Jewelry Designers! How to Sell Your Jewelry Designs Online and Through Ebay!

If you're a jewelry designer, you know how important it is to establish a strong online presence. This opens up both a national and an international market to our jewelry business. Sometimes it seems as if the online jewelry market is too competitive with new jewelry designers coming on board every day pushing prices down. This is particularly true on auction venues such as Ebay. On the other hand, can you afford to ignore this mega market if you're serious about making money marketing jewelry?

I definitely have a love-hate relationship with Ebay. I love the way the high traffic brings in jewelry sales but dislike the constant fee hikes. Having sold both via auction and through Ebay stores, I know it can be a great market for handmade jewelry. BUT, in order to be extremely successful, you need to think of Ebay as another tool in your marketing arsenal. Don't expect to be able to post your handmade jewelry without doing a bit of self promotion. This is especially true of marketing through Ebay stores. My Ebay store sales were modest until I put into practice some easy to implement techniques to drive traffic to my store.

When comparing Ebay auctions vs. Ebay stores, I much prefer the store format. Auctions tend to be more labor intensive and subject to price depression. Bargain hunters tend to gravitate toward the auction format in an attempt to get a deal whereas store buyers tend to be more motivated to buy and less price conscious. Ebay stores allow you to set your own fixed price and, thus, maximize your returns which is a big advantage over the auction format where the market determines the selling price. Another big advantage to the store format are the promotional and tracking tools provided free with an Ebay store. These tools if purchased separately would cost more than the price of your monthly store fees.