Previous Newsletter

Hello Everyone!

It appears that a popular mail client has taken exception to our newsletter this month so I thought this would help prevent some of you from missing out while we try and persuade the mail client to let us back in!

We would like to say a BIG THANKS to all of you who have been selling your hearts out this year, it's been a great start to the year for many of you and of course for us too. I thought I ought to write a newsletter at least once this Quarter and before Mother's Day, a mere month away on Sunday the 22nd of March 2009.

New Jewellery & Stock Clearance

We have 11 new lines of jewellery in this week.

We are going to have a Stock Clearance in March to make way for more new lines. More on that nearer the time.

Selling your Jewellery

Every now and then we have a member who asks us to review their listings as they have struggled with getting sales. We thought this is a good topic for the newsletter and hopefully it will help some of you who are in that particular boat.

Almost always it's the same problem ... pricing.

As we all know Jewellery is a luxury and like all other products it needs to be priced right to attract customers who actually buy.

People buy jewellery for a myriad of reasons, quite often, particularly precious metal jewellery, it is a sentimental purchase when bought as a gift. When customers buy jewellery for themselves it is because it makes them feel a particular way, whether a bracelet goes with an outfit or the feel of the materials makes someone feel special. The emotional value of jewellery is often far greater than the actual cost of the item.

Remember Ratners? OK they were never a high end retailer but their jewellery was an affordable and accessable way for people to own Gold, Silver and Gemstone jewellery. In short it was an extremely popular and a very successful jewellery business.

Then Gerald Ratner made the famous gaffe of saying the jewellery was "total crap" and that some earrings were "cheaper than a prawn sandwich". Whatever anyone felt about Ratners jewellery, their customers were incensed at the comparisons and it effectively ended his business there and then with £500 million wiped off the valuation of the company and a billion pound turnover cut right down overnight.

You can buy jewellery out of a bubble gum machine or a lucky dip bucket. How many actually do after the age of 12, I don't know the actual figures but, it must be an incredibly small perentage.

If you place a low value on your jewellery, your customers will feel it is worthless too. People don't want to buy worthless jewellery. Could you be giving the Ratner's effect to your sales?

We know it can be difficult to price items, we also know some people feel embarrassed to ask for £35 or £50 and feel if they make a £5 on every item it's OK. It is not because it will not give the right impression and could be losing you valuable customers, it's also not allowing you a sustainable profit to grow your own business.

A Major Bargain in Jewellery Can = A Perceived Loss of Value to Your Customer

This is why we offer the Suggested Retail Prices (SRPs). Not to force you into selling at those prices but because they are a reasonable guideline as to what you can reasonably expect to sell that item for. We want you to have that kind of profit level. We'd like to see your success as part of ours.

Does it work?

When we are customers, we often have an expected price or amount of money we are prepared to pay in mind. For jewellery, it is often the case that the price people have in mind is exactly what they want to pay, not a figure to go up to. Anything less and the customer often feels the item isn't what they want, they want something of the value of £XX.

We know ... we've lost sales like this ourselves and have met other jewellery retailers who've done it too!

Here's an example from a little while ago. Two members sold the same item on the same venue within a couple of days. Member A sold their item for £5.00 above our price, Member B went with the middle of the SRP and sold for £20 above our price.

That week, Member A sold 1 of this item, Member B sold 3. Member A had a customer threatening to cancel their order and return the item, the customer thought it was dodgy. Concerned we asked Member B if their customers were happy. It was reported back that all 3 customers had been pleased and one said they felt they had a "real bargain". They had too because they had bought a good quality piece, at a very reasonable price AND they were very happy with their purchase ...That's the real value right there.

To summerise:

Successful sales start with good pricing

I do hope that helpful to someone and of course if you have other experiences or opinions we are always happy to hear from you!

Happy Selling!