just say gold necklace

[00:25:03] and then they write the price and they don't tell me anything about the necklace

[00:25:07] they don't tell you anything about anything and while that may work in some cases it's not necessarily

[00:25:16] showcasing the piece or really giving you the best chance of having that piece being purchased

[00:25:22] by someone who is looking exactly for that and again this will take time to learn and it will

[00:25:29] it will vary depending on the platform that you're listing your jewelry piece on

[00:25:34] sometimes you'll see people write a whole paragraph sometimes people write a few sentences

[00:25:40] and people like me probably do a little bit in between all right so if you know something about

[00:25:45] the jewelry or you have an interesting you know back history or a backstory about how you got it

[00:25:50] you may but you may want to share that you may I mean that's not necessary but you know some people

[00:25:56] enjoy those types of you know that type of information and so if you have the time you may want

[00:26:04] to include that but again you really want to have really detailed descriptions and you want to

[00:26:10] make sure that you are including specific key words in those descriptions so that will help your

[00:26:16] piece get found okay so really think about this as you are trying to learn and grow your jewelry

[00:26:29] reselling business all right so let's move on to point number six and this is pricing an

[00:26:38] inventory management okay so as it relates to pricing now this is going to vary from person to person

[00:26:48] business to business piece to piece wherever however you're selling your jewelry but you really

[00:26:55] want to learn how to be competitive and again this will this will happen as you research as you

[00:27:01] start to learn what the market value is of your jewelry and what your buyers are willing to pay

[00:27:10] for certain types of jewelry so really learn how to price your jewelry competitively based on

[00:27:18] how much it costs you to source like I said earlier the market value

[00:27:23] you and your target profit how much you want to make on the jewelry piece itself or what your income goals are

[00:27:35] and you want to regularly review your prices in response to market changes you know there's

[00:27:43] just because you price something at $50 today who knows maybe in six months if that piece hasn't sold

[00:27:50] maybe the price you might want to lower the price a little bit or in some cases you may want to

[00:27:56] raise the price a little bit depending on how rare or how unique or how in demand the piece is so

[00:28:05] I know a lot of us like to kind of shoot for a 90 day target as it relates to selling the item

[00:28:11] you know a 90 day sell-through rate we like to list the item and hopefully it sells within 90 days

[00:28:17] that's the goal for most of us generally speaking sometimes it'll take longer sometimes it'll take

[00:28:25] 180 days which is about six months some people are willing to wait a year to get the right price on

[00:28:31] their pieces but I really don't think that if you want to make this work that you should

[00:28:38] you should be willing to wait longer than a year to sell a jewelry piece I think a year

[00:28:47] should be the max but again you know depending on your business and what type of jewelry you're selling

[00:28:54] maybe you might have to wait longer than a year all right so it's really hard to say a general

[00:29:02] rule for this but those are the the guidelines for a lot of us who are currently doing this and for

[00:29:13] those of us who are making money doing this okay so you want to shoot for a 90 day sell-through rate

[00:29:20] but again adjust that as necessary depending on your business model and the piece that you are trying

[00:29:26] to sell okay so we also want to look at inventory rotation now this is key because if you have regular

[00:29:36] buyers they will come back to you maybe every week maybe a couple times a month whatever

[00:29:43] and they will look through your new inventory and they will see oh what does she have now or

[00:29:49] what is he selling now you know and then they will even ask you because I've had people ask me some

[00:29:55] of my loyal customers will say when are you posting new stuff when are you listing new items

[00:30:01] I want to make sure that I can see it first and so you really want to keep your inventory fresh

[00:30:07] by regularly introducing new pieces and offering maybe some promotions on the slower moving items

[00:30:15] okay because maybe you can do some markdowns if you have some really loyal buyers who always buy

[00:30:21] from you I don't have a problem giving them a discount for something that's been sitting a while

[00:30:28] but again this is going to be you know you're gonna have to decide what works and what doesn't work

[00:30:34] for you and your business but it is something to think about and the other thing I learned too is

[00:30:42] sometimes I will have a lot of inventory and just because I have a lot doesn't mean I need to put

[00:30:49] all of it up at once right so you may want a time how frequently you list your jewelry pieces

[00:30:57] you may want to do five pieces a day every day so that way you're constantly adding in adding in new

[00:31:03] items or maybe you want to just add new items every week I know a lot of people do that

[00:31:12] or you may just want to do it like as things sell in other words if you sell 10 pieces you add

[00:31:18] in 10 new pieces if you sell 20 pieces you add in 20 new pieces and it's whenever they sell

[00:31:25] so you'll just need to figure out what what your inventory can handle like what you can keep up with

[00:31:33] and then also the timing like do you have time to do daily listings do you have time to

[00:31:40] rotate your inventory every week or whatever the case may be all right so keep that in mind

[00:31:49] all right moving on to point number seven let's talk about customer service and how to excel

[00:31:56] at customer service all right now I think a lot of this boils down to trust you know and really

[00:32:07] giving your buyers and your customers and your clients a really good shopping experience

[00:32:13] you know and depending on the platform that you're selling on sometimes the customer service

[00:32:20] the returns the shipping and all of that will be handled within the platform you know like if

[00:32:25] you're selling on eBay for instance but you really want to set up a hassle-free buying experience as

[00:32:35] well as a hassle-free return experience and I know a lot of us don't like to think about returns

[00:32:41] and refunds and all that but I'm here to tell you at some point in your jewelry reselling career

[00:32:49] it's gonna happen it's gonna happen and probably it will happen more than once now luckily

[00:32:55] it's not something that happens frequently especially if your listings are good your photos are good

[00:33:01] and you really kind of set the expectation so the customer knows exactly what they're getting

[00:33:07] but like I said sometimes it happens and this is really an opportunity for you to take care of

[00:33:14] your buyer now I'm not saying you have to give them anything for free or or say you know the

[00:33:20] customer is always right but you really want to maintain the relationship to the best of your ability

[00:33:28] and sometimes that will be giving a refund or it will be having to deal with returns okay but

[00:33:37] you want to maintain that trust because it takes a long time to build you know people have to

[00:33:45] get to know you and remember these are all strangers you know we're all strangers online at some point

[00:33:51] until people get to know us and they get to trust us and they get to engage with us okay so building

[00:33:58] trust with your customers encourages repeat business and positive reviews you know again depending

[00:34:07] on what platform you're on a positive review is very important so these are things that we want to

[00:34:18] think about and not not all of this is going to be in your control you know of course you can

[00:34:23] ship something as fast as possible you take it to the post office drop it off but you can't help

[00:34:29] if the post office takes a little bit longer you know things like that so all we can do is our best

[00:34:37] and that's really what I want to emphasize here is doing your best to provide a

[00:34:43] a really good customer buying experience now the other thing about this which I just

[00:34:50] want to throw throw out there and it may or may not necessarily apply to you but you also want

[00:34:57] to think about offering an authenticity guarantee now depending on what type of jewelry you're selling

[00:35:03] and especially for those of you who are in the higher end piece you know higher end jewelry

[00:35:10] reselling if you can provide authenticity certificates if it's applicable

[00:35:17] and offer a money back guarantee for authenticity that is something that is definitely going to build

[00:35:22] confidence among your buyers so again that may not apply to you at this stage in your jewelry

[00:35:28] reselling career or business but if it is something that you can do then I would for sure encourage

[00:35:36] you to do so and if you saw the episode I did with Matt Harris and it is I think the episode is

[00:35:45] titled How to Sell jewelry on consignment he does this for a lot of his pieces because he deals in

[00:35:55] the higher end and so sometimes he will get pieces authenticated and then he will have that certificate

[00:36:04] and he will include that certificate when he sells that piece all right so again like I said I just

[00:36:11] wanted to throw it out there because it may not apply to you now but it may be something you want

[00:36:16] to consider in the future all right let's move on to point number eight and this is continuous

[00:36:25] learning and adaptation we kind of touched on this earlier you want to really pay attention to

[00:36:31] market trends and stay up to date with the current jewelry and fashion trends as well as the market

[00:36:38] demands now remember I have said many times that jewelry kind of parallels fashion in the sense

[00:36:45] of styles trends different things that could influence what is popular right now and jewelry you know

[00:36:56] not always is it is it directly connected to fashion but a lot of the times it is you know because

[00:37:05] jewelry is considered an accessory and so a lot of times when people are curating outfits or war

[00:37:12] droves jewelry will also be included in that and so we want to make sure that we are knowledgeable

[00:37:19] about what is trendy and what is popular now I try to do my best with this through this podcast you

[00:37:27] know I like to keep you up to date on news trends and information as it relates to the jewelry industry

[00:37:34] and I try my best to make sure that at least you're aware of some of the things that are developing

[00:37:40] as it relates to what we do so you're going to have to be ready to adapt your business strategies

[00:37:47] sometimes in response to these market changes okay now you don't have to spend hours and hours

[00:37:55] researching this or following certain you know new sites or anything like that but maybe every now

[00:38:03] and again maybe once a week maybe once every couple weeks kind of scroll through on social media

[00:38:10] or maybe on a news website and put in jewelry and just see what comes up just see what types of

[00:38:16] things are happening as it relates to jewelry and news now the other thing I want you to think about

[00:38:24] is also your own professional development as it relates to having a jewelry reselling business

[00:38:33] because for some of us this could be the very first time we've ever set up a business or run

[00:38:40] a business and and it is a business I know some of you are hobby resellers but in the eyes of

[00:38:48] the IRS they consider it a business if you're making any kind of money from it and I know some

[00:38:55] of us do this just for fun but you really want to continually grow your skills as a business person

[00:39:04] I mean in addition to continuing learning about jewelry you want to learn about business management

[00:39:11] maybe online marketing you may want to attend workshops or take some online courses or

[00:39:20] go to trade shows just to expand your knowledge and network with other people who have similar

[00:39:26] businesses or have the same passion and interest as you as it relates to jewelry now this is

[00:39:34] something I really enjoy about being a jewelry reseller as a matter of fact I was just talking

[00:39:41] about this yesterday and that I am really excited to be attending some jewelry shows here in Las Vegas

[00:39:48] this summer as a matter of fact I think I'm attending at least three shows and they're all kind

[00:39:52] of back-to-back happening at the same time and so I'll be I'll be attending these jewelry shows

[00:39:59] and I also went for the first time last year so this year I kind of know what to expect

[00:40:05] and I'm hoping to run into some of the same people I met last year and it's just a lot of fun

[00:40:10] and it's just it's so exciting and thrilling to see so many beautiful jewelry pieces

[00:40:17] in person that I probably would not see any other way so

[00:40:23] you also have the opportunity to buy jewelry but I don't really buy a whole lot when I go to these

[00:40:28] shows I go mostly for the education and the networking and the meeting of other people who are

[00:40:35] also doing the same thing and you learn a lot too you learn just by being in that environment so

[00:40:40] if you do have the opportunity to attend a jewelry show I highly recommend you do so

[00:40:48] and I think I'll do a podcast episode on jewelry shows because I have had quite a few questions about

[00:40:55] about jewelry shows so I will be doing that probably in the next couple weeks

[00:41:00] all right let's move on to point number nine and that is leveraging customer feedback now we

[00:41:07] did talk about feedback as it relates to the customer experience but feedback is another way

[00:41:14] for you to learn how well your business is doing how well you are doing as a business owner so

[00:41:21] depending on the platform that you sell on of course feedback could already be integrated into that

[00:41:28] but if not you do want to implement some type of a system to gather customer feedback on your

[00:41:34] jewelry items so you can improve what you're doing improve how you're offering or how you're selling

[00:41:43] or maybe make some improvements in your customer service or whatever so you know and this doesn't

[00:41:49] have to be a really complicated thing I mean if you're posting you know using social media and

[00:41:54] you're posting on let's say Instagram you can even do a post and say hey I would love your feedback

[00:42:00] on what you think I could do to improve my business or what do you think about these jewelry

[00:42:07] pieces or how do you how do you you know think I could make this better for you as a buyer

[00:42:14] I've seen people do that and they just ask for feedback directly in a social media post and you

[00:42:20] can do that too and some people will give you some great ideas some people probably will just say

[00:42:28] oh everything is great you know but the ones who do actually give you some helpful feedback and

[00:42:34] helpful ideas those are the ones you really want to pay attention to and those are the ones you

[00:42:40] really want to take take some time to evaluate and consider okay how can I implement this idea or

[00:42:48] you know what can I do maybe a little bit differently to get this you know to make this a more

[00:42:55] positive experience all right so I think you should be open to it and be open even to the

[00:43:03] criticism you might get as well because let me tell you I am you know I've gotten feedback from lots

[00:43:10] of people already and not everything has been perfect you know I've been corrected when I've made

[00:43:15] mistakes but I also take into account when people say this could be better or this could be different

[00:43:22] I really appreciate that and I don't take it as a personal attack you know because I do want

[00:43:29] what I do and what I sell to help people or to give people what they want or or you know to just

[00:43:38] really do the best I can so don't be afraid of critical feedback either you know because

[00:43:44] when all is said and done it will only help you because there could be things that you're not aware of

[00:43:50] that maybe somebody points out and you're like wow you know I didn't even think about that so

[00:43:55] you know just appreciate every type of input that somebody is willing to give okay and of course

[00:44:03] if it's something nasty and negative you just delete and move on but for the most part

[00:44:09] people want to be helpful and then those are the responses that you really want to think about

[00:44:19] all right so let's move on to our final point and I think I've already talked about this too

[00:44:26] and this is networking and partnerships like I said attending some of these events

[00:44:32] you know the jewelry shows like I talked about earlier but really making connections in this

[00:44:37] industry or in this space I can't tell you how important it is to build relationships with other

[00:44:44] jewelry resellers jewelry professionals maybe even people who do jewelry repair or people

[00:44:51] who are suppliers or whatever the case may be because the more people you know who are doing this

[00:44:58] or who are knowledgeable about doing this the more it's going to help you grow and expand as well

[00:45:06] I can't tell you how much support I have gotten from people and maybe they're not necessarily

[00:45:13] jewelry resellers but they are involved in the jewelry industry in some way some people

[00:45:20] are manufacturers some people are suppliers it you know it's just so nice to really be able to talk

[00:45:30] about things and bounce ideas off of other people and sometimes you can even partner and

[00:45:36] collaborate with these other people that you're meeting and you're networking with you know

[00:45:42] you can collaborate on social media maybe you can collaborate on your websites maybe you can

[00:45:47] partner in doing a joint sale or some type of event together I mean the the opportunities

[00:45:53] and the possibilities truly are endless and you know you just you you just open up so much

[00:46:03] as it relates to new and different ideas for your business and sometimes too you really just

[00:46:11] need the support of knowing that you're not doing this alone because reselling in general can

[00:46:17] be a very lonely journey even though you may know other resellers let's say online or maybe in

[00:46:24] a Facebook group or something like that but there's not really a whole lot of you know in person

[00:46:34] connecting as it relates to that so you want to give yourself an opportunity to maybe make

[00:46:43] make connections in real life now of course you don't have to but I think maybe you know going

[00:46:50] to lunch with someone and talking about what's working and what's not can be very helpful in a way

[00:46:56] that the online networking just doesn't match all right so think about that think about

[00:47:05] think about how can I meet other people who are doing the same thing and how can we help each

[00:47:11] other in our businesses all right so as you can see I did do a lot of thinking about this you know

[00:47:21] because I really want to break down how to be successful at this what it's going to take what

[00:47:27] you can do what you should do all right so let's go over this list again because

[00:47:34] some of these things may be quote-unquote easy some of these things you're gonna have to learn and

[00:47:38] it'll take time and some of these things could be brand new ideas to you all right so point number

[00:47:45] one on how to be a successful jewelry reseller is the deep knowledge of jewelry in the education

[00:47:52] I think I'll probably be saying that until until I can't say it anymore but education is everything

[00:48:00] when it comes to jewelry knowledge and knowing exactly how to find what you are looking for point

[00:48:06] number two is sourcing strategies and really learning how and where to find what you're looking for

[00:48:13] as it relates to jewelry number three is understanding your audience understanding your buyers what do they

[00:48:19] want what are they looking for number four is your online presence and branding we talked about this

[00:48:25] social media and learning how to be consistent how you in how you show up across multiple platforms

[00:48:34] number five was photography remember you don't have to spend a lot but you will have to learn some

[00:48:40] skills as it relates to taking really good photos of your jewelry pieces point number six was pricing

[00:48:48] remember we want to make sure we're making money at this and we're not just breaking even now I

[00:48:53] understand sometimes we will just break even but for the most part we are in this business to

[00:48:58] make money all right so we have to learn how to price competitively point number seven is customer

[00:49:05] service we went into great detail about that and how to offer a really good buyer experience point

[00:49:13] number eight is continuous learning yes we always want to increase our knowledge because that

[00:49:18] definitely gives us an advantage point number nine is customer feedback this will only help you do

[00:49:26] what you do better and then point number 10 is networking and partnerships and connecting with other

[00:49:33] people who do the same things or maybe do something different but your businesses complement each other

[00:49:39] in some way all right so mastering these aspects and consistently applying them to your business

[00:49:50] you know you can definitely or you will set the foundation for a successful jewelry reselling venture

[00:49:59] I want you to remember that success in this business requires patience perseverance

[00:50:05] and a continuous effort to really stand out in the crowded jewelry reselling market

[00:50:14] all right now I hope that this episode was helpful and I hope it gave you some tips and encouragement

[00:50:25] and how to make this business work for you and you know I might revisit this topic in a future

[00:50:32] episode because the more I learn the more I want to share with you to help you grow and to help you

[00:50:41] really establish yourself as a successful jewelry reseller and the one thing too

[00:50:48] I really want you to take to heart is that it will take time none of us become successful at this

[00:50:54] overnight and there's people who've been doing this like I said for decades and they are still

[00:51:01] learning and growing as well all right so before we close out I want to remind you to head on over to

[00:51:09] the jewelry resellerspodcast.com if you would like to join our weekly newsletter I will have a

[00:51:18] link in the show notes of this episode as well as in the description if you are listening to this

[00:51:24] on YouTube all right I want to thank you so much for spending this time with me I'll check in with

[00:51:31] you again really soon

[00:52:01] you