How To Start A Jewelry Business in 2024

So, you want to start a jewelry business and be your own boss? Whether you've always dreamed of owning your own shop or you're looking for a little creative side hustle, this video is your roadmap to success. So, if you want a step-by-step guide to turn your passion for jewelry into a profitable business, then just keep on watching. What's up, guys? Welcome back. And if you are new here, my name is Michelle Bali, and I'm going to be your host for today's video. Guys, I have been in the e-commerce game for years now. I previously worked in the jewelry space for a startup called Finley and a medium-sized business called Vitaly. So, if anyone knows the trials and tribulations of starting and growing a jewelry business, it is I. And that's why I have got you covered in today's video. I'm going to walk you through start to finish from coming up with your idea of what it is that you're going to sell to actually making those sales. At the kind of end-ish of the video, I'll go through what a day in the life looks like as a business owner so that you can get a real taste for what your day-to-day will look like, which will help you make the decision of whether you want to go for it or not. Okay, who's ready? Grab a snack. Let's get comfy. Let's do this. First, you got to pick your niche. I'm going to make your lives easier. I'm going to save you a few hours of Google searches just by listing out some niches and their benefits. So, fine jewelry. This niche is going to focus on high-end pieces made with precious metals like solid gold and gemstones like diamonds. An example of this would be Cartier. These pieces are often seen as heirlooms or investments and can be quite expensive. What's beneficial about getting into this niche is that there are high profit margins and you attract a very loyal customer base. Customers buying expensive jewelry are making significant investments and tend to be repeat buyers for future milestones. Another niche is bridal jewelry, which includes engagement rings, wedding bands, and bridesmaids jewelry. Because sentimentality is the benefit of working in this niche, you get to create a deep connection with your customers and be a part of their celebration. It also offers potential for selling bundled packages like engagement rings, wedding bands, and bridal party gifts. An example of a business that is innovating in the engagement ring space is a business called Wake. Wake is amazing. When creating your custom jewelry, there are three routes that you can choose from. Number one, you can iterate on an existing piece. You can have their custom design team create an iteration of an existing piece. Another route that you can go is you can create a totally new piece. You can have their custom design team create a new silhouette and be really experimental with shape and color and size. And then your third option is you can reset an heirloom stone. You get the chance to create a modern ring that keeps your family history close. So I love this brand. I think they're doing awesome things in this space. Next niche. So a lot of you watching will probably be interested in starting a fashion jewelry business. Fashion jewelry is typically made with less expensive materials than fine jewelry and is designed to be trendy and affordable. So if you think about walking into Zara and they have all their jewelry on the shelves there for no more than like 20 bucks a pop, that's a perfect example of fashion jewelry. But don't be fooled because fashion jewelry can also be pretty expensive. For instance, Vivian Westwood, she sells faux pearl necklaces for $700. So just because you're going to the fashion jewelry space doesn't mean you have to be locked in to a specific price point. It just means that you're not working with fine materials. This is a broad niche that covers a wide variety of styles and price points. Another niche that you can get into is men's jewelry. So this niche is growing in popularity and offers high growth potential for anyone that's just getting started. A great example of this is Mejuri. If you guys have never heard of Mejuri, Mejuri is a Toronto founded minimalist jewelry brand who has become a behemoth in the industry and they recently started a men's line. So if you're looking for inspo, definitely check them out. Next niche. Personalized or custom jewelry. So this niche offers pieces that can be personalized with initials, names, or dates. This is a popular option for gifts and can be a great way to add a sentimental touch to any piece. So if you want to be a custom jeweler where you design pieces with your clients from scratch, this can be a really interesting niche to get into. Think Adam Sandler, Uncut Gems. But seriously, I actually do have a friend who works in this space and he makes pendants, he makes grills, custom watches. The benefit about getting to this niche is that there's a higher perceived value. So customers are willing to pay more for a piece with a personal touch and it's going to be a pretty prestigious niche to work in. You might have the opportunity to work with rappers or celebrities, business people, you know, and the list goes on. So really cool niche to get into. Handmade jewelry is another niche. If you need the creative aspect of running a business and you can actually make the pieces yourself, this can be a pretty great way to build a unique brand. This is such a great business to get into because you'll be able to offer unique selling points, selling one of a kind pieces that customers cannot find anywhere else. A great example of this is a jewelry designer named Steph Elioff. I actually just bought this ring from her, guys. She is known for her organic shaped pieces. And the reason that I bought from her is because I respect the work and I know that I couldn't find this quality and this style anywhere else. Cultural jewelry. So this niche offers jewelry that reflects a particular culture or heritage. So for example, this Beyonce approved designer, Ariana Boussard Rifle, she brings pieces to life that look like unearthed relics from nomadic tribes. These pieces with their ethnographic feel draw inspiration from indigenous cultures and has now been worn by Michelle Obama, Selena Gomez, and the list goes on. I have one of her pieces pinned to a Pinterest board, guys, and I'm just like dying to get it. Let me know, guys, in the comments section if you think I should buy it. But anyways, that leads me to our next niche, which is antique jewelry. So vintage or antique jewelry is jewelry that's made between 20 to 100 years ago. And as a business owner, you're going to be sourcing these pieces and reselling them. The benefit of getting into this niche is that there's a storytelling aspect that makes selling your pieces a lot easier. Marteau is a perfect example of a vintage jewelry brand. They ethically source their pieces from around the world and each piece is unique and curated for its beauty and craftsmanship. Okay, filming this video is literally going to clean up my bank account, guys, because I want to buy everything that I'm talking about here. So moving on to our next niche, guys, and that is minimalist jewelry. So guys, this is a niche that is going to be very simple, very understated, and it's a great option for people who prefer a more classic look. The benefit of this niche is that you can appeal to the masses, which means more potential for volume of sales. Ana Luisa, guys, have you heard of them? They're a really great example of a business that sells minimalist classic jewelry with pieces like simple hoops and chain necklaces. So those are our niches. After you pick your niche, your next step is to suss out the competition. All right, we're going to research our competition. So the jewelry industry, guys, has had a big boom around 2018, 2019. Total revenue in US dollars, guys, $275 billion. Then things kind of cooled off in 2020, but as of 2024, the industry is worth $270 billion, and by 2028, the jewelry industry is projected to drive $357 billion in revenue. That is about a 30% increase, guys, so please ignore anyone telling you that it's oversaturated. Don't let the competition discourage you either because the industry is only growing and you can be a player in it if you want to put in the work. Start finding your competition on Google, guys, and then use a tool called SimilarWeb, which is going to help you see how much traffic their website is getting, see competitor ads and landing pages, and all of that. Now, once you start to get a feel for what your competition is lacking, you can start to fill in the gaps with your own strategy on what audience to target, what benefits to offer, and what products to sell. Let's go through each of these one by one, starting with how to choose your target audience. Choosing your target audience is a crucial step for any business because it helps tailor your brand message and products to the right people. After having done your competitive analysis, you can assess whether a particular audience is being underserved and whether you want to corner that market. For example, if you're starting a custom jewelry business, you might realize that most businesses are serving their customers in person and businesses aren't successful in targeting online shoppers. That could certainly be a part of who you choose your target audience to be. In addition to competitive analysis, conducting market research will help you assess whether your target audience has a chance at being profitable. Statista is a great site to use for industry and consumer data. When conducting your market research, use social media as a listening tool to learn about your potential customers' needs and preferences. After your research, and once you have a good understanding of your ideal customer, create detailed buyer personas. These are fictional representations of your target audience that list out their demographics, their values, interests, challenges they face. I'll put an example right over here for you guys just to see, but Shopify does have a tool to help you create this. And I will also link that down below just to make it easier for you guys. But do keep in mind that your target audience may evolve over time. Don't let this step overwhelm you. Just give your best guess when starting and just know that it's okay if your audience does change over time. Okay, now comes the fun part. Choosing what products to sell. Ah, so exciting. Okay, so you can do this two ways. You can either make or you can source your jewelry. If you decide to make your own jewelry, you can do this yourself at home. Beeducation, Fire Mountain Gems, Shipwreck Beads, those are all really great places to start buying supplies. Also, guys, check out Facebook Marketplace because sometimes people are giving supplies away for free. If you want to get artisanal with it, going to a workshop for glassblowing, ceramics, and wood and metalwork, that's going to elevate the quality of your pieces. The second way to do this is sourcing your jewelry, or in other words, buying jewelry that's already been made from a supplier and then reselling it at a good marked up cost. Going this route will mean working with large established suppliers that will want to sell to you at scale. So check out AliExpress if you want to buy in smaller quantities, and then check out Alibaba for bigger quantities. This is a really great resource if you don't want to spend a ton of money on inventory. If you want the best of both worlds, where you get to custom design the pieces, but don't actually want to make them yourself, reach out to manufacturers on Alibaba, expressing your interest in working with them on a custom line. So how does the relationship with your manufacturer work? Well, you will be communicating your ideas to them, and their job is to bring your product to life. They will ensure that the products are within your creative parameters, budget, and that the production fits your lead times. If you want a step-by-step on how to find manufacturers that are going to be of quality, then you're going to want to check out this video right here after you're done watching this. So I am by no means a jewelry designer. Despite being hired as a marketer for Finley, I actually got the chance to design earrings at this company. I got to think of an idea in my head about what I wanted this piece to look like, and then watch it come to life. This creative process really is the spice of owning a jewelry business, so if you guys want to learn how to do it, here's how I did it. So first I created mock-ups in Illustrator, and I hand-drew some sketches. If you lack inspiration, you can even use AI tools like Mid Journey or Stable Diffusion. The mock-ups showed the design at different angles, and I was sure to write in the measurements that I expected it to be. The key was to really show it visually and not lean on notes. This is because there was a language barrier with our manufacturers, and my boss at the time advised me to keep the notes just to a minimum, just to avoid any confusion. Chances are you might be working with overseas manufacturers as well, so just include notes only when it is absolutely crucial. So for example, a note that I made was, make this piece hollow. This was crucial because we were trying to save on costs. After I sent over the sketches, they came back with the sample, and I approved it, and then it went into production. When you do this process, you might need some revisions from your manufacturer, and that's okay and totally normal. I wanted to share that story because I wanted you to know that you don't have to be a designer to start your own jewelry business. Working with a great team means being able to lean on your people to round you out in the areas that you have less experience in. And I won't name any names, but I have friends that design for their own luxury fashion companies and they have grown to be pretty highly esteemed, and yet they never took a class in their life. Like I have seen them sketching really like crude Mickey Mouse drawings in their sketchbook and then eight months later, they're doing runway shows. So yeah, don't let that be a barrier to entry for you guys. Designing one day, for example, and marketing the next really is the beauty of working for yourself, and I know you're going to love this when you're running your own business. Again, wait till the end where I'll share a realistic day in the life of being a business owner. There's one really, really juicy piece of information that I learned about product design from being in the industry, and I want to share this with you guys because even the biggest players in the game use this. Okay, so it's a method that ensures you develop hit products. Once you find a best-selling product, the key is to make variations of the same. So take the dome ring, I'm actually wearing it right now. This was the ring that started it all for them. And now they have dome huggies, dome hoops, a dome bracelet, they have a dome pinky ring, a slim dome ring, a gemstone dome ring, like the list goes on. So you guys can see that developing variations of a design that you know already works creates a repeatable formula that will help you scale your business. This works for two reasons. Number one, you're not reinventing the wheel with every new design that you drop, and thus creating the chance that that design won't hit. And number two, because the audience that you've already captured will be more likely to come back for more. So if you can pull this off, it's a really smart way to manage your resources. All right, let's talk about how to incorporate trends into your product offering. This is important because riding a trend wave can make your business skyrocket really fast in a short amount of time. Being at the right place at the right time in the jewelry industry is crucial in developing a booming business. So I'll save you some of the grunt work and let you know what trends are happening right now. I love this so much. Okay, so guys, we are still on a minimalist kick. However, the competition is really high in this niche. Vintage style jewelry, especially earrings that look like rope and seashells, those are really on trend. Bangles, they're super in in both gold and silver. However, some of the more experimental fashion lovers are wearing them in different materials like wood and resin. And also guys, anklets are having a moment. Organic shaped jewelry, that's having moments as well. Asymmetrical, soft curve pieces are super trending. And yeah guys, that's what's in right now. But if you want to be ahead of the curve, here are a few things to consider. For early adopters, long necklaces as worn in the early 2000s are making their way into fashion again. Classic chandelier earrings are going to be reimagined into statement pieces, including like sheet metals, bent and folded and bold gemstones. Culturally, Western motifs are making their way into the music and fashion and I cannot wait to see what the jewelry industry's take on this will be. And this last prediction is actually just coming from a gut feeling. I haven't seen this one on the runway or anything like that, but I do believe that authentic antique jewelry, kind of like this, that's going to have a moment. I feel it. I think this could be somewhere in our near future because people are starting to kind of like hire of mass production and are looking to businesses that offer products that feel special and one of a kind. So I don't know. We'll see. Finding your competitive advantage. A crucial part of standing out against the competition is being strategic about what benefits your business will offer. Do research on what your competition isn't doing so that you can do it. So let's pretend that I wanted to sell minimalist jewelry. Look at my competition, Mejuri and Gorgiana and Ana Luisa. I would look at their products, their customer service, delivery time, pricing, and so forth. One thing I'm seeing right away is that they offer modern basics, but they don't offer heirloom style basics like this here. So I could compete on a product offering level, or maybe I noticed that they don't do next day delivery. That's a great way to compete from a customer service standpoint. Finding your competitive advantage will help you be successful in the long run. Alrighty. Setting up your online store guys. So this is the next step. If you're already on that part of the journey, I will leave you a link for you guys so that you can get started with Shopify. You can actually go ahead and build your entire store for free and there are tons of beautiful templates specifically for jewelry guys. So once you have your trial, that would be step number one. Pick your theme. Dawn is a free theme that's also great for jewelry, but you can also explore paid themes like Lux and Paris for more features. Next we're going to add high quality photos. So guys, this is essential. Now you can develop high quality jewelry photos with AI. This is a nice way to skirt the cost of hiring a photographer, but if you're not a tech person and you do decide to hire a photographer, jewelry can be pretty tricky to shoot. So make sure that they have experience and a portfolio that proves their expertise specifically in jewelry. Otherwise, take your own high res photos on a clean background in natural light or studio light. You can even remove your background now inside of Shopify in one simple click with Shopify magic. If you guys want to learn more about that, I will leave a link to the Shopify magic tutorial in the description box down below, but showcase your jewelry from multiple angles guys in your photos and you want to consider lifestyle shots to demonstrate how the pieces are worn and how they will actually look on the figure. Next let's write compelling product descriptions. Don't just list materials guys. You want to write captivating descriptions that highlight the unique features of each piece. So what is the inspiration behind the design? Are there any care instructions? And be sure to use keywords that are relevant to your niche to improve your Google ranking. If you lack inspiration, Shopify magic is here to help with the power of AI. Shopify can write product descriptions for you inside the Shopify admin literally with a click of a button. So yeah, guys, if you do want to check that video out, I will link that in the description box below. Now let's make collections. A great way to get more people adding more things to cart is to organize your store with collections. Categorize your jewelry into collections based on style, material, or occasions like everyday wear or bridal sets. This is just going to make browsing really easy for your customers, which of course means more items purchased. Leverage the power of apps. The Shopify app store offers a vast selection of apps to enhance your store's functionality. So you're going to want to consider apps for managing inventory, offering discounts and promotions, or even adding customer reviews. I have linked a video for you guys in the description box down below. If you do want to learn more about Shopify apps, that's going to be a really helpful video for you guys to check out next. And then lastly, let your homepage shine, guys. This is a place for your most beautiful product photos, your best deals, the coolest product features, and you want to make sure that your homepage is aesthetically pleasing. Not too much copy and lots and lots of call to action buttons. Website complete and out of the way. And guys, when you are ready to start building your store, watch this video here. It is a tutorial that will walk you through start to finish how to build your Shopify store. Marketing your business. Okay, guys. So once you have your Shopify store up and ready, you're going to need to market your business. Here are four ways to get started. Social media. Get started by marketing yourself on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. Take videos of behind the scenes of you running your business. Viewers love that. Or you can tell a story. Maybe about how you started your business or a customer story. Show style inspo so that potential customers can get a feel for how they would wear your pieces. And another way to market yourself is starting collaborations with influencers. Partner with social media influencers who compliment your brand to reach a wider audience. And guys, don't forget, do not neglect offline strategies. Participate in local craft fairs and partner with boutiques. Run Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Google ads. If you have the budget, this is a crucial part of running any e-commerce business. So to learn more about how to run Facebook ads, definitely you're going to want to check out this video right over here. All right, who's ready to go through a day in the life of being a jewelry business owner? I'm so excited. So here is what a typical day might look like from what I have personally seen in the industry. Start with the morning. Some owners start their day with designing new pieces. They might sketch ideas, they might source materials, or they might experiment with techniques to create unique collections. Social media is a vital marketing tool that needs to be fed every single day. So you might find yourself videoing your pieces and editing them before posting. Then you might be in the trenches of connecting with your customers. Responding to comments, DMs, and emails is definitely going to be a part of your everyday routine. Then comes the afternoon. You're going to have a few things left to do, and one of them is definitely order fulfillment. This will involve packing and shipping your orders that you have received. You're going to have to ensure each piece is presented beautifully and securely for transit. At this time, you might also want to do an inventory management check. This includes keeping track of stock levels and reordering supplies. You'll be in constant communication with your suppliers, makers, or manufacturers. Later in the day, you might do website maintenance. This would include updating product listings, descriptions, any deals that you have going on, and fixing any bugs. The rest of the day could be dedicated to growth tactics. Some owners dedicate time to marketing strategies like influencer outreach, email marketing campaigns, or managing their meta ads. And guys, outreach to mentors and other folks in the industry is super, super important. Making time to grab dinner or chat on the phone is an underlooked strategy that should actually take up several hours of your day, especially when you're in growth mode and especially when you are a business owner. Then you might close off your day by getting updated on trends, competitor analysis, and industry news. That way you can adapt your offerings and your strategy as you go. A great way to keep organized with your day, especially if you're your own boss, is by calendar blocking. Don't forget that the Shopify free trial is in the description box down below. If you guys do want to give it a whirl. I'm not just saying this because this is a Shopify powered channel. This is the only online store builder that I recommend to my friends and family. I would never recommend anything else other than Shopify because it's so easy. I've personally never had a problem with performance or anything like that. So if you are in the market for building an online store, make sure that you're using the link below so that you can try it before you buy it. The next video that you should watch is right here. It's called how to start a successful jewelry business. This has some topics not covered in this video, like a step-by-step guide on shipping and fulfillment and what jewelry materials to pick. So guys, yes, I definitely recommend that you guys watch that next. And all right, that is it. This was super fun. And if you want to hang out next week, I will be here. Just hit subscribe. And yeah, guys, I will see you next week.