Growing your jewellery business by selling wholesale
Blog
As part of the new book ‘Start and Grow a Profitable Jewellery Business’ with Jessica Rose, a handful of talented and successful, handmade jewellers were invited to be interviewed about various different elements of their business.
Each jeweller was chosen specifically to talk about a particular area of focus within their business which they were doing brilliantly at, to share their real life experience and demonstrate how its done. One of these areas of focus was how to use selling wholesale to grow your jewellery business…
Selling your jewellery in shops, boutiques, galleries and other retail outlets can be hugely rewarding and is a great way to see your business grow. This is known as selling wholesale and is a very different business model to selling online.
So for this chapter of the book, Jess invited established jeweller Kate Wood who has successfully used wholesale to grow her jewellery business, and has built up some lovely relationships with galleries and boutiques around the world, to come and talk about her experience.
Here’s what Kate had to say…
Kate in her workshop
How long have you been a jeweller for?
I started selling pieces here and there in 2005 and the business started to take off in 2009 when I moved into my studio at Cockpit Arts in London’s Holborn. A long time now!
How did you start making jewellery?
I’ve always loved making things and made necklaces and earrings as a child from found objects and beads I’d buy from the bead shop in Bath. I’m mostly self-taught and it’s been a long process of experimentation over the years, refining techniques and sourcing the right materials. I have done various silversmithing and stone setting courses (including stone setting and wax carving at the London School of Jewellery). I used to work in a museum and one of the conservators there taught me how to make pins by melting silver wire – those little pins are the main building block of my jewellery to this day.
Kate’s packaging
Where do you sell your jewellery?
I mainly sell wholesale and I’ve built up some lovely relationships with galleries and jewellery boutiques around the world. Many of my stockists are in Europe – Germany, Austria, France, Portugal and Belgium. You can find me at EC One in London and I sell through my own website, katewoodjewellery.com as well. I also sell through Dazzle, which holds exhibitions in London and Edinburgh and has a selling website, lovedazzle.com.
did you always plan to sell wholesale?
I never really had a grand plan, to be honest, I just wanted to sell my work! I started out selling to galleries on a Sale or Return basis, but after a while I found it a bit frustrating, as you need to send a lot of jewellery out to retailers, with no idea when to expect a return on that investment of stock. With wholesale I take an order, receive payment and send the stock out to the retailer. Simple!
Did you have to design a range of products specifically for wholesale?
I didn’t but I often think that would be a good idea as a lot of my pieces are very labour intensive! Obviously you have to look at your pricing and make sure the numbers work as retailers will be marking your jewellery up by x 2.5-3.
What percentage of your business is wholesale?
Around 70%. I’d actually like it to be closer to 50% and I’d like to focus on growing my direct sales – the wholesale does take up most of the time though!
How has wholesale helped your business to grow?
It’s my main source of income. Wholesale means that I have a steady income stream throughout the year now that I’ve built up a good number of stockists who will generally place repeat orders in spring and autumn. Things really took off when I did the Inhorgenta trade show in Munich. I’d done trade shows in London before, but Inhorgenta was a different level. I found that there are more stockists in Europe who are a good fit for my work, compared to in the UK, and it’s just a bigger market in general. There is a real respect for hand crafted work over whereas the British market is often more traditional, or fashion orientated.
Anything else you’d love to share?
If you’re interested in wholesale, trade shows are a great place to start. If you want to dip your toe into the world of tradeshows but are nervous of taking a stand on your own, or budget doesn’t allow, you could consider taking part in a government subsidised group stand. Get in touch with British Jewellery and Giftware International (BJGI) for more information and support. They also offer funding towards taking your own stand at tradeshows.
Want to know more?
If you’d like to learn more about how sell using a wholesale business model, as well as read Kates’s top tip for new jewellers starting out, then you’ll find it all here in the new book - ‘Start and Grow a Profitable Jewellery Business’ with Jessica Rose.
want to learn more about building a jewellery business?
If you’d like more help with learning how to launch and grow a jewellery business then why not consider joining our flagship programme - The Jewellery Business Bootcamp which is open for admissions at the start of every year. Click below to find out more…
