Today, more than ever before, businesses are thriving online, and anyone looking for an easier approach to setting up a business would want to have an online presence of some sort. One of the businesses that you could run online fully is the jewelry business as one of the largest and the most profitable business niches; the jewelry business pegs most of its success from the ever expanding online landscape that seems to be very supportive of online businesses with good quality jewelry products, as well as reliable systems.
Unfortunately, not everyone who dreams of setting up and running the most successful jewelry business actually gets to enjoy these benefits. Most businesses fail within the first year of operations, and since you don’t want to be a part of the statistics, you need to make sure that your business is set up correctly. If you have been thinking about setting up an online store to sell necklaces, you need to make sure that you set everything right from the get-go. In this article, we’ll guide you on the steps for setting up a website for selling necklaces on Shopify.
With an estimated 29 million people buying jewelry online and the fact that Shopify is one of the leading ecommerce platforms today, the odds will be in your favor if you set up your jewelry store on Shopify and know how to run things, fulfilling your customers’ orders in time, always. Keep in mind that the jewelry business can yield good profit margins of between 25% and 75% depending on the perceived value of the jewelry, meaning that if you have good quality necklaces for sale and run the business for the best-designed website, you are likely to run a profitable business. So, how do you do it?
Well, the first thing you need to do is to create a website that you will be selling the necklaces from. Shopify is one of the best platforms to create and run your jewelry business from, which is why it’s the top-recommended platform. However, it doesn’t mean that you are guaranteed success as soon as your store is live – the jewelry business is worth over $71.3 billion in the United States alone, meaning that it won’t be easy for you to break into the market and make huge sales. You’ll be required to put in a lot of time and effort and also be patient. We’ll help you work out the first part of this equation – creating a website on Shopify for selling necklaces.
Getting Started – Easily create a website to sell necklaces on Shopify.
The front-end makes the jewelry business seemingly easy and highly profitable from the moment the business starts. However, this is far from the truth, and running an online jewelry business or any other kind of business for that matter is quite hard, which means that if you are ready to take that plunge into the business scene, you’d have to cautiously take time to understand all that it takes to run a successful venture. Below are the simple steps you need to follow to create your website.
Understanding Shopify
Shopify is, without a doubt, one of the best-known brands in the ecommerce landscape. But despite its popularity, it’s largely underutilized, with very few people using it effectively. Many people also don’t know how this ecommerce platform/ tool works, yet it’s an affordable and reliable option for anyone looking to set up an online store easily, especially when you’re on a budget.
Essentially, Shopify is sophisticated software that runs on the SaaS model, meaning it’s a subscription service. Paying for this service is considered the most affordable way of enjoying Shopify. Overall, Shopify allows online business owners to create fully functional websites with little to no tech knowledge or experience, and the best part is that Shopify offers an in-built shopping cart solution that enhances ease of use of the platform. Once set up, a website running on Shopify allows for the sale of physical and digital products with ease.
Choosing a Shopify plan
Shopify offers 5 plans that you can choose from. These plans range from $9 (and a Buy Button) for the Lite Plan to the $2,000/month (+2.15%/transaction) for the Shopify Plus Plan. In between these two plans, you have the Basic Shopify plan, the Shopify Plan, and the advanced Shopify plan that cost $29, $79, and $299/month and transaction fees charged at 2.9% & 30¢, 2.6% & 30¢, and 2.4% & 30¢ in transaction fees, for these respective accounts. These options mean that depending on your budget, Shopify ensures that there is a plan for everyone.
Creating a Shopify Store for Jewelry Business
- Signing up for Shopify
This is the first important step in the creation of a website for selling necklaces is the creation of an account with Shopify. This is the easiest step. Just navigate to the Shopify Website to get started – click on the Get Started button on the Shopify website, then fill in your email address, set the password, and enter the business/ store name. Make sure that the email address is a professional one or one to be associated with the store. The name of the store should be unique – this is necessary for Shopify to allow you to purchase the business domain in the name chosen.
Once you have entered these details, click Next, the tell Shopify all about yourself. Here, you need to specify the numbers/ volumes of the products you will be selling from the store – for accuracy, base the numbers on how much you are already selling or the projected numbers. Next, click on the Enter My Store button when you’re done. Select the Online Store setup option, then click Next.
On the next page that pops up, fill in all your personal information, including your phone number, name, and address. You also need to configure the tax rates and currencies in this step.
- Adding Products to the Store
After signing up, Shopify will take you to the admin page for your new website. This is the new home for your necklaces website, and it’s the space that allows you to customize things in the store. Make the most of this blank canvas and upload the best quality product images to keep your customers interested and for them to keep browsing.
This is a simple backend process that is easy to work around, especially because everything happens stepwise.
First, you will be asked to add a product, and when you click on this page, the Add product page will open – this page looks something like a WordPress page. On this page, fill in all the basic details for the product, including the title, the price, a description, and the details of the vendor. How you complete this page is up to you; just make sure that the information is accurate and makes the products appealing. Also, you should save the information inputted at the end of each entry. Besides a compelling/ interesting description, you also need to get the best product images because the images make or break the chances of making sales.
You could also create collections of the products based on their features or the intended target market needs. So, if you have different groups or types of necklaces, you may want to group similar products.
You will be happy to know that Shopify allows you to arrange similar products in a way that pushes these products to show up in a specified number of collections (different). Doing this will make it a lot easier for your customers to find the necklaces they are looking for.
- Customize your Shopify Store
This is the most important step to keep in mind when setting up your online store on Shopify. In addition to using excellent images, you also need to work on customizing the store correctly. To do this, go to the dashboard, then click on the Look of Your Site. Here, you’ll be able to customize everything for your store, from the colors to the logos. It might take a bit of tinkering, and you have to get the right theme, but don’t rush it.
The theme is what determines the overall look of your website and how different elements work, which is why you have to pay a little extra attention to the themes. To access the themes offered, click on the Visit the Theme Store link. Here, you will access hundreds of themes to choose from, including the free themes. However, we recommend choosing premium themes. Unlike the free themes, the premium themes are often more appealing, and they also allow you extra modifications here and there, meaning you can tweak even the smallest details regarding the appearance of your website and how different elements work.
For the success of your brand, paying a little extra for the premium theme is totally worth it. Keep in mind that you are able to make tons of adjustments to the appearance of the site or its overall performance when you have access to the HTML and the CSS elements of that theme. And the best part is that you won’t need to hire a coding expert to set these things up; if anything, Shopify has an expert team that you can always reach out to when you feel stuck, and you won’t have to pay them.
In a nutshell, choosing the right theme in the customization step allows you to change the logo, color, items appearing on the selected pages, item functionalities, the carousel slides on the homepage, etc.
- Setting up your brand’s domain.
The other reason why Shopify is an excellent partner to work with when setting up an online store has to do with the fact that Shopify allows you to set up a domain with them. Once you’ve settled on the theme and the template design you’d love for your website, the next step is to select the specific domain you’d like your website to run on and to make the site official. You also need a domain for your website to go live.
To set up the domain, select the Add a Domain option on the dashboard – you will be asked to either register a new domain name or transfer an existing one. Select the preferred domain the follow the steps given. Note that you also need to specify the Shopify payment plan you’d prefer. When it comes to the domain names, you could either buy it from Shopify, where it will be added to your store directly, or you could buy the domain from a different platform then add it to your Shopify store – the choice is yours. Just remember to update your DNS records after the upload, specifically for an existing domain name. Once the domain name is activated, update the general information provided, the tax details, as well as the shipping information.
Before the page goes live, test out the order system – you can test things out from Shopify’s Admin section, specifically the settings page. Also, check the Payment Settings. To test the payments systems, first, deactivate it, then select the credit card payment gateway for tests. You could use the Bogus Gateway for the test then place an order the same way a normal customer would, just to see if all the systems are working.
- Activating the payment processor
Once you’ve confirmed that things are working, activate the payment processor. You can do this from the Payments tab on the dashboard. Here, you get to choose from the listed payment processors such as Authorize.net or Stripe. Shopify also features its own payment processor that quite easy to implement. For activation, follow the prompts, and you will be able to accept different payments that will be transferred to the specified account.
When selecting a payment gateway, take into account the transaction fees, types of cards, offsite checkouts, etc.
Once you’ve set up the payment details, you will have a fully operational Shopify Store.
As you can see, creating a website for selling necklaces on the Shopify platform is simple and straightforward! The best part is that you don’t have to pay someone to help you out since Shopify has everything you need in one place. Also, there are several prompts to guide you in each step, not to mention the support team that offers the best advice.
Conclusion
Thanks to Shopify, creating a website for your jewelry store is now very easy, and you will save a good chunk of money in the end, as long as you make the best product photos, choose the right theme, and create engaging product descriptions.
