There are stores that you just pass by. And then there are stores that you can’t wait to enter. They look appealing and organized, offer a pleasant shopping experience, and constantly bring new, interesting merchandise.
Online stores are no different, regardless what type of products or services they sell. Studies have shown that the human brain processes visual information much faster than a written text. Therefore, the way your jewelry online store is designed can make or break your profits.
A great jewelry store website should be able to attract the right type of customers, make it easy for them to find what they want and buy it fast. Essentially there are three areas you want to pay attention to as an online jewelry store owner or a manager: the products offered, the webpage features, and lastly, the skill level of your team and technical support of your provider. Let’s look at them individually.
Products
You’ve put your heart and soul into bringing quality products to your clients. The issue is that they can’t see and feel them in person. So that leaves you with creating an online experience that is as close as possible to reality. Here are the main points to consider when doing so.
Product photos
Nothing is more important than having individual pieces of jewelry presented through high quality, well-lit, professional photos. A potential customer should feel like he/she saw the product in person and even tried it on.
Always include these three:
- product shots from all angles
- model and/or lifestyle shots
- a video of the product
Product description
Don’t leave out any essential information. Your potential customer should easily learn the size, materials used, and detailed features of a product. It is also beneficial to include testimonials. They provide an additional dimension of trust.
Accurate inventory
There is nothing more frustrating for a client than to be told during checkout that the piece he/she selected is not in stock. An accurate and immediately updated inventory is crucial. Therefore, make sure you implement an external inventory system or a built-in website inventory system. Valigara Online Jewelry Management Platform can help with all of that.
Webpage
You may decide to build your website from scratch or create it using a website builder. We’ll address website builders later. For now, let’s focus on what you need to consider if you build your own site from scratch.
Navigation
Make it all about the jewelry and remove any other distractions. The page navigation should be intuitive, logical, and very clear. An online visitor should immediately notice how to search for a product and have filters available based on size, material, designer, etc. Consider features such as a “wish list” where people can bookmark their favorite pieces or a “live chat” where visitors can immediately have their questions answered. Moreover, you should aim to collect their email addresses for future promotional emails.
Speed
The pages should load fast. Nowadays people do not have patience for slow-loading or collapsing websites. They would just go look somewhere else. You can use programs like Gtmetrix or Google page speed test to analyze your website’s speed and scan for problems and formatting errors. These tools will tell you what to do to increase the speed.
Design
Make your page designs attractive and uncluttered. The aesthetics should be pleasant enough to keep your visitors longer on the page, which increases your conversion chances. Depending on the character of your products there are dozens of ways to differentiate yourself. For example, for custom jewelry the page can be funkier and more playful. For an expensive classic repertoire, a cleaner luxurious look would be more appropriate. A beautiful, customized, and functional website impresses potential clients, creates trust and sparks the desire to buy.
Management
Finally, let’s address using a website builder such as WordPress, Wix, Weebly, Shopify, WooCommerce, Squarespace, BigCommerce, and many more. For this, you have to keep in mind 3 points: your business needs, your team’s technical skills, and the support you can get from your provider. Let’s look at each of those.
Business
Are you just starting out or do you have an established brand? Are you looking to integrate your website with other online platforms and tools you may be using (e.g. Google Analytics, email campaigns software)? Do you have lots of data to upload and maintain? What are your average monthly transactions (in number and categories)? All of these will influence the software you should choose. We do recommend that you keep our Valigara Online Jewelry Management Platform in mind, as it will help you create a website specifically designed with jewelry stores in mind.
Team
Whatever option you go with, you will certainly have a learning curve. However, how long that curve is depends exclusively on the technical skills your team already has. Do you have tech-savvy staff members or an IT department to take on and focus on this task? If not, you may not want to start with overly complex website builders like WooCommerce. The more features the builder provides, the longer it will take for your team to learn the ropes of managing your online store.
Support
It is vital for the success of your online business to choose a service provider (like your website builder or your hosting company) who is competent, reliable and responds in a timely manner. In case of any technical troubles and mishaps that are not fixed promptly, you would be losing business and possibly frustrating customers.
Nowadays countless online stores are selling all kinds of products. Jewelry, as a fashion accessory, is heavily focused on the visual. Therefore, the flow, appearance and presentation of jewelry items are crucial for a revenue-focused website. It pays off to invest in high-quality photos of the jewelry articles, to create a simple and fast-loading website, and to ensure a reliable technical support team. Do all those and you’ll soon watch your sales skyrocket.
