Selling your jewelry at a trade show can be a fun, lucrative way to boost your business. Use these tips to learn how to take the stress out of preparing and running a trade show and to ensure you're getting the most for your time and efforts. Tips courtesy of Ultimate Guide to Your Profitable Jewelry Booth by Rena Klingenberg.
It’s not about quantity.
The best stocked cases are not necessarily the most stuffed—use jewelry portfolios and jewelry rolls to store excess jewelry, and arrange your case to best sell your jewelry.
1) Leave empty spots in your case to give customers a sense that your jewelry is selling, but that you still have plenty to offer.
2) Do not include identical pieces in your case. Seeing multiples takes away the feeling of uniqueness while eliminating the incentive for a customer to make a quick purchase.
3) Stock multiple-piece jewelry sets to encourage multiple sales. Point out that the set makes a great gift, spread out over multiple occasions.
Label and tag your items.
Pricing items can be a complicated step in growing your jewelry business, but one that’s very important to customers. Here are a few ways to price and tag your jewelry for sales success.
1) Visible price tags give your customers buying information up front, an important benefit for busy shops or booths run by one or two people.
2) Tagging your items with a price also means you won’t have to remember the price (or look it up)—a benefit when you’re too busy helping customers to be referring to pricing charts.
3) It’s best to choose labels that cannot be easily removed and replaced by someone hoping to get a better deal. Tadpole™ tags are an excellent choice.
4) If the price you’ve set is non-negotiable, consider printing the prices on your tags rather than hand-writing them. This lets the customer know the price is firm. There are several styles of printers made just for this purpose, including the thermal transfer print system from Rio Grande.
Keep it clean.
Know the best tools and methods for keeping your stock clean and looking its best for the ultimate sales results. Cleaning jewelry during and after a show is a must, since your pieces accumulated dirt and oils from being handled.
1) Clean your jewelry using methods suited to the metal. Sunshine® Cloths are a great choice for cleaning a variety of metals before the show as well as after. There is even a Sunshine Cloth especially suited to stainless steel.
2) Every metal except gold and platinum will eventually tarnish. Slow the buildup of this annoying residue with 3M Tarni-Shield™ strips, tabs and Silver-Guard™ blocks. Place the strips or tabs in trays or place blocks in cases alongside your jewelry to absorb the moisture and sulfurs that cause tarnish.
3) Try easy-to-clean plastic trays to keep your jewelry cleaner and avoid scratches.
4) After you’ve cleaned your jewelry, avoid repeat cleaning by placing jewelry items in Soft Sleeves™ to protect them from dust, scratches and fingerprints.
5) Prevent dirt and oil transfer from your own hands by wearing cotton gloves when handling your jewelry.
It’s not only your jewelry that gets dirty at shows—your displays also undergo much wear and tear, both from your jewelry and from your customers’ hands.
6) Stock up on Velvet Saver™ lint removers to keep your velvet displays looking clean and new. Your displays will last longer and better present your work, show after show.
7) Use a slightly damp cloth and a mild detergent (baby wipes work well, too) to clean your faux leather displays. Before cleaning with any wipe or detergent, be sure to test it on a small, inconspicuous area of your display to see how it will affect the surface.
Organize it!
Organization is key to a stress-free show.
1) Before you head to a show, set your jewelry up in your displays to save set-up time. Attach your earrings and pendants to convenient jewelry cards, then simply hang the cards on a jewelry card display. Jewelry cards and card displays allow you to artfully show a larger selection of your jewelry in a smaller space, ideal in tight areas such as show booths. When you get to your show, all you have to do is pull the display out and set it on the table!
2) Be sure to have a supply of jewelry card adapters on hand. These handy adapters allow you to turn any earring or pendant card into a hanging card to add to your display.
3) Place your jewelry items in plastic Zippit® bags of various sizes and pack them together in boxes or trays to reduce the amount of trips you’ll need to make from your car to your booth (and back again after the show). Plastic bags are also great for keeping jewelry clean during transport and free from tangles with other jewelry pieces. Insert 3M Tarni-Shield™ tabs into the bags with your jewelry to slow tarnishing.
Seeing is believing.
It’s a fact—potential customers are more likely to make a purchase when they have an opportunity to see themselves wearing a particular piece. Place mirrors around your booth and allow customers to try on pieces they’re interested in. Customers will appreciate the added benefit of seeing themselves wearing a piece of jewelry before buying it, and you’ll see the results in your sales.
Impress.
The last impression is as important as the first. You’ve poured time and creativity into creating your jewelry, traveling to a show and selling your work. So why send it home with a customer in a plastic bag or some other bland packaging?
1) Package your jewelry pieces in boxes, pouches or totes, and you can be sure your customers will remember you. Adding unique packaging is a great way to keep marketing to your customer long after the show.
2) Boxes, pouches and totes are often less expensive than you might think. The return you'll see from an impressed customer is well worth the small investment in memorable packaging.
3) With Impressions™ personalization, available from Rio Grande, you can truly make your packaging your own. It’s an easy, inexpensive way to close your sales memorably.
