Selling Jewelry Wholesale
Though Mail Order

Selling your jewelry to shops through mail order is an excellent opportunity for you to expand your market right across the country and even overseas without having to leave your own city limits.

As in any sales presentation, its always important to maintain a professional appearance. Your correspondence, your advertising, your printing are all very critical to your success in mail order selling, as they are your "salesman."

In order to acquaint the shop owner with you, your work, how you work and the quality of your work; you should always include an introductory letter and a resume or a brief bio about yourself— education, exhibits, awards, etc. Also describe the type of work you do, and any special production techniques that are involved.

Enclose a brochure or catalogue on the line of jewelry your are selling. If you have a website then send a couple of photos and direct them to your website to the rest of your jewelry. Shops do like to see the actual item, therefore quality photographs are a necessity as sending samples can be risky. Along with your photographs, you should include some type of description or supporting literature — sizes, colours, uniqueness, suggestive uses, and a good description of any details. The shop owner has to get a good picture of the item other than just from the photographs. (See Promotional Materials for Your Home Jewelry Business for more information on designing promotional materials ).

Your price list should be on a separate sheet of paper, as with inflation you may from time to time have to raise your prices. It is cheaper to change one piece of paper than to reproduce your whole brochure or catalogue. By doing this, you could also hand your brochure to people who buy directly from you, whereby, you include a retail list. This same brochure or catalogue can be used for wholesale accounts, retail accounts, or for consignment accounts—just use the price list which is appropriate.

Also, be sure to enclose an order form along with an expected delivery date upon ordering. For example, shipment will be sent three weeks after date of order. As mentioned above, once you receive an order immediately contact the buyer or send back a copy of the order form, indicating when you will ship, and if there are any problems in filling the order—back logged, stock shortages, etc. And of course, terms of payment (C.O.D., net 30 days, etc).