Sell More Handmade Jewelry on Ebay Auctions & Stores

Good morning everyone! I want to get back to giving you some ideas for improving your online sales of handmade jewelry. If you're an Ebay seller, you'll find this to be helpful. Even if you don't sell online at all, you will still benefit from incorporating these ideas into your promotional literature.

When I first started selling my handmade jewelry via Ebay auctions and later in Ebay stores. My sales were lukewarm at best. Oh, I sold some items but I certainly wasn't happy with my performance. I decided to go back and take an objective look at my listings and try to see it them from the point of view of a potential customer. Well, guess what? I didn't like what I saw! Oh sure, all of the relevant information was there that a buyer might need to make a decision but there was nothing else! No personality, no sparkle, no voice. Just bone dry, dull information.

The truth of the matter is that people buy on the basis of emotion. How much emotion are you going to arouse with a cut-and-dry bare bones descriptions with just the relevant facts? Yes, you still need the relevant information such as type of metal, stone, dimensions, etc but you also need a little sparkle to make the potential buyer really WANT your item.

One resource I would highly recommend to you if you're interested in improving your copywriting skill is this fantastic resource on making your words sell. By the way, there's loads of free information on this site that will help you with your handmade jewelry marketing. I can't recommend it highly enough.

How can you add more sparkle and personality to your writing?

1. Give a little history about the item you're selling. Do you design in a particular style that has historical interest? For example, if you make jewelry with a vintage theme, you could talk about the role this type of jewelry played in history, how it was worn, who wore it, and why it was so popular. At one time I was selling hatpins with a vintage look on Ebay. This gave me the perfect opportunity to talk about the history of hatpins. For example, did you know that back in the late 1800's hatpins were judged to be potentially lethal weapons and banned in some states? This is an intriguing fact that a potential buyer might want to know. Actually the history of hatpins is quite interesting and makes for good rainy day reading if you ever have some free time.

2. Talk a bit about what motivated you to create a particular handmade jewelry piece. Customers love to look inside the mind of the artist or designer to see what motivated them to create a particular design. It gives the jewelry meaning and takes it from just being another pair of earrings to a unique work of art. I just read a trend article that suggests that the current consumer is less interested in owning alot of extraneous things and would like the things that they do choose to buy to have meaning. Give you handmade jewelry item some meaning by letting the customer see inside your mind for a brief moment. Tell them how and why you designed a particular jewelry piece. This is a great way to keep them reading and, hopefully, motivate a purchase.

3. Add a few emoticons to your descriptions. If you don't already know, an emoticon is a keyboard character that represents a particular expression or feeling. For example, the
emoticon :-) is a smiley face which suggests a very upbeat and positive connotation. When appropriate, use an emoticon to symbolize a positive emotion or thought. They can help to add a bit of personality to your handmade jewelry descriptions.

4. If you have an opinion about a particular handmade jewelry design, share it with your potential customer. For example, you might have a description like this:

"This is one of my favorite pieces! The texture of the airbrushed metal contrasts so beautifully with the smoothness of the stone cabachon. When you stand in the light you can see the exceptional veined pattern of the stone. I think it's one of the most interesting pieces I've offered in recent months"

5. Offer suggestions on how to wear a particular piece of handmade jewelry or how to coordinate the piece with a wardrobe item. For example:

"This stunning onyx and sterling silver necklace will go beautifully with the little black dress in your class that needs that special touch of refined elegance"

Give your customers ideas! Not everyone has an innate fashion sense and may need your suggestions and guidance to feel comfortable purchasing.

6. Add some adjectives to your description. After you've written your auction description, go back through and see if there are places where you can add some descriptive adjectives to give sparkle and personality to your writing. A few well placed adjectives can really liven up a description. By the way, in the next post, I'll be giving you a list of descriptive jewelry adjectives that help to sell listings. You can print the list out and keep it beside your computer to use when you're writing auction descriptions.


Well, the morning's almost gone! Time to get some more work done. Hope you have a fantastically productive day. :-)

Kristie