Preparing for Christmas sales – Christmas stock

The run up to Christmas presents plenty of opportunity for your jewellery business both to make sales and to build your customer base for the future. But doing that means being prepared now even if the festive season seems a long way off. So over the next few weeks we’ll have a series of posts to help – starting with getting your stock ready.

If you have been selling jewellery for a while you should be able to estimate the amount you are likely to sell, or set yourself some targets, based on previous years. However, for those of you with fairly new  businesses it will be harder here are a couple of things to consider:

• Do you plan to sell at fairs? If so how many? Remember that you will want to have enough stock to create a beautiful display at the last fair as well as the first. This may mean you will have some stock left over for the new year – but you could think about have a last days before Christmas sale online if this worries you.
• How easy is it to make new stock? If a particular item or items is going well, will you have the time to make more of it?

Jewellery is not just for Christmas

A lot of people think about making Christmas themed jewellery, but remember that a lot of jewellery is bought as gifts and, just like puppies, jewellery is for life not just for Christmas. Making pieces that people will love and wear for a long time can be a better strategy for both Christmas and long term sales.

Image: Andy Noren, Creative Commons

Create pieces that work together

Christmas is a time when people may be tempted to spend more, so think about how your jewellery works as sets as well as displaying it individually. For example, a customer may fall in love with a necklace and then be attracted by it in a set with earrings or a bangle – especially if the set is a little less expensive than buying the earrings, etc, separately.