Category: Jewelry Tips

Where to buy handmade jewelry online can be a hard thing to do. There are not a lot of good independent jewelry companies such as Harmony Crystals and Jewelry out there that sell handcrafted jewelry through their websites. Yet the ones that do put a lot of time and energy into making jewelry that is unique and high-quality.

Here are a few things to look for when shopping for handmade jewelry

Do They Know Gemstones and Precious Metals?

Look for a person who knows jewelry. If the site states the owner or jewelry artisans are jewelers, precious metal experts, or precious gemstone experts, you found a unique website. These people blend their knowledge of high-end gemstones and metals with a handmade process of jewelry making.

This is like the gold standard for a handmade jewelry website. You can have confidence that the jewelry you are buying is worth what you pay for it. You can also trust the sourcing of materials and the quality of craftsmanship.

Sourcing Materials?

A question to ask your handmade jeweler is, where do you get your materials? A good jeweler will keep receipts and will mainly source from the USA. The only exception is if the gemstone is rare or only mined outside the USA.

An example would be emeralds. Columbian emeralds are some of the rarest and most beautiful. Depending on the size, they often cost upwards of $15K to $20K or more. Other stones like high-quality Citrine will only come from Madagascar. This is the only place a jeweler can find a mine with clear Citrine worthy of a handmade piece of jewelry.

Guarantees?

If you are still reading and on the hunt for where to buy handmade jewelry online, head to the website’s guarantee or return page and read through it. Does it guarantee your satisfaction?

Does it provide a way to return the item if you are not OK with what you received? What are the instructions and rules to do so? How many days do you have to return your item?

A reputable jeweler of handmade goods will have all this spelled out before buying. Some websites will offer a generous 30-day moneyback guarantee, and others will only provide a seven days guarantee. Does it matter? Not really.

Ninety-nine percent of buyers know within a day or two if there is something wrong with an item or if it just does not work for them. You don’t need 30 days to figure that out. 7 days or even three days is enough.

Is a guarantee important? Yes, it is. Is the time allowed to return important? Not really. Are clear instructions essential to return and receive the guarantee? Yes, it is.

Guarantees are essential no matter what you buy on the internet.

Looking for more information on where to buy handmade jewelry on the internet, then go here to read our in-depth article on Where to Buy Handmade Jewelry Online.

Customer Service

How good is the customer service? Do the shopkeeper’s reply to you in 24 to 48 hours? Are they friendly when they respond? Do they solve your concerns or answer your questions thoroughly? If you can check off all of these as a YES, then the customer service is good.

Now, if you are looking for excellent service, it is crucial to buy from an expert in gemstones and precious metals. They will be good at answering your easy questions, but they will also be good at answering your hard questions.

Things like metal weights, karat size, clarity, cut, etc. All those things can be vital if you buy something of high value. When you buy real gold, silver, or precious gemstones, you are trading money for some value.

Of course, it is pretty or prestigious to wear, but you also want to make sure that something of high value will grow in value to increase your overall wealth. For example, people buy gold to hold it. A person who buys 21 karat gold is not only looking for beauty. They are also looking for appreciation in the piece of jewelry they buy. When the price of gold increases, so does the value of your gold ring, bracelet, necklace, or anything else you have purchased in this kind of metal. Silver is no different, as are bronze, copper, etc.

Kinds of Handmade Jewelry

You want a website to have a variety of jewelry, and a few new things added a few times a year to keep the inventory fresh. A website that carries the same stuff for years does not sell handmade goods. They are mostly buying premade goods and selling them as handmade.

Artisans rarely produce the same thing over and over again. Now that is not to say they won’t make a few hundred pieces of earrings. When an artisan buys materials, they buy in large quantities. They will make that material into fashion that may last a year or more. The material needs to be used up, so there may be a time before that entire handmade ring design sells out or bracelet design or other. It will only be when those items sell out and the artesian can recoup their investment to make more dazzling, delicious jewelry for your needs.

What you will see are other gemstones being used for the same look. Or perhaps a high grade of metal is added for those pieces that sell well. It is not uncommon to see a pair of earrings such as Citrine come in non-gold stems, gold plated. Or even 21, 18, or 14 karat gold. You also have the fine sterling silver that comes in 925 purity up to 950, which is the highest purity of silver on the market.

What to know even more about handmade jewelry sites, then we have the article for you. Handmade Jewelry Websites.

Finally, you want to look for ease of use When looking for where to buy handmade jewelry online

How easy is navigating the website and finding what you are looking for? Are the categories well labeled? When you search, are you finding what you want, or does the site return just unexpected results? Does the website have a place to read articles that educates its buyers and readers?

An easy-to-navigate site is essential. Most websites like to hide things for some reason. An excellent developed website will have everything you need right on the front page. Are you looking for earrings? Then they should be an easy link to click to go right to them. How about bracelets? There should be an easy way on any site page to either go back to the front page or go to different sections of the site without confusion.

Can you quickly click on a cart icon or check out button to see what is in your basket? This is important because if you don’t know what you added to the cart, it will take time to go back and forth from the checkout page, breaking your focus on your shopping experience.

The shopping cart page is just as important as the checkout page. Also, a great site will allow you to skip the shopping cart and go right to check out without confusion or worry that you are doing something wrong.

I hope these few jewelry tips helped you find peace of mind when searching for where to buy handmade jewelry online. Happy handmade jewelry website hunting!

We have even more information on unique handmade jewelry that you read about here Unique Handmade Jewelry Tips!

Harmony is one of those sites that check all the boxes. We strive in all areas to make your visit to our website a breeze with outstanding customer service, products, materials, and all the rest.

Welcome to Harmony, and come check out our complete catalog of handmade jewelry from our artisans and a few chosen rock stars of handmade jewelry like Albert Charles. If you have never heard of him, we have a treat for you. You can read all about Charles here, Charles Albert Jewelry – Acclaimed Jewelry Designer.

Handmade jewelry websites are often seen on Etsy and eBay, and sometimes, you may see a few on Amazon. Yet these are not actual independent Jewelry Websites. They use a large shopping platform controlled by another entity. These platforms often force small jewelry sellers to follow certain practices that may go against their own policies and procedures.

With this in mind, a seller may not showcase all their jewelry because all listings and items are subjected to platform algorithms that define when or how a seller’s listing will appear on the site or not appear.

Give this a try to test out what I stated above. Shop for handmade jewelry on Etsy or eBay. Then search the internet for the seller’s website. 9 out of 10 times, you will find a website connected to the seller. To your surprise, you will most likely find many jewelry items not found on Etsy or eBay. Many of those items will be very beautiful and top quality.

Why Would A Seller Not Wan to Showcase Their Best Items On A Large Shopping Site?

There are a few reasons for this. Some sellers’ sole business on these larger shopping platforms is tracking and monitoring these larger sites for items that sell well. They then illegally replicate those items with cheap inferior gemstones and metals.

Or, at times, they will state the gemstones are exact and instead swap them out with a glass or lab-created precious gemstones. This is also true of the metals in the jewelry. They then compete against the legitimate seller at a ridiculous rock bottom price. This affects the seller’s reputation, as well as impacts their income.

Many of these sellers make a living off of selling their jewelry. They have little money to fight off these kinds of unethical sellers. It can become a full-time job for an attorney to take down the dishonest sellers as they tend to pop up a few days later under a new company name.

As you can imagine, the legal costs could quickly eat away at any profits made. There is also the fact that any damage done to the seller’s reputation is hard to correct. Often times the synergy of sales that once was, never returns.

How Do Sellers Protect Their Intellectual Property?

To protect themselves, sellers save their true treasures for their own websites, where they can control everything.

When using self-controlled and built handmade jewelry websites, an unethical seller can’t monitor what goes on behind the seems. At best, they can use tools to guess, but no data can be acquired without hacking into the website itself. We will go into that later in this article.

Most unethical sellers will not waste their time on unproven data or guesstimates. They want hard data to tell them who they can exploit, make a quick buck, and move on to their next victim.

Platforms like WordPress, Square, Wix, and others make it difficult for anyone but the administrator of the site to get any data out of it. Widgets, plugins, and hosting layers work 24/7 to protect your intellectual property on your website. Security is a huge thing nowadays, and the less access someone has to your business and intellectual property, the better.

Another challenging issue to control when dealing with the larger brand sites is fake reviews and competitor reviews. I am not talking about the good reviews. I am talking about fake bad reviews from competitors.

There are actual companies that make a living by placing bad reviews on a competitor listing to drive down their ability to sell. Often it can put a seller out of business.

It is easier to control reviews when you run your own handmade jewelry websites. You can send all reviews through a moderator to address a customer’s concern and hopefully change their mind about leaving a bad review. Further, you can send fake competitor reviews to SPAM and never have to worry about this issue again.

So now that I scared you about selling on large shopping platforms, why would a handmade jewelry seller want to showcase their items anywhere else but their own website?

• There are a few reasons for this:
  You have access to a ready-made audience of millions of people to get your product in front of without paying for it.
• Websites like Etsy will create social media advertising for you at no additional cost. You only pay a small fee if your product is found and sold through this program.
• You can directly target your audience through paid ads made by Etsy for Etsy customers. The same goes for eBay and Amazon.
• SEO is limited, and you really only need to focus on keywords for the platform you sell on. Google automatically ranks Etsy, eBay, and Amazon high on the platform.
• Finally, the logistics of finding the customer, shipping the product, managing your inventory, etc., are all done for you on these platforms.
• It is a business in a box.

That sounds great, but you already know the risks. And there is also one other colossal risk. Your business and listings on these large platforms do not belong to you. You could receive a notice from Etsy, eBay, or Amazon that your listings have been taken down and are no longer showing. Further, they can freeze your financial assets and hold them until an investigation is completed.

The crazy thing is that all this can happen with just one person making a fake claim, such as selling counterfeit goods, violating copyright laws, or doing one of the many other things that violate a policy of Etsy, eBay, or Amazon.

So now that you know the good, the bad, and the ugly about running handmade jewelry websites. What platform should you choose to sell your handmade jewelry products?

Interested in making handmade jewelry but don’t know where to start? Read our article on handmade jewelry tips.

I suggest starting out with your own website. Learn about SEO, shipping products, and maybe seek out a 3PL warehouse to help you ship your items automatically. Invest in QuickBooks to manage your financials.

A great way to start is with Wix, Square, or WordPress. If you are not technically savvy, then Wix and Square is the way to go. It is straightforward to start a website that you can protect and feel confident no one can take your business away from you.

Charles Albert is a great example of a seller who started small and grew big with his website. Read more about him here.

WordPress is the best but does require a bit of design knowledge to get it all set up. Suppose you have a bit of money to invest. In this case, you hire a web designer to set up a WordPress website and an SEO expert to take your place within Google, Bing, and Yahoo. This way, you will build your traffic and unique customers.

If you are worried about not having access to the millions of jewelry buyers on the big brand shopping sites. Then do what the rest do.

Set up a little Etsy shop, and put just a handful of your items there. When someone orders, put an insert card into the package to let them know you have your own website, and if they come there, you can give them a discount or something free with their next order.

This method works very well and is the best of both worlds. You leverage the larger market by driving a percentage of those customers back to your own website.

If you are interested in reading more about what it takes to develop and manage a great website, read our article here.

Whether you are a small start-up or have been around for a while, your own website is an asset you will eventually want to invest in and scale to grow your business. Plus, it is something that you can later sell down the road when you are ready to retire or move on to something new.

Harmony Jewelry is an independent jewelry company in San Diego, CA. We design handmade jewelry.

Read our other articles we think you would like. We wrote a whole article on why you may want to choose small independent jewelry companies over a big box name-brand jewelry.

Independent jewelry companies are far and in between nowadays. With larger companies taking up a lot of the jewelry market space, there is still room for the smaller jewelry business to flourish.

Here are a few reasons you want to seek out an independent jewelry store online or in your local area.

Shopping Large Brand Jewelry Stores

When shopping large big brand jewelry stores, you will be dealing with a sales associate and not a jeweler. Why is this important? Well, for a few reasons. A jeweler is going to know their product. They will know where it was sourced, the quality, the weight of the metal, the gemstone quality, and the ability to resize or adjust the item if needed. Generally, a salesperson will know the jewelry style and perhaps a few selling points.

When you buy from a large branded company, you also lose the ability to find handmade jewelry such as bracelets, chains, rings, earrings, etc. A lot of this kind of jewelry has more meaning behind it than just for looks.

For instance, if you want to bring abundance into your life, you may seek out handmade earrings made of Citrine gemstones. Jewelry like this will come with gemstones that help protect you or aid with bringing love into your life, abundance, and more. Big chain companies do not cater to this kind of handmade design.

An additional area that large brand stores lack is their ability to appraise an item you buy from them. You can get a rough estimate from them. Still, when it comes to getting a certified jeweler’s certification, that will come at a higher cost or not come with the piece you are buying at all.

Quality Control

Quality control of jewelry is tough for a large company to do. They work in thousands of pieces sourced from all parts of the world. They may have the metal design done in one country, and then the gemstone work done separately. The quality between the two could be off by quite a bit.

Looking at a piece of jewelry like this through the naked eye will not show much difference. Still, when you look at the work through a scope, you will start to see irregularities and little things here and there that can significantly reduce the overall value of the product or lead to the jewelry failing. Loose stones are lost, metal may be warped, or other metal may be added to conceal issues.

In smaller shops, all the work is done in-house. All material is sourced locally or from one place. Any issues are often taken care of in the best way possible, or the piece is melted down and recreated. Adherence to quality is a smaller shop’s top priority. Without it, they will have no customers.

How Independent Jewelry Companies Source Gemstones and Metals

Material sourcing is a big deal in the industry. All companies need to track where their precious gemstones were sourced by worldwide regulations. The sourcing cannot be from an area that is black-labeled by the industry.

A smaller company must know where every precious gemstone has come from and keep a history of the materials. The paper trail is usually audited once a year to ensure no updates are needed.

Common Benefits

There are times when there is a common benefit for a larger company to carry a local designer’s jewelry brand. Take, for instance, a jeweler named Charles Albert. Most people will never know him or wear his jewelry brand. Yet, you may be surprised to hear that performing artist Lady Gaga wears his jewelry, Demi Lovato, and many more.

Large branded companies may find it to their advantage to bring this kind of handmade jewelry into their store.

Why? Because those customers who follow the performing artists and actors will know the kind of jewelry, they wear and will be looking for it. It is better to get the sales through walk-in traffic than to lose it from the customer going to the Charles Albert and buying it at a lower cost. They get the markup and keep the customer.

The same can be said for other companies such as Harmony Jewelers. They also create handmade jewelry for both men and women. You may not find them in large brand name stores, but you can bet you will find them online and in the social circles of many influential people.

Big Brand Pricing

More prominent brands will price their jewelry very high. Why is that? Major brand jewelers are betting their customers know nothing about how to buy metals or gemstones. They use that to their advantage.

You will never see a sales associate taking a buyer by the hand and explaining how gold or silver is priced and what influences the price.

What you will hear is about the karat size, the cut, color, and possibly the weight of the metal. The importance of the metal is a maybe because there are two ways of measuring gold by oz and by the gram. Most people are confused by it and do not know how to calculate based on the gold’s purity. Local or independent jewelry companies would know how to do this and ensure the buyer gets a fair deal.

Let’s sum it all up

Independent jewelry companies are a good choice when:

• When you want to know what you are buying.
• You want handmade jewelry.
• You want an honest jeweler to help you select your fine or handmade jewelry.

We list what a buyer should look for when choosing a website to buy from. You can read our in-depth article here.

Does it matter if you buy online or in a physical store?

No, it does not matter. You can buy online or in a physical store. All jewelry stores, including independent jewelry companies, are regulated in some way or another through their state.

All stores must follow The World Diamond Council System of Warranties which reads, “The diamonds herein invoiced have been purchased or sourced from legitimate sources not involved in funding conflict, in compliance with United Nations Resolutions and corresponding national laws. The seller hereby guarantees that these diamonds are conflict-free and confirms adherence to the WDC SoW Guidelines.”

Being a small handmade jeweler, we recommend you seek out a jeweler you are comfortable with—someone you can trust to provide you the service you expect.