How to Build a Jewellery Collection That Sells with Kirsty Pruce (Podcast Episode)
How do you turn individual jewellery designs into a collection that actually sells? In this episode of the Jewellers Academy podcast, Elin Horgan talks to fashion business consultant Kirsty Pruce about range planning for jewellers. Discover how to create a cohesive collection, choose the right mix of products and price points, use your sales data to decide what to make next and know when it’s time to retire older designs. Plus, find out why every piece in your jewellery collection needs a job to do.
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When you’re a jewellery designer, it’s very easy to approach a new collection by asking yourself one question:
What do I want to make next?
You have an idea for a necklace. Then a ring. You find a beautiful gemstone you want to use. You experiment with a new technique. Before you know it, you have lots of individual pieces you love, but do they actually work together as a jewellery collection?
And, perhaps even more importantly if you’re building a jewellery business, have you created a collection that is easy for your customers to buy from?
In this episode of the Jewellers Academy Podcast, jeweller Elin Horgan is joined by fashion business consultant Kirsty Pruce to talk about jewellery range planning and how to build a jewellery collection that sells.
Kirsty studied buying and merchandising at London College of Fashion and has worked with brands including Whistles, COS and The White Company. She now brings that commercial experience to independent jewellery and accessory businesses, helping founders with everything from pricing and profitability to product development, customer profiling and range planning.
What is jewellery range planning?
Range planning is the process of stepping back and planning your jewellery collection before you sit down at the bench and start designing it.
The aim isn’t to take the creativity out of jewellery design. In fact, it’s about finding the right balance between creativity and commerciality.
Rather than looking at every design as an individual piece, you start looking at the collection as a whole.
Who is the collection for?
How will they wear it?
What price points do you have?
Are there obvious gaps?
Do you have several pieces doing essentially the same job?
Is there an accessible entry point into your brand as well as more expensive or statement pieces?
As Kirsty explains in the podcast, every product within a jewellery collection should have a job to do. You might have an essential everyday piece, an entry-price product, a bestseller that generates consistent sales and a more exciting statement or “wow” piece that attracts attention to the collection.
It’s about having the right product, in the right place, at the right time, at the right price, for the right customer.
Why range planning matters for independent jewellers
Range planning might sound like something designed for large jewellery or fashion brands with buying departments and merchandising teams. But Kirsty argues that it can be even more important for a small independent jewellery business.
When you’re working with a limited budget, you can’t necessarily afford to make large quantities of products that don’t sell. Unsold jewellery means materials, labour and money tied up in stock. Starting with a plan can help you make better decisions about what you design and how much you produce.
Kirsty describes herself as a big believer that ‘product is king’. Fantastic marketing can get more eyes on your jewellery, but marketing alone can’t compensate for a product range that isn’t working. Beautiful jewellery may attract likes, follows and fans. A well-planned jewellery collection is what helps turn that interest into sales and supports a more sustainable and profitable business.
Start with the idea behind your jewellery collection
So how do you start planning a jewellery collection?
Before thinking about spreadsheets, price points or sales figures, start with the creative idea. Kirsty recommends gathering inspiration in whatever way works for you. That might come from nature, architecture, art, film, vintage jewellery, gemstones or materials.
Create an inspiration or mood board and begin defining the visual language of the collection:
the materials you want to use, colours, shapes, textures, scale, motifs, stones, findings and settings.
This gives you a framework to design within and helps your finished jewellery collection feel cohesive.
Your wider brand identity matters here too. If you have already defined your brand DNA, your customer and the aesthetic of your jewellery business, use that as a reference point throughout the design process.
Design your anchor piece first
One useful approach is to start with an anchor piece.
This is a strong design or motif that captures the idea behind the collection.
You can then ask how that idea might translate into complementary pieces.
Could the motif from a statement necklace become a smaller pendant?
Could it become a pair of earrings?
A ring?
A bracelet?
Rather than designing isolated products, you are building a family of jewellery that feels connected.
Think about your customer too. If someone loves your particular design style, are there different ways for them to buy into it depending on what they wear, their budget or the occasion they are shopping for?
That doesn’t mean every jewellery collection has to contain every possible product type. But it does mean thinking deliberately about the choices you’re giving your customer.
What makes a good jewellery collection?
There isn’t one formula every jeweller needs to follow.
But Kirsty identifies characteristics of a strong jewellery collection.
There needs to be newness and excitement.
You should feel genuinely excited when you see the designs and samples. Commercial planning can help shape a collection, but it can’t rescue jewellery that doesn’t excite you creatively in the first place.
There should also be something distinctive about your work.
In a crowded jewellery market, a clear design point of view matters. One of the strongest signs that you have developed your own design handwriting is when someone can recognise a piece as yours before seeing your name or branding.
Look at the balance within the range: jewellery types, metals, colours, stones, sizes, scale and price points.
Don’t forget your bestsellers.
If customers have already shown you that they love something, you don’t have to abandon it in your rush to create something new. Think about how you could develop that idea through a new colour, size, stone or complementary design.
How big should your first jewellery collection be?
If you’re starting a jewellery business or launching your first collection, Kirsty’s advice is simple:
Start small and build from there.
You don’t need dozens of designs.
Producing too much jewellery before you know what your customers actually want increases the risk of being left with stock you can’t sell. You might even begin by making one of each design.
The goal of an early collection is not to offer everything. It’s to create at least one strong, cohesive design story that represents your style and gives you something you can begin testing with real customers.
Once you start selling, you have something even more useful to work with: sales data.
Let your jewellery sales teach you what to make next
One of the biggest advantages of an established jewellery business is that you no longer have to guess entirely what customers want.
You have evidence.
Look at your sales history.
Which jewellery categories sell most strongly?
Which price points work?
Are customers repeatedly choosing particular gemstones, colours or styles?
Do they respond to movement, texture, scale or a particular type of detail?
And just as importantly: what isn’t selling?
Kirsty recommends going further than simply deciding that an unsuccessful piece “didn’t work”.
Try to understand why.
Was it too heavy?
Was the scale wrong?
Was it in a metal your customers don’t usually buy?
Was the price wrong?
The lesson is much more useful than the sales figure alone because you can apply it to everything you design next.
Don’t be afraid to retire jewellery designs
There is another side to range planning that can be surprisingly difficult for jewellery designers:
Knowing when to let a design go.
It’s very easy to keep adding new products to your website while leaving everything you have ever made sitting alongside them.
But older pieces that no longer represent your design style can dilute a strong new collection and potentially create doubt for your customer. That doesn’t necessarily mean throwing away existing stock. You could create a separate sale or archive section while keeping your current collection much more focused.
Think of it as pruning your jewellery range rather than continually expanding it.
Think about your jewellery price points
Your jewellery collection isn’t only a collection of designs. It’s also a collection of prices.
Kirsty uses price architecture when working with jewellery brands, looking at the balance between entry, mid and higher price points.
Generally, a collection might contain more pieces at an accessible entry level, fewer products in the middle and only a small number at the highest price point.
The exact numbers will be different for every jewellery brand, but the principle is useful: look at your prices as a range, rather than pricing each item completely in isolation.
This is also where looking beyond other handmade jewellers can be useful.
Study successful jewellery brands at a similar place in the market to you. Look at how they structure their collections, what their entry products are, where their price bands sit and how they move a customer through their range.
You’re not looking to copy their jewellery. You’re learning from the commercial decisions sitting behind it.
Three things to do when planning your jewellery range
If you want somewhere simple to start, Kirsty leaves us with three particularly useful pieces of advice.
Don’t design one thing at a time.
When you have an idea for a new piece, think about how it fits into a group and how that group fits into the collection you already have.
Know the role of every product.
Is this an easy everyday piece? Something your customer can layer or stack? A gift? A statement piece for an event? Who is buying it and why?
Give your retail pricing structure.
Look at the overall shape of your prices rather than allowing them to become a collection of random numbers created entirely from individual cost calculations.
You don’t need to turn your independent jewellery business into a huge fashion company.
But you can borrow some of the tools bigger brands use to make better commercial decisions.
Because a successful jewellery collection isn’t simply a collection of beautiful things.
It gives your creativity structure.
It gives your customer choices.
And it gives every piece you make a reason to be there.
Listen to the episode
Listen to the full episode of the Jewellers Academy Podcast with Kirsty Pruce to learn more about jewellery range planning, price architecture, product development and how to build a jewellery collection that sells.
Including:
What jewellery range planning actually means
Why every piece in your collection should have a job
How to create a cohesive jewellery collection
How to balance entry, mid and higher price points
Why starting with a smaller collection can be a smart move
How to use your sales data to decide what to design next
How to develop your existing bestsellers rather than constantly starting again
When it might be time to retire older jewellery designs
Why looking at larger jewellery brands can help you make better commercial decisions
about kirsty
Kirsty Pruce is a jewellery and accessories consultant and industry expert with over 15 years of experience specialising in buying, product development, and commercial strategy. She works with jewellery brands and designers to develop compelling collections, build balanced and profitable ranges, and shape product strategies that support sustainable brand growth. Kirsty is passionate about helping creatives gain the commercial clarity and confidence they need to turn their vision into a successful brand.
https://www.kirsty-pruce.co.uk/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirsty-pruce-50777233/
Instagram: @kirsty.pruce.consulting