If you’re a retailer looking to introduce jewellery to your shop for the first time, here are some pointers that we’ve picked up on our journey through both retail and wholesale.
1. Make sure you have a mirror in the shop and that it is big enough and positioned suitably for customers to see at least chest level and up.
2. People are very individual and we all have our own likes and dislikes. If you need to gauge what styles of jewellery work best for your customers, don’t restrict yourself to buying in singles as you’ll never know if it was a quirky one-off purchase or not. And don’t buy just to your own taste!
3. If you change your window regularly, keep a note of which products were in it when, particularly if you are located in a location that gets a lot of passing footfall when you’re closed. People will come in and ask for ‘the blue necklace that was in your window two weeks ago’.
4. In our experience, colour blocking works better for sales than a section of all your jewellery. When we changed our exhibition stand from a by style layout to colour sections with scarves and other accessories added in, our order quantity and value increased. And retailers wanted to replicate the display style. If you’re not sure, why not try a bit of both?
5. Selling in sets can work well for Christmas but we’ve found that the flexibility to buy necklaces and earrings separately works best for both us in the trade and the end consumer. Some customers won’t wear earrings, some will only wear gold, others will want studs when the matching pair are drop earrings. And it’s for this last reason that we always have a good selection of resin stud earrings in stock; they sell well on their own but also to coordinate with our resin necklaces as an alternative option.
6. Packaging is key. As the importance of brand has grown, so has that of quality packaging. Shoppers like a nicely presented gift. And it all ties in with making a purchase easy for your customers. You may have your own store packaging but if not, we offer three styles: pillow packs, gift bags and boxes. We don’t sell the jewellery pre-boxed as it would mean a lot of waste and extra carriage costs for both us and those retailers wanting to promote their own brand. We charge for it at cost and, yes, whilst other suppliers might offer packaging free of charge, it will be built into their overheads somewhere.
7. Offering a wish list service can be a great addition. When we had our own shop, we kept an address book where we could list the items that a customer really liked and then they’d suggest to friends and family to do their gift shopping with us.
8. We were also very happy for people to bring in an item of clothing that they were trying to match to and gather up all the jewellery that we felt would work well with it for them to see together. This service was used in particular for wedding outfits.
We hope that the above tips are of us, even if it’s just one little thing. If you’re stocking Miss Milly for the first time and have any questions, please do give us a ring and we’ll happily help where we can.
