Subscription boxes have become a popular way for people to get their favorite items delivered right to their door, and the jewelry industry has been keen to pick up on the trend. From earring subscriptions to boxes complete with rings, necklaces, and the like, jewelry subscriptions are becoming quite popular. If you’re looking to get into the business, there are a few things to consider before you jump into the industry. Here are five things to keep in mind before starting a jewelry subscription box business.
1. Your Audience
Perhaps the most important factor to consider is your audience. Who are you selling to? What age groups? Are you strictly a box for tween or teen girls, or do you offer boxes for people of all ages? As with any business, knowing your audience is the most important part of creating a successful brand. You’ll want to perform market research before you open your business, so you can get a more accurate idea of who you’re marketing to.
If you’re not sure where to begin, it’s a good idea to look at who your competition is. Who are they selling to? What kinds of products are they offering? Which demographic seems to provide the most patronage to their brand? Competitor analysis is every bit as important as audience analysis, as they’re the current experts in the industry you want to enter.
Analyzing your audience and your competition will also help out when you’re setting prices. You don’t want your prices to be too high, or else you won’t attract any customers, but you also don’t want them to be too low either, or you won’t make any money.
2. Marketing
Once you’ve identified who will be purchasing your items, it’s time to identify how you’re going to reach the audience. If you know who you’re supposed to be marketing to, but don’t have a plan for how you’re going to reach them, you’ll find that your business suffers greatly. You need targeted marketing to help you reach the people you know will want to buy your products.
This is especially important in the beginning stages of your business. An earring subscription can be an excellent idea, but if you don’t know how to reach the people that would want to buy it, you’re not going to make any money.
It’s important to diversify your marketing efforts as well. Take advantage of free social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook to market your products to a wider audience. Instagram alone has over one billion active monthly users, and as of this year, Facebook has over 2.41 billion active users worldwide; that’s a lot of potential customers!
3. Materials
Your next consideration should be the materials you’ll use in your jewelry. Are you only going to offer fine jewelry with high purity levels, or are you looking to diversify and include lower-tier options as well? If you decide on the latter, it’s vital that you consider which materials you’ll offer.
Precious metals are often infused with a metal called nickel, which is usually the cause of allergic reactions to jewelry and is actually considered to be a carcinogen (cancer-causing agent). It’s best to avoid alloys infused with nickel, even though they may be cheaper or easier to produce. Caring about your customers goes a long way in any industry, and by offering high-quality metals, you can set yourself apart from the less-caring competition and drive more customers to your brand.
4. Craftsmanship
In addition to the materials you’re using, you want to take into consideration the craftsmanship if your pieces. High-quality materials don’t matter much if they’re crafted poorly. You’ll want to hire a jeweler that truly understands the subtle details that go into a piece of jewelry, so as to provide quality pieces to your customers and differentiate yourself as a brand.
Not to mention, poor craftsmanship can cause pieces to fall apart, leading to unhappy customers, returns, and likely, poor reviews of your company. Take pride in what you do, and work to provide high-quality pieces at a price your customers can easily afford.
5. Shipping
The final consideration is how you’ll ship your boxes. Will you offer your customers free shipping, or will they be paying a small shipping fee to get their box delivered? Most subscription boxes offer free shipping, but there are those who allow customers to choose between FedEx, UPS, and USPS to deliver their packages for a fee.
Whichever option you choose, be sure to provide your customers with shipping updates as the packages are processed; they’ll want to know when their amazing box is going to arrive!
The Bottom Line
As with any business, customer service should be your number one priority if you’re starting a jewelry subscription company. Keep in mind that knowing who your audience is and how to reach them can mean the difference between success and failure, and craftsmanship and price are usually the first considerations that people take into account when purchasing jewelry.