The Nostalgia of Traditional Jewelry Buying

I’ll be first to admit that buying jewelry online has its limitations compared to shopping for jewelry out “in the wild”. Venues like estate sales, garage sales, antique stores, and street vendors add an element of ‘the hunt’, a pursuit that ends in the thrill of finding the perfect bauble you never knew you needed. 

I remember my first jewelry store experience. I was visiting my aunt and uncle in Maryland when I was barely allowed to ride roller coasters. We took a day trip into DC and ended up at a mall that looked exactly as one would think.

Most of the stores contained wares that I was too young to enjoy or really care about. But then I saw it - sparkling like a bright beacon and outshining its comparably drab neighboring stores. The intense halogen lighting seemed to magically beam powerful rays into the neatly arranged pieces of jewelry that filled the storefront windows. Causing them to scintillate and shimmer as if they were almost vibrating. 

It was my youngest memory of being in love and I was hooked. The jewels weren’t real, but that didn’t matter in the slightest. I wouldn’t have known what the real thing looked like anyway! I was lucky enough to walk away that day with a pink cubic zirconia ring that became the most prized possession of my young life. 

The Future of Buying Jewelry Online and Why it Benefits You

Buying online will never completely replace the real deal. I get it. I’ve lived it. But - and it’s a huge ‘but’, there are a ton of benefits when it comes to shopping for jewelry online. Some are less obvious than others, but as shopping habits evolve, being aware of these benefits may make the transition to online purchasing more appealing.

The first, “less obvious” reason is that the pricing is more favorable online than in a retail setting such as a store. The high markups on retail merchandise are needed to cover exorbitant rental costs, employee salaries, operational costs, marketing, and much more. Brick and mortar establishments can count on foot traffic to get buyers, but the cost it takes to make a retail location work well is passed on to the shopper. 

The practice of markup affects even small designers who have their work in these establishments on consignment. Often getting back only 40% of their asking price making their margins so slim that it’s difficult to profit. This forces them to raise their prices with a middle-man when they would otherwise sell their work for less direct to consumer. 

This is a hard model to sustain for smaller makers, which is why many are turning to setting up shop online in order to sell directly to buyers. The buyer gets better pricing and the seller has more comfortable margins to work with to continue producing new work. Plus, the overhead costs are a fraction of a retail location. Everyone benefits but especially you, the consumer.

The Benefits of Technology

Enjoying shopping online over an in-store experience is largely going to depend on how well you handle crowds and leaving the house in general. Some of you will celebrate shopping from your own couch while others, not so much. 

Regardless of which camp you’re in you’ll find that most sites go over and above what is expected to offer the best experience to consumers because they realize that the alternative is generally still considered better by most. Especially when it comes to jewelry.

Not only is shopping online a no-pressure sales environment of which you can browse without interruption, but you can get tailored shopping suggestions, first alerts to special discounts, access to private online sales, and more just by being on a shop’s email list. What you get is a more personalized shopping experience, instead of you being just another customer with a salesperson looking to score a commission. 

Plus, and I can tell you from my experience of being an online shop owner myself, there are so many extra features you can add to an eCommerce site that creates a better experience for the consumer. Features like chatbots to immediately answer faqs. Or software that allows shoppers to set up payment plans at checkout.

If there’s an opportunity to optimize the shopping experience for the consumer than a software developer has made a plugin for it. I’ll let you in on a little secret, there’s a race among developers to create software like this because of the demand for it. Meaning more and more online stores are implementing them for your benefit. 

The Convenience of Online Shopping

Say goodbye to shopping during “mall hours” or wondering how late stores are open during the holidays. The internet marketplace is open 24/7. Not only that but you can search for anything specific with a few keystrokes and get access to any retailer in the world instantly. How’s that for convenience?

I’ve listed some things to keep in mind with online jewelry stores. As with all things, not every online store is created equal. There are few quality assurance indicators that you should look for. 

• Easy to find and clear returns policy - that displays whether the merchant accepts returns, the process, and time expectations for returns (if applicable).

• Clear and easy way to contact the seller - be wary of sites that make this info difficult to find.

• Easy to find shipping policies - displays expected shipping time and costs. 

• Cohesive branding and original imagery - Beware of scammy sites that look thrown together with stock photos. Derivative or poorly formatted content such as glaring typos are red flags that the site is not legit.

• Look to see if the site has an engaged audience on social media platforms - sites that have a digital footprint in multiple places online are much more likely to be a high-quality merchant.

• Original content - Avoid sites with generic information in the “About Us” section or in their product descriptions and product photography.

• Minimal pop-ups or ads - Sites with a lot of pop-ups and ads, especially ones that you can’t close, are simply a bad user experience and not a great indication that the site is a quality seller.

Safer Ways to Try-On Jewelry

Let’s address the pink elephant in the room. Sure, after reading this so far, shopping online for jewelry is starting to sound pretty good. After all, it’s more cost-effective, convenient, more personalized, and just plain easier. Overall the entire experience is less obtrusive and a more pleasant way to shop. 

But…..

You can’t try pieces on. 

So, how does one navigate this particular challenge? This is the one sticky point that is admittedly a tough one to crack. One thing you can look for is lifestyle images with models wearing the pieces. This way you can at least get the scale of the piece without needing to try it on. Also, most product descriptions should include the size dimensions of the piece. Of course, it’s hard to beat the visual reference of an image but both of these are still lacking to paint a full picture.

That’s why drum roll, please….I created a way for you to virtually try on necklaces. It’s a free app that you can download today. It gets you closer to the experience of actually trying on the necklace inside a store than anything else out there. You can look at yourself in your phone’s ‘selfie cam’ while wearing “augmented reality” necklaces of your choosing, selected from the available inventory at the AndreaLi.com online store.

Adjusting to the ‘New-Normal’

Now you know the many benefits of shopping for jewelry online. Just as many merchants are forced to adopt the idea of selling their products online, many consumers will have to adjust how they buy too. Even though the e-commerce trend has been big before this year, it’s now more prevalent than ever. It’s probably a safe bet that any store that is brick and mortar will have an accompanying online site as well. 

The world of commerce is going online so much so that the top social platforms are also becoming ‘shoppable’. The ability for sellers to tag their products in their posts to show price and availability are turning social feeds into catalogs. The barrier of entry is being removed with one tap shopping that takes you directly to the product page on the retailers’ site. 

Platforms like Pinterest are replacing malls where users can browse their feeds and that are tailored specifically for them. Now, not only will search results come back with relevant pins but also provide a shop tab to shop product displays of vendors on their platform that are part of their verified merchant program.

The future is here and it looks to accommodate you the consumer above all else. 

Ready to Start Online Jewelry Shopping?

Download my holiday gift guide and browse from a beautifully curated selection of items all under $300. Shop directly from the pages of the PDF. As an added bonus it includes an exclusive code for checkout on Black Friday. You can only access this by downloading the guide. Spoil yourself with a luxe me-gift or be the hero to someone special on Christmas morning.