Wholesale Jewelry Suppliers » Buying Tips

Choosing Your Next Jewelry Supplier

admin — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 02:27:19 +0000

15 Questions – To Help You Choose Your New Suppliers

In the last email I discussed some steps to help your business get ahead during the winter. One of the most important is choosing trusted sources. Although I sell high quality product and provide to my customers what I hope is considered very good service, I know most of my clients have other sources. The way I see it, it is important that you choose your o ther sources wisely because it will only make your business stronger.

Here are 15 questions to research or ask your next supplier, to help determine if they are right for you, and my rationale for each:

1) Are they really a wholesaler?
“wholesale prices” usually translates to slightly below retail. If they sell retail or simply require you to purchase more than $x then they are not a true wholesaler. Wholesalers only sell to other businesses. Period.

2) Do they have a minimum order/ Pricing Structure?
Most do. But inversely to #1, just because there is no min does not imply that they are a retailer. Some of the most reputable wholesalers (like us) do NOT require a min order. More importantly, check if there are terms or tiers for getting the best prices. Some companies require high volume purchases ($1000+) before they give you the best prices. The base price may not be much better than retail.

3) What is the return policy
Check if there is a re-stocking fee and what the terms are for returning product. Is your satisfaction guaranteed? Most companies these days have very generous return policies, so if they don’t, be skeptical.

5) Do they allow drop shipping?

This should raise some flags. Personally, I am not a fan of drop-shipping. The model is a customer service killer. I would recommend staying away from dropship companies.

6) Do they retail their own product?
If they retail the exact same product they are wholesaleing to you, don’t buy from them. Period. You don’t want to be competing against your supplier because they will always be able to undercut you and are not really looking after your interest as a wholesale customer.

7) Does someone answer the phone when you call?
Do they recognize your name? Will you have a permanent account rep? This is a big deal. You want your supplier relationships to be personal – in the sense that they know who you are and understand your business. Even in the Web 2.0 age the person to person contact is important. If they don’t take the time to get to know you a little or don’t return your calls in a timely manner, this is a very bad sign.

What services do they provide after the sale to help your business succeed? Is your relationship over once the order is placed? Will they answer your questions and give you advice on marketing the jewellery? Provide selling tools such as online and offline catalogs you can utilize? Try to get a sense of how interested they are in helping your business as opposed to just ‘getting’ your business.

9) How often do they stock new product?
1000 products may seem like a lot, but over the course of a few months if you see the same 1000 products, the number will seem a lot smaller. Buy from companies that are nimble and responsive to the marketplace. You want your sources to be always on the hunt for new and unique designs.

10) Do they re-stock the same product over and over?
This may be relevant to you only if you have a or catalog and plan to re-order same items again and again. At wholesalegemshop.com for example, we like to vary our designs and don’t usually re-stock the same items month after month. Keeping designs fresh helps sales. But if you plan to sell on your website or your own catalog, be sure you figure this out ahead of time. You don’t want to spend hours editiing a photo and printing a catalog only to find out you cannot source the same items.

11) Are shipping rates reasonable?
Some places make all their profits on the shipping. Some sites charge per item. This is especially important for interanational orders. There are economical ship methods for international, so if someone tries to overcharge you be very skeptical of their credibility. Jewelry is very light and can be shipped through the postal service for only $1-$5.

12) Is their website secure?
Look for the secure lock bottom of browser. Only really matters that the checkout is secure. If you are not on an https page when you begin the checkout process, RUN! Your credit card information will not be safe if you enter on an non SSL site.

13) Are they members of the BBB?
Click logo on their site for report. This is a great way to measure a companies reliability. The fact that they pay $400+ per year to be members says a lot in itself. And the BBB has high standards. But click the logo on the site. I had someone steal my custom BBB logo and put it on their site so when a customer clicked it, they were directed to MY BBB Report page! Very slimy. Be sure to match the name of the company with the name on the BBB report. Lots of scammers out there.

14) Do they post real, updated customer feedback?
A couple hand-picked entries don’t really count. Look for sites that share loads of feedback that (when you read) is obviously unedited. Also check the dates to see if they are recent.

15) Do they have a blog with useful information (and not just spam)?
This will tell you a couple things: first – often times you can get some great insight into their products of helpful tips from a supplier’s blog. Also, it is an indication of how serious they take customer service. I.e. spammy blog could mean that their bottom line is volume, not quality.

Building Inventory For Your Jewelry Business

admin — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:20:27 +0000

I am often asked what sells best. Even thoughthe answer to this question is dependent on a number of factors including your marketing channels and target customer, I usually recommend earrings and pendants for your first wholesale jewelry purchase. The reason is pretty simple. 1) One size fits all 2) I have 100’s of rings and pendants that will retail at $10-$15 while still giving you a 250% markup (your price x 2.5).

I recommend starting off with items that you can buy wholesale for $4-$7. But be sure you focus on jewelry with natural gemstones that is sterling silver. If you are looking for jewelry wholesale lots just keep in mind that often times wholesale suppliers will pick from their overstock (I do this as well), and althoug the quality will be comparable with other jewelry on the site you will not know exactly what you are getting. For this reason I recommend for at least the first order to pick and choose invidual wholesale earrings and wholesale pendats for your inventory.

How to Order Wholesale Silver Jewelry

admin — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 19:54:26 +0000

As the demand for gold jewelry increases by the day, manufacturers of good quality wholesale silver jewelry are gradually turning to gold jewelry production or closing business. It is now important that buyers and manufacturers of wholesale sterling silver jewelry understand each others concerns and problems. In this article we look at both sides and provide suggestions that would be helpful to both sides. Here are the most important questions that need to be answered when buying or making wholesale sterling silver jewelry.

Steps

Ask: Is the design provided by the buyer or does it belong to the manufacturer? This will have a direct impact on the final price quoted by the seller. There is an initial overhead to be borne for design and mould charges and this will be added to the price tag of the first piece. If the initial order for wholesale silver jewelry is a large one, this initial charge is spread over a large volume and therefore does not increase the price per piece significantly.

Ask: Why is the first piece priced high? One of the main reasons is explained in (a) above and involves the initial design and mould charge. Subsequent orders for the same design will use the same mould and therefore be sold at a lower price. In many cases the buyer, would first order a single piece, then place a wholesale order after receiving the first piece. In such a case the seller would have to protect himself from a situation where the buyer buys only the first piece from him and then looks for another seller to place the final order. The seller would thus like to recover all initial overheads from the first piece itself.
Ask: Why does the price fall as the volume increases? Large orders of wholesale silver jewelry provide the seller with the economies of scale. Production is much easier as the design and moulds can be reused to manufacture the jewelry. Craftsmen do the production of the same design . multiple times thus reducing the chances of breakages and other losses. In cases where the wholesale silver jewelry also includes gemstones or diamonds, the seller gets a better price when bulk purchases are made. All these factors combine to enable the seller provide a better price to the buyer as the volume of the order increases.
Ask: Are gemstone options limited? If you buy your wholesale silver jewelry from a seller who is also the manufacturer, there is no reason why the gemstone options should be limited. However, there is a price range within which, most buyers would like their silver jewelry to remain and this might influence the gemstone selected. Wholesale sterling silver jewelry made with gemstones like aquamarine, tourmaline, ruby and sapphire would be quite expensive and have a limited market.
Ask: Should silver jewelry be plated? Plating on silver can be done with rhodium, white gold, yellow gold and even platinum. Plated wholesale sterling silver jewelry will look awesome when new but the plating will wear off with time and the jewelry might look quite shabby. The plating wears off in patches and in many cases the jewelry becomes a piece of junk. All silver jewelry manufacturers will provide plating at a small additional charge.
Ask: Is the craftsmanship always bad? This need not necessarily be true but once again the market price point influences the decision. Wholesale 925 silver jewelry is produced by a mechanized process, however it is possible to provide good handfinishing in the final production phase and improve the quality of the jewelry. This adds to the price tag and is therefore avoided in most cases.
Ask: What are benefits of good metal weight? Wholesale silver jewelry is normally made with a low silver weight to save costs. This causes the jewelry to bend and twist at the smallest impact. The gemstones and diamonds will also be loosely mounted and could drop off at any time. A good silver weight on the other hand adds to the long term durability of the jewelry and the final consumer need not keep spending money for frequent repairs and modifications.
Ask: How big is a wholesale order? As the number of manufacturers for wholesale silver jewelry decreases, those remaining in business set higher volume requirements to confirm orders. This could pose a problem for buyers as they might be left with inventory of unsold stocks.
Remember that many buyers of sterling silver wholesale jewelry would like to make smaller lots of jewelry to test the market and large orders might not be suitable in such cases.
Ask: What is the minimum order quantity by design ? This answer depends of the factory principally, but an order can start from 10 to 15 pieces for the same design. This is the minimum acceptable. Under this quantity the price by piece is too high. I explain, one worker can produce 2 pieces of one design in 1-2 days (example) and this same worker can produce 25 pieces of this same design in just 5-6 days.

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