Online Jewelry Store Makeover

I recently spent couple of days helping a jewelry designer with a website makeover. I hope these few things may be useful to share since I see them very often.

Email Newsletter Subscription

Why don't you have an email newsletter subscription at your website? If you do, why it is down there at the bottom of the page where nobody can see it? Even if it's easy to find, why do you think people will subscribe if you offer nothing in exchange?

Give your visitors a reason to share an email with you and your list of potential customers will grow faster as well as your business.

Search Engine Optimization

Making sure that your website is search engine friendly do not forget that, after all, we create websites for humans. Do not go extreme with SEO. We create jewelry websites not to trick Google but to serve people. Your website should be all about that.

Make Your Business Stand Out

Google returns almost 2,000,000 results for "handmade jewelry". Most of them make the same handcrafted (unique, handmade, artisan, custom, you name it..) jewelry. Ask yourself: how am I different from everyone else? I believe that you are special but here is the challenge: can your website visitors find that out in 10 seconds or less just looking on your front page? If they can't - they will go somewhere else rather quickly.

Choose Original Web Design

Try hard not to make yet another Overstock.com. If you have less then 100 items, you do not really need a full-scale e-commerce solution. If your jewelry website looks as a discount online retail store, your visitors will expect a lot of products to choose from and low prices. Is that what you try to do? In your case, original and stylish online boutique may work better.

Multi-Channel Selling

Your online store is just one of many possible channels to sell your jewelry. Do not forget about eBay.com and Etsy.com and stay alert for craft shows around.

Networking

Meet new people and make more friends. Remember that nobody buys from a stranger. These days a lot of people network online. You should consider using social networks like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.

Be Patient

Nobody can make a successful online jewelry store overnight. It takes time. Make sure that you have a good plan and a right mindset. Then stick to it and act every single day.