Jewelry Seller

You can absolutely make money by selling jewelry online, even if you’ve never used an online selling platform. However, it’s important to manage your expectations. How much you’re able to make depends on the value and quality of the jewelry you’re selling.

It’s worth noting that your earnings won’t necessarily be stable. Many reports from sellers on Etsy, for example, suggest that earnings often fluctuate from one month to the next. It can take a lot of time, effort, and persistence to consistently make money selling jewelry online—and it’s not guaranteed that you ever will.

How much money can you make selling jewelry online?

Since jewelry prices vary depending on what you sell, it’s difficult to determine the average income of an online jewelry seller. Judging by user reports, you could make anywhere from just a few dollars to up to $2,000–$5,000 per month.

What affects your earnings selling jewelry?

As you can see, earnings from a jewelry selling side hustle fall into a pretty broad range. This comes down to a few factors that influence your earning potential:

• Value of materials: The price of a jewelry item is largely determined by the value of its components. Pieces set in 14k gold with diamonds or precious gemstones will be worth more than those made with beads and copper or plastics.
• Production (handmade vs. manufactured): Handcrafted jewelry products can generally fetch a higher price than manufactured pieces. This is because buyers are aware of the craftsmanship and effort that went into creating them.
• Exclusivity: If you’re selling your own handmade jewelry, you’ll be able to charge more for one-of-a-kind pieces than items you make in batches. Uniqueness adds value to jewelry and increases demand among people buying jewelry as a gift.
• Historical or cultural significance: While not all jewelry goes up in value over time, you may be able to make a decent amount of money selling rare heirlooms and antique jewelry, depending on the conclusion of a jewelry appraisal.
• Product demand: Different types of jewelry go in and out of fashion, so if you have a product to sell that’s in vogue, you may be able to earn higher profits compared to what you’d get from other items made of the same materials.
• Where you sell: Some e-commerce platforms for jewelry selling come with seller fees. You’ll also usually have to pay booth fees if you sell your jewelry at a craft fair or flea market.
• Seller costs: Jewelry sellers face a wide range of business expenses, from material costs to taxes and shipping fees, which affect their overall income.
• Seasonal demand: You can certainly earn money selling jewelry year-round, but it’s worth noting that many jewelry sellers see a spike in sales around certain holidays, such as Christmas, Mother’s Day, and Valentine’s Day.

Understanding these different factors that can impact your income will help you become a better jewelry seller and devise more targeted and effective selling and marketing strategies for your side hustle.

Whether you’re planning on starting a jewelry reselling business or making and selling jewelry, there are a few steps you’ll need to take to get started.

1. Decide what jewelry you want to sell

If you haven’t already, decide what pieces you want to sell. For any jewelry business, you’ll want to hone in on a niche so you can stand out from the crowd and find the right customers.

For example, here are some jewelry categories you might like to explore:

• Wedding and bridal jewelry
• Costume jewelry
• Jewelry made with a specific material (gold, silver, pearls, etc.)
• Fine jewelry
• Eco-friendly jewelry
• Custom/personalized jewelry
• Birthstone jewelry

Creating a comprehensive business plan will help you find your target buyers as well as provide clarity on your projected expenses and earning potential.

2. Source your jewelry (or jewelry-making materials)

If you plan to sell handmade jewelry, you’ll need to acquire the necessary tools and materials before you can do anything else.

Here are a few good places to source raw materials for making jewelry:

• Metal manufacturers
• Gem and mineral shows
• Craft supply stores
• Junk yards
• Antique stores
• Flea markets
• Nature
• Gemstone dealers
• Crafting sites like Etsy

On the other hand, if you’re buying and reselling jewelry, you can source individual pieces online on sites like eBay, in antique shops, or at trade fairs.

3. Decide where you want to sell

The next important step in selling jewelry online is deciding where you want to sell. Most jewelry sellers either use online marketplaces or sell on their own website. Each method has its pros and cons.

Online Jewelry Selling Methods Pros and Cons

While selling independently offers you more flexibility with pricing, it requires significantly more work to get started. You’ll need to build a website and invest time, effort, and money into advertising your business and generating web traffic. If you’re new to the game or looking for the best way to sell jewelry online quickly, you’re better off selling on one of the many online marketplace platforms.

Our list of selling apps goes into more detail on each of these platforms, but here’s a summary below of platforms you can use to sell jewelry online from home.

Online Marketplaces for Selling Jewelry

4. Price your jewelry

Once you’ve got the jewelry you want to sell and factored in any costs related to your chosen jewelry selling platform, you’re ready to set your prices. As you’ve already seen, jewelry prices vary substantially.

If you’re reselling jewelry, you should get it appraised to ensure that you’re selling for a reasonable price. For handmade jewelry selling, your best bet is to evaluate your competitors, check out how much similar pieces to yours are selling for, and set a realistic price range for your target customers.

5. Create your listings

Your listings play an incredibly important role in how successful you are in selling your jewelry. Taking time to make your listings accurate, descriptive, and appealing will go a long way in helping you sell your jewelry for a good price.

A strong listing includes the following features:

• High-quality images: Having clear and high-quality photos of your jewelry is essential. Make sure you highlight any imperfections or details in your pictures. The more photos you have, the better chance you have selling your pieces.
• Accurate descriptions: It’s important to be as detailed as possible in your item descriptions to ensure full transparency with customers. Listings that include more detailed descriptions tend to sell better.

Some platforms give you a lot of freedom when designing your storefront, while others are more limited. Once your jewelry listings are active, all you have to do is wait for buyers to purchase or bid on your pieces. Finally, you collect your money and arrange for the customer to receive their jewelry.

Selling jewelry online can be an intimidating process if you’ve never used e-commerce marketplaces before, and it might take a while for you to find customers. However, there are many useful strategies you can use to get more sales when selling products online.

Here are some tips that will help you sell your jewelry:

• Provide flexible shipping options: If you’re shipping jewelry, offering different shipping options will attract more customers.
• Get an appraisal for your jewelry: Getting appraisals or ISO certifications for your pieces gives an extra degree of authenticity to your jewelry and will attract higher-paying customers.
• Market your products on social media: Social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook are great places to advertise and sell your jewelry at no cost, and you can link customers to your storefront through your social media profile.
• Protect your jewelry: Jewelry is fragile, so be sure to carefully wrap and package your pieces before shipping to prevent damage.
• Be attentive to your customers: It may be a no-brainer, but communicating with your customers, answering their questions, and providing all-round great customer service ups your chances of getting good reviews and seller ratings.

Ultimately, it’s up to you whether selling jewelry is worth it. In some cases, it can be very hard to get buyers and earn what the jewelry is really worth. But on the plus side, online platforms make it incredibly easy to sell jewelry from home with very little effort.

One obstacle that jewelry sellers often face when selling online is convincing customers that their jewelry is authentic. Many online marketplaces are flooded with cheap knock-off pieces and mass-produced jewelry, which leads to high levels of buyer skepticism.

However, if you market yourself well, set clear and realistic goals, and, above all, have a passion for jewelry, selling jewelry online can be a great side hustle.