Learn How to Price Handmade Jewelry for Maximum Profit

When running a jewelry business, experts agree that the price you charge for your products can make or break your business. Unfortunately, finding the perfect price isn’t exactly straightforward. 

If you make it too low, your customers will wonder what they are compromising for. However, if you make it too high, they’ll wonder if they’re being exploited. That’s why we created this guide for new jewelry sellers. 

In it, we’ll break down how to price handmade jewelry in order to make money off of it. Here at LaCkore Couture, we firmly believe in charging what you’re worth for jewelry. So read this guide to discover how to get started.

Track Any Costs and Supplies

Anything you purchase for your jewelry business must be considered in your costs. This starts with the cost of raw materials, like the wires, jewels, metals, and any equipment you use to create your jewelry. 

However, many people make the mistake of stopping here with what they charge. It would help if you also tracked things like packaging, shipping, handling, fees for selling at specific locations, the cost of gas to drive to these locations, website development costs, and marketing costs. 

Keep a receipt for everything that you buy in the name of your business. This isn’t just helpful when tax season comes around. It’s invaluable for figuring out the final cost of your jewelry. 

Related: What Is a Choker Necklace? Here’s What You Need to Know

Track Any Time You Put Into It

Many jewelry sellers need to keep track of their time. Then, they estimate how much time they think they spent on it. From the second you start working, set a timer. 

If you’re working on multiple pieces at once, divide it by the number of jewelry pieces. Remember, it doesn’t matter if you love the process of making jewelry. Compensate yourself for the effort. Keeping track of your time allows you to pay yourself a specific wage for your work. 

 

 

Use the Information to Calculate the Price

Now it’s time to put the information you gathered into a formula. First, you multiply the amount of time you worked on the piece by your hourly rate. If you need a good starting rate, go with $10 per hour. 

Take the amount of money you spend on materials. Multiply this amount by the amount of profit you want to make. We recommend 2.5x the original cost of material. 

Add these two figures together, and you’ll have a rough price for your jewelry piece. Remember to also charge more for wholesale and retail pricing. 

Want to learn the secret to making jewelry that sells? If so, explore this guide where we walk small business owners through the mysteries. 

Related: Got a Fashion Emergency? Here’s How to Repair Earrings!

Re-Evaluate Down the Line

Jewelry prices aren’t something that should remain set in stone. You will need to re-evaluate down the line and adjust things from there. For example, if none of your jewelry sells, it might be too expensive. Lowering the price can help with this. 

Conversely, your jewelry might sell great, but you’re losing money on each deal. In that case, raise the price. 

If you don’t want to negotiate on your price, consider expanding out to sell in different areas. In this guide, we go over everything you need to know about selling jewelry safely. 

Know What Your Customers Want

There are two ways you can try to determine what your customers want. The first way is to present them with a wide selection of jewelry. Then, when they begin to buy it you can sort out a bestsellers section. 

With this information, you can start catering styles to their preferences. The other way is to try and anticipate what they want. This way can be more challenging. 

You need to keep up with every new fashion change. Though it’s quicker, you’ll likely need to change your inventory more often to keep up with the different trends. 

Related: How to Tell If You’re Allergic to Your Jewelry

 

 

 

Do Some Market Research By Looking At Successful Businesses

It never hurts to look at the competition to see why they’re successful. For example, here at LaCkore Couture, we combine handmade jewelry based on nature and current fashion trends. 

The time and effort we put into each piece we make is what separates us from a lot of the competition. Your market research can be as casual or as serious as you want. 

If you want to invest a reasonable amount of time and energy into it, explore this helpful resource more fully. 

Want to discover more about the difference between our jewelry and the competition? Learn about how we make it through this page here. Then, you can apply it to your business model. 

The Importance of Pricing Handmade Jewelry the Right Way

Did you know that only half of all small businesses survive their first five years? There can be a lot of different reasons for this statistic. However, the most likely culprit? Not charging what your products are worth. 

Unfortunately, this often happens when you use guesswork to price your jewelry. Remember that it’s not just the raw materials you use to make the jewelry. It’s also your time and labor. It doesn’t matter if you love making jewelry; time is still money when you’re a small business. 

So use the equations and advice that we lay out in this guide. That way, your jewelry business has the best possible chance of surviving in the long term.