India is one of the foremost countries to export gems and jewels. The industry plays an important role in contributing to the country’s economy. But not by selling through traditional means alone. In recent times, the online jewelry market is fast-growing, with several big giants like Bluestone and Caratlane betting on it.
But why is the investor appetite for this online business so ripe? In 2017, when the trend had only just begun, online jewels accounted for less than 1% of the total e-tailing market in India. But since then the $135-million online jewels and the diamante sector has been growing rapidly and is projected to become a $2 billion market by 2022.
This changing market scenario has a lot to do with customer purchase behaviours. The modern-day shoppers chase the latest trends and contemporary designs. Unlike the past, when people bought heirloom jewelry to be worn once or twice a year, it is not the case now. Nowadays, buyers want to buy little pieces of fine trinkets or treasures that can be flaunted often enough.
The lucrative business scenario and customers’ changing mindsets have let entrepreneurs invest in the multi-seller jewels store. With this model, they can offer customers the convenience of shopping in the comfort of their homes and more variety because of the vendor listings. Also, with a multi-vendor ecommerce marketplace, buyers can get the benefit of a price difference which is otherwise not possible in individual physical stores. Hence, for educated buyers, buying jewelry on a multi-vendor website makes more sense because of competent prices, grammage information and assured quality.
Business and market pundits predict that investing in multi-selling web stores could be a good catch. First of all, if you have an online store that sells ornaments, you simply need to scale it up and convert it into a multi-seller model. Even if you are new to this field and want to start bang on, opening a multi-vendor e-commerce marketplace and managing it would be far easier than a web store.
In this model, you will simply need to set up a platform and invite vendors to list their products online. Through a good e-commerce solution, you will be able to have a set-up running within a short period. Also, without having to manage the hassles of inventory or shipping, you will be able to earn a hefty commission from individual vendor sales.
While all this sounds quick and easy, you need to consider a few things while planning your jewelry multi-seller store. This is because purchasing jewels online is not like ordering food from one of the food-delivery apps. As an owner of the multi-vendor online store, you need to create a model that is not only extremely professional but also genuine.
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Let’s see how this can be achieved:
1.Register jewelers with valid certification
For any multi-seller website, adequate vendor information is very much necessary to approve vendor onboarding by the admin. This includes vendor summary, tax information, identity documents, etc. But when you invite vendors or jewellers to list their products on your multi vendor e-commerce marketplace, there is something you need to be doubly sure about.
Each of your vendors should have a valid certification that ensures they are reliable and have a license to sell the products. While touch and feel play a very important role in purchasing jewels online, trust is also an equally important factor that buyers consider.
With a valid registration certificate, vendors can assure buyers that they are about to shop from a trusted entity. Customers can purchase jewelry without worrying about the purity of gold or genuineness of the gem-stones.
The kind of vendors you list on your multi-vendor store will determine the traffic at your website. It will also play a huge role in brand building and earning customer loyalty. Hence, keep your vendor registration in this category very niche and selective.
If you go with a top e-commerce solution to build your multi vendor e-commerce marketplace, you can easily manage vendor approval and even the products they upload for sale. As an admin, you can have complete control over vendor activities like registrations, access to view valid certifications, sales and more.
2. Create sales guidelines for display, description and reviews
Being an admin, it is your responsibility that everything is fairly organised. This also includes the way different vendors showcase their products on individual seller pages.
While there could be a variety of designs and jewelry types, one thing could be common amongst all seller pages. This could be the way they display their products, mention descriptions and display reviews.
To give your customers the ease of choosing and understanding the products, you can set specific guidelines for vendors to showcase products and reviews distinctly.
- High-quality pictures with decent resolution and zoom in option to view intricate designs.
- Comprehensive products description for more information about carats, purity and jewelry design
- Complete details about the prices and any additional cost the buyers need to pay if they want modifications to create transparency
- Customer ratings and reviews on individual vendor pages to influence shoppers purchase decision
A collection of high-quality pictures, descriptions and reviews will give it a unified feel and make the browsing experience more enjoyable. Also, high-quality vendors will have more positive reviews to share which, in turn, will drive more traffic to your multi vendor e-commerce marketplace for ornaments.
3. Have a mobile-first approach with a good UI
A huge chunk of the population use their smartphones to shop online. Put yourself in the customers’ shoes. What if an idea of gifting a fine ornament to your loved one strikes you while having coffee during the lunch break! Will you care to wait till you get access to a laptop or a PC? We don’t think so! You will most probably pick up your cell phone and start seeing what popular multi-vendor e-commerce marketplaces have to offer.
This means that you need to have a mobile responsive model that enables customers to browse from anywhere they want. You also need to ensure that the placement of products, text, and other graphic elements are neat so that it’s easy on their eyes and gives a feel-good vibe.
Since this is a tactile category, the overall experience of buying jewels offline is very hard to replicate online. Customers most-likely prefer to look and try them before making the purchase. While you may not be able to provide them an option of ‘try and buy’, for the jewelry pieces, you can enhance this experience through a good user interface.
Good UI and UX will not only focus on the aesthetics of the design but also the functionality, load time and file sizes. It will help the web pages to interact with the customers and provide them an experience through which they can comfortably shop online. With good UI, customers will have a virtual touch-and-feel experience which is much-needed in a niche model such as yours.
4. Create transparent systems for vendor pages and payment flow
When it comes to jewelry, it’s not only customers’ trust you need to earn. You also need to create a system where your vendors feel comfortable to do business with you.
Creating a multi-seller online store alone is not sufficient. You need to extend your support to vendors and provide them all the technical backup that they require. You also need to establish transparent processes so that vendors get complete freedom to register on your platform and start selling.
So how can you establish a multi-seller store that lets your vendors do business with ease?
As an owner of the multi vendor e-commerce marketplace, you need to ensure
- Quick and easy vendor registration process
- Systematic approval flow of vendors and their products by the admin
- Separate vendor dashboards for each vendor to maintain their inventory and order statuses
- Organised product management system for making vendor tasks easy
- Offering options such as fixed or percentage wise commissions to vendors and maintain it on vendor ledgers
- Sound notification channels to communicate often enough
It’s important to realise that your jewelry multi-seller store involves vendors and your beloved customers equally. You can’t ignore their needs and strive to achieve a blooming business. It’s only with vendors’ support that you can drive traffic to your online business and extend it in the long run.
5. Manage sound logistics
As the owner, whether shipping comes under your responsibility or not depends upon the terms and conditions you have set with the vendors. But even if you are not directly into the picture, you might want to link your vendors to reliable e-commerce carriers to ship the expensive products.
A multi-vendor e-commerce marketplace needs multiple carriers offering different propositions such as good rates, extensive reach, the promise of one day or two-day delivery, etc.
Besides, you will also need carriers that help you with safe and beautiful packaging at a reasonable rate.
Fine and delicate ornaments need careful packaging and have to be handled with utmost care. Besides, there is always a concern for theft.
Unlike apparel, toys or books, you are dealing with expensive products, which, if gets damaged or misplaced can burn a hole in your pocket. Also, you will lose your customer trust and loyalty.
Streamlined logistics and partnership with reputed carriers is the ideal way to deliver jewelry to your customers.
6.Rely on a topmost e-commerce solution
There are two ways to go about building a multi-seller online store for your ornament business. You can go through the plugin path and build it from scratch.
While this will cost you an enormous amount of time and capital, it will also come with a set of limitations. You will lack instant technical support if there are errors or glitches on the web pages. Going forward, you will also face the problems of extension and scalability.
So what else? Well, you can straight away build your multi-vendor e-commerce marketplace using a turnkey e-commerce solution. With all the features to manage vendors, products, seller pages and commissions readily available you can have minimal go-to market time.
Also, there will be tech-support at your arm’s length whenever you need it. With almost half the cost that goes into building a multi-vendor store from scratch, you can have a well-functioned, fully-featured model.
Final Thoughts
What is it that you want to do? Just build a multi-selling website or create an experience for your customers? To achieve this and easily connect customers to sellers, you need the right solution like StoreHippo.
Using our mobile-ready multi-vendor e-commerce marketplace solution, you can choose a beautiful theme from the hundreds of readily-available designs. You can quickly have your multi-seller store ready and go for seller registrations, product uploads etc.
StoreHippo's rich features let you manage vendors and payments and a streamlined process to run your multi-vendor business. What more? Its shipping aggregator platform, Shipkaro, helps vendors to connect with reliable carriers at much-bargained rates.
Did we motivate you to start a multi vendor marketplace to sell jewelry online? Then let’s get started! Want to know more about our multi-seller online store features? in detail! Book your free demo right away!
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