Is your jewellery business ready for Christmas?

It’s almost Halloween so which means we need to talk about Christmas. We may all laugh about Christmas products arriving in the shops earlier and earlier each year. But if you have a jewellery business and want to make the most of the Christmas period, the earlier you start planning the better.

Christmas is coming – is your jewellery business ready?

This means you need to be finalising your plans right now. So here are 10 useful thoughts for anyone wanting successful Christmas sales:

1. Do you need to make specific Christmas stock? If you do, you should have already started. Unless your normal work is very seasonal or you produce, for example, slogan jewellery, it is unlikely that you will need a Christmas collection. A lot of your work will be bought as presents anyway, so rather than coming up with new designs think about making the gift potential of your pieces as obvious as possible.
   

   You may want to associate your jewellery with Christmas rather than create a Christmas collection

2. Product descriptions. Change the descriptions of your pieces online – for example include phrases like “unique secret Santa gift” or “ideal handmade Christmas gift” or even “perfect for wearing with a party dress”. Or creating labels or flyers with similar messages for use at fairs.
3. Mention Christmas to customers. Ask if they are looking for Christmas gifts or have any parties coming up, what are they wearing, etc. You want them to feel enthusiastic about Christmas and associate your pieces with that.
4. Gift wrapping is a great way to add a premium service – lots of people hate doing it. Wrapping needn’t be expensive – but it does have to look good. If you aren’t good at it yourself think about gift boxes and stick on ribbon decorations. You can photograph your gift wrapping options for your online shop and have samples set out on stalls.
5. Why not give your regular customers a little “gift” in the form of a discount or perhaps a voucher for free gift wrapping. This is very cost effective if you have email addresses for regular customers because it is cheap to send out and could drive extra sales covering the cost of the offer.
6. Think about the way people shop at Christmas. Some of their shopping will be stocking fillers or secret Santa presents so if you have items that sell for around a fiver label them as these type of gifts.
7. At the other end think about combining items into jewellery sets to show how jewellery sets can make lovely gifts. A set should be priced at slightly lower than the total cost of the individual items. You might also want to think about how you present and package sets.
8. If you sell online, check the last postage dates for Christmas for both the UK and overseas. Make sure you state these clearly in the information you provide about post and packaging. Don’t forget to allow for the time it will take you to send out orders – gifts arriving after Boxing Day do not make for happy customers who will buy from you again.
9. If you want to sell at Christmas craft fairs and markets, check out local press for information as well as looking on Stallfinder.com. Research any markets, including how big it is, where it is promoted, what size of table is provided and what else is there, before committing to a stall. You could also ask around to see it anyone else you know has sold at the event or even visited.
10. Plan how you are going to set out your Christmas stall. You want it to look attractive and festive, but remember the focus should be on your jewellery so avoid too many distracting baubles, etc, instead may be use your gift boxes in the display to add a Christmas look. Fairy lights can add sparkle to your jewellery but again don’t go over the top.

Too much Christmas decoration can make it difficult for customers to focus on your jewellery

However you decide to sell your items this Christmas we wish you a successful festive period.

If you want to build your jewellery business, take a look at the range of London Jewellery School business classes and don’t forget if you book a day business class before 31 October 2014, you’ll receive a jewellery business distance learning pack for free.