If your jewelry website is old or outdated and you are considering updating it, you have a lot of options to think about. You can go about building a new website by hiring a website developer or even tackling the project yourself, but, regardless of how you decide to move forward, make sure you think about the following points so that you build a website that will work best for your business. Keep in mind, there isn’t one answer that will fit all needs. Your website, just like your business, will be unique and should meet your specific goals.
What is the purpose of your website?
Some businesses make the mistake of just jumping into building on the website without considering first why they need a website. Here are some common reasons to tackle a new website project.
Update your website to match the look and feel of your store. Many jewelry stores are beautiful and convey luxury and style, but it is not uncommon that the website doesn’t live up to the brick and mortar experience. This is a great reason to update, because most consumers start a purchase with research and if your website is lacking appeal, it won’t matter how beautiful your store is, they may keep searching and find your competitors.
Gain new customers. If you are ramping up your marketing activities, your central hub is your website. Make sure your send potential customers to a great website landing page or else you may be wasting your ad spend. This is where a shiny new website comes in handy to compliment the new marketing activities. A new website should be geared towards converting visitors into customers either online or in your store.
Add a new sales channel – Ecommerce. Jewelry store websites are a prime candidate for e-commerce functionality. Customers can shop and purchase anytime they find the right item. A jewelry website filled with great products, beautiful pictures, and offering an easy shopping experience can capture sales even while you’re sleeping. This is why many jewelry store owners decide to upgrade their websites to a full-fledged e-commerce website. Keep in mind that maintaining an e-commerce website is a lot of work if you want it done right.
Regardless of the reason, make sure that you keep the purpose of a new website project in mind as you go through the process.
Build the website for your target audience.
It is very important for jewelry store owners to consider their target customer. This may seem unusual to imagine because as a retail store owner you would probably like any and all types of customers to come into your store and make purchases. Even though this may be true, we know that our branding, image, location, advertising, and even the products that you sell can determine the type of customers that you attract. So, make sure you think about who your target customers are and build the website with content for that target in mind.
There are several aspects that you should think about when determining your target.
Location. Tailor your pages and content to feature your local county or town. It will help consumers find you and the products or services they are seeking.
Tip: Create a location or town page with an embedded Google map featuring your GBP (Google Business Profile) listing. This will help boost your local search ranking online!
Product selection. You may focus your offerings on a specific interest like nautical jewelry, hip-hop jewelry, nature jewelry, or the plethora of jewelry themes out there. Some jewelry stores tout themselves as the place for bridal jewelry like engagement rings and wedding bands. Whatever you focus on, gear your content to those specific products which will help your customers find your much easier.
Tip: Create product/collection pages that specifically feature content about your main items. Create a single page for each and fill that page with relevant text, images and videos. You will have best chance to rank high on related Google searches by doing this.
Add features to your website to enhance the buying experience.
When thinking about your new website, make sure to keep in mind the various features that you can possibly integrate to enhance a user’s experience. You may not be familiar with some of the features so here’s a quick list. Keep in mind, there are numerous options to add to your site but, some features are more costly or even require a lot more manpower to keep them going.
- Drop shipping – A vendor will ship your order direct to your customer.
- Live Help – Customers can instantly ask questions. SMS is popular for this!
- Chat bot – Like live help, chat bots are pre-programmed to answer commonly asked questions.
- Social Media Feed – Dynamically load your social media feed on your website to keep it fresh.
- Connection to POS system – Keep track of all your sales and inventory in one system.
- Financing and flexible payment options – Allow multiple payments for larger purchases.
- In-store pickup – Convenient for customers that want fast transactions locally.
- Request quotation – Customers can submit their specs and get a customized quote.
- Schedule appointment – Automated booking system for repairs, bridal consultations or more.
- Product videos – Product videos can help customers evaluate products much easier.
- Reviews – Allow customers to submit reviews of your store or products.
There are many more features that can be integrate into a website, but these are the commonly used ones for jewelry websites. Beyond the add-on features, there are several features that should be present in all new websites. These would include fast-performance, mobile-friendliness, security, and a slew of back-end programming features that can help with SEO (search engine optimization) or performance.
Finally, we will say one feature that is worth looking into is web accessibility. This is commonly over-looked on websites but if you make your website useable for all, including people that have disabilities, you can gain customers that your competitors may not be catering to. Learn more about this topic by reading our article on Web Accessibility here.
Advice: If you are unsure about what you need, contact us for a free consultation or work with another reputable web development company.
Building a new website for your store is exciting but requires your full attention. Make sure you determine what you why you need in a new website and what it should do for your business. If you don’t clearly define these, you may be disappointed down the road. So, don’t always take the easiest or least expensive option out there. Interview multiple web developers and you will be amazed at what you learn about the process. Beyond its launch, you will also need to attract customers to your new website as well as keep it updated and maintained. Do it right and your new jewelry website can serve you for years to come. If you know you need one but don’t know where to start, contact us and we can help you understand the process and all of the options.
