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One of the biggest tasks for any jeweller wanting to sell their beautiful jewellery online is building their own website. Here are 11 actionable tips for you if you are creating a website or want to update your current site.

Having your own sales platform not only gives you a professional edge, but it means that all of your marketing efforts are going into driving customers to your own site and shop window instead of a platform with lots of handmade sellers selling similar products.

It has never been easier to create a beautiful website that looks slick and professional and, more importantly makes it easy for your customers to buy. However, there are some common mistakes or oversights that we see jewellers make time and time again. The purpose of this blog post is to highlight some of these so you can take steps to ensure that your website is set up for success from the very start.

Choose your platform wisely

There are so many platforms available these days on which to build a beautiful website. So it is important to take your time and trial a few different options to make sure that your chosen platform has the functionality you want and need, that it is easy to amend and update and that it will grow with you. The last thing you want to do is to have to move to another platform in a year or two given how much work is involved in setting up your online shop in the first place.

The main platforms for e-commerce are:

Wordpress
Shopify
Squarespace
Wix

All are great platforms and all have the potential to provide you with a beautiful e-commerce shop. But each has their downsides too, so it is important to get the right balance of functionality, look and feel and ease of maintenance for you and your business

Wordpress is a great platform but it can be complicated to set up and maintain if you don’t know what you are doing. It is extremely powerful however, and you can truly create a completely custom site on this platform if you have the technical knowledge.

Shopify is an e-commerce machine. If you want to sell hundreds of products but have an easier to manage platform that Wordpress then Shopify is a great choice. You are much more limited in terms of templates and layout unless you get some custom coding added to your site which can be costly, but if you just want to sell LOTS products (200+) then it is worth more than a look.

Squarespace is a platform that provides beautiful website templates. If you want your website to look amazing, and aesthetics are important to you then do check out this platform. There are hundreds of templates and layouts to choose from, great functionality, particularly if you want to integrate with other services such as Facebook, Instagram, Mailchimp, Acuity etc, and it is a platform that is really easy to set up and maintain. Its e-commerce offering doesn’t quite match that of Shopify, however, particularly if you want a complex navigation menu system so we would only recommend Squarespace if you plan to have a maximum of 200 individual products. Any more than that and Shopify is more likely to be a better option for you.

Wix is a platform that kind of falls in the middle of Squarespace and Shopify. Its templates aren’t quite as slick as Squarespace and some don’t find its interface quite as intuitive to use as Shopify or Squarespace, but it is a solid option if you are looking for a low-cost e-commerce site. They also provide plans that include logo design.

And there are lots of other platforms out there. The key is to be clear on the functionality you want and need, what you are prepared to compromise on (cost vs functionality), how tech savvy your are and how much time you will have to maintain and update your site. We always recommend trialing at least two platforms to see which one will work best for you before making a choice.

2. Understand how you are going to drive traffic to your website

You can build a beautiful site, but unfortunately the days of building it and they will come are a thing of the past. You have to drive traffic to your site in order to get the sales. There is a 1.5% conversion rate of people visiting your site who will go on and buy. So if you aren’t getting the sales you want, you don’t necessarily have a website problem, you may have a traffic problem!

Once you build and launch your site you need to do a mix of activities to drive people to your site. Here are some ideas:

• Being active daily on 1 or more social media channels

• Blogging regularly

• Building your email list

• In-person events

• PR

• Collaborations

One thing we recommend you do as soon as your website goes live is hook up Google Analytics and install the Facebook Pixel. This means that these tools are capturing data that can help you refine your website and create strategic ads to drive more traffic to your site when you are ready. If you set up the Pixel then all your daily activity ‘feeds the pixel’ so that you have a ‘warm’ audience ready and waiting that you can target ads to when it comes to new product launches and events.

3. Make sure your shop is easy to find

One of the biggest mistakes we see is that jewellers hide their SHOP away and don’t make it easy to find. Your SHOP should be first and foremost on your primary navigation (and even secondary navigation if you have one) and there should be buttons and links to your online shop from your homepage. You primary ‘Call to Action’ is to get people to buy from you so make it easy from them. Have a SHOP ALL page as well as breaking your products down into categories. Ideally you want your customer to be able to find your SHOP and products by 1 or 2 clicks max!

4. Include links to size guides and charts on your product pages

Again, you want to make it super easy for customers to buy from you. And if customers don’t know what their ring size is or what necklace length would suit them and you don’t provide tools to help them establish this then you might be leaving money on the table. As once they click out of your product pages to discover their ring size, statistically they won’t come back. So include links to sizing guides and charts that pop up in a light box so that they can quickly and easily establish the right size and carry on with the check out process. This might be as simple as offering them a free ring sizer, or they buy one cheaply and you deduct the cost from the total cost of the ring. The key is to make it easy for your customers to buy and to anticipate their every need.

5. Clear and uncluttered branding

Great branding can really make a good website sing. Your branding shouldn’t over-dominate your site, but should look aesthetically pleasing and help guide customers through your content. You want a nice simple logo that is clear to read, a consistent colour pallet, a carefully selected combination of fonts and a consistent image style.

We recommend 2 main colours, an accent colour and 1-2 neutral colours for backgrounds as a great place to start. Your main colours can be complementary or they can be in a similar tonal range - this depends on the vibe you want to create with your brand. Typically your accent colour is one that will stand out from the main colours as you want to use this colour for some headings or buttons to draw attention to them. Neutral backgrounds to go behind text can break up content and make the different sections of your site stand out from one another.

We recommend 3-4 fonts maximum on your site. You want to have a Main Heading font, Sub Heading font and a body text font. If it fits with your branding you may want an accent or display font that you use sparingly and that just adds a bit of personality to your site.

Branding helps your customer to understand who you are and develop confidence in you. This is crucial for a luxury, visual product such as jewellery.

6. An about page that is all about the customer

One of the most visited pages on any site is the About page. It should tell a little about you, tell your story in an easy to scan/ proof way so use lots of titles to break your content up.

You also need to answer the question 'what can you do for the customer?’, and why you are the best possible person to help them solve their problem. You want to make sure and include a ‘Call to Action’ or CTA to tell the customer what you want them to do next. Is that to visit your shop? Do you want them to sign up to your email list? Do you want them to book a consultation call, or contact you? We always advise having a call to action on each and every page of your site. The more you direct customers to your desired action, the greater the chance they will follow your lead.

Also we need a picture of you on there - that's a non-negotiable! Customers buy from people they know, like and trust and a nice photo of you and your lovely smiling face builds trust and confidence.

7. You have included social proof

This is a great way to increase confidence in you and your brand. Social proof such as testimonials and reviews are ways that you can show you are trustworthy and a great person to buy from and that people have purchased from you in the past.

You can also get plugins that alert people viewing your website that other customers have recently made purchases.

Finally you can include logos of other companies you have worked with, professional bodies you are part of, and any awards you have won for your products and services. All great ways to provide proof that you are a professional and trustworthy businesses to buy from.

8. There’s plenty of white space

Every website should have plenty of space around the text imagery and buttons to allow the viewers eye to see clearly what is going on. Less is more; if you website feels overcrowded it is unappealing to buy from. Give your jewellery some space to be seen.

There is nothing worse than a cluttered and fussy website that makes it difficult for customers to know where to look. A cleaner aesthetic draws your customers eye to where you want them to look and makes it clearer what you want the customer to do.

9. Add personality through your copy

A well-laid out and well-designed site, beautiful branding and gorgeous photography might get people to your site, but your copy or your words is what encourages people to buy. Your words are a powerful asset in converting page visits to sales.

You are a small business owner, a designer maker. Show your personality through your copy, your styling and how you invite the customer to interact with you. Write your site the way you would talk to a friend, not in formal, stilted English. You want people to connect with you and stick around to find more.

Don't be afraid to ask them to email you, to get in touch, to just say hello. Start a conversation. Not everyone is ready to buy right away, don't lose them. This is your shop front, get talking!

10. Compelling photography

We all know this one, right?! Good photography is ESSENTIAL. But so often we see brilliant e-commerce websites that are badly let down by poorly lit and fuzzy images. Your images are so crucial in making those online sales, especially if they have never seen your jewellery in person. People want to see in detail what you have to offer and you almost have to replicate the in-person buying process where people look at a product in detail, at all angles and maybe hold up the piece to see how it would look on you. Your photography needs to do all this. So show your jewellery at different angles, demonstrate size and scale, ideally on a model (modelling it yourself counts!), show the back of the piece and how it will be packaged.

And you want some stunning, hero images that are beautifully styled for your homepage that emphasises your brand and makes your jewellery feel luxurious and a great fit for their lifestyle (actual or aspirational).

So do spend time perfecting taking your own photographs for your website, or look to hire a product photographer that has a track record of creating great photographs for designers and makers.

11. Add video

So if you have done all of the above you are doing great. But there is one last thing you can do to really make you stand head and shoulders above the crowd. This is more advanced but very effective. Jewellers with short videos on their site about them and their jewellery business make more sales. If you don't have one, consider adding it to your plans this year to hire a videographer (or friend with a good camera/ phone) for a day and make a short promo video talking about yourself, your process, where you work and the inspiration behind your product range. It might be a bit scary, but we guarantee that it will be a gamble worth taking.

So hopefully this article has been useful and can act as a checklist of things to consider when building your website. And don’t forget, you don’t have to do all of this at once. Your website will never be finished and you will always be updating and amending it so focus on the areas that are most important in terms of improving your site and then gradually work up to the rest.

And if you do launch your website and put any of this to practice please do tag us on Instagram @jewellersacademy or Facebook so we can see the results of all your hard work!

Building a website for your jewellery business that sells