What to include on your jewellery website (and why!)
This blog post is written by me, Rebecca Lucy, a jeweller & website deisgner, and not AI!
One of my favourite things to do on a Saturday, is to wander down my local high street, which is full of lovely independent shops. There are many shops there, and often they sell quite similar items, but some really stand out and have become firm-favourites. I love to rummage through their stock and see what’s new in, but I also know that when I’m looking for something in particular, whether it be something I need or a gift for a friend, they will likely have exactly what I need.
Shops spend a long time and often employ experts to help them think about the design of the interior - and whilst a beautiful looking shop is important, the flow of the floorplan and position of key products is really important too.
How often have you walked into a shop looking for one thing, and come out with a couple of others that you’re chuffed about too? If you’re anything like me, this happens quite often in certain shops, because they have not only created a lovely experience as I browse, they have also thoughtfully curated their products and placed them exactly where I’m likely to look!
Equally, have you ever gone into one of those shops where the products are stacked to the rafters, with no clear areas or order - it’s overwhelming and unless you have hours to trawl then you’re much less likely to find what you’re looking for.
If you think of your jewellery website in the same way as you would think of a shop, it becomes clear why it’s so important that your website not only looks beautiful and enticing, but is laid out in a way that will help and encourage people to buy too!
So, to help you get started designing your jewellery website, I’ve outlined below my 5 must-haves for you to include!
A Clear, Beautiful Homepage - that’s strategic too
Your jewellery website homepage as the first thing that people see when they land on the site. Think of it as an enticing window display which will encourage potential customers to come in, look around and hopefully buy your jewellery!
Ask yourself, how do you want them to feel, and what do you want them to do?
Your homepage is the place to give people an insight into your world, and to help them find what they are looking for really quickly.
What to include on your jewellery website homepage
Start with a beautiful image of one of your pieces of jewellery, and a tag-line which creates the vibe and highlights the values of your jewellery brand.
Good quality images are a must - show off your handmade jewellery to its fullest potential.
People love to connect with and buy from real people - include a headshot of you as the jewellery designer and maker and a short bio so they know who you are and what you’re about.
Showcase a new range of jewellery or your best sellers, with clear links to the product listings and your online jewellery shop so that people can easily find what they are after. Squarespace (the website platform which I use for my own jewellery shop and which I also recommend to others!) makes this really easy to do, and you can even include product listings on your home page too.
If you run jewellery workshops, be sure to include a short section with a link for people to find out more and book on.
Include a link for people to join your newsletter - this is an amazing way to connect with them further and to send special offers, ultimately bringing you more jewellery sales!
2. An About Page
I was chatting to my sister the other day about her buying habits, interested in how she generally finds products that she buys online, and what would prompt her to buy. One thing that really stood out to me, is that she said once she’s seen something that she liked on Instagram or Pinterest, her first stop on the brand’s website would be their about page.
And this isn’t just my sister, on the majority of the websites which I have worked on, their analytics will show that the about page is right up their as one of the most-visited pages. This is certainly the case on my jewellery website as well as my other for website design.
My sister said that if she were buying handmade jewellery online, she’d be most attracted to brands with a personal story behind them.
This is why your about page is one of the best places to start building connections with your potential customers and to showcase your expertise. This is the place where they can see the jeweller behind the products, so be sure to share your inspiration and your journey as a jeweller too.
It’s also why I put so much time into designing a really appealing about page on my jewellery website Squarespace template.
A lovely photograph of you is a must on this page, you could even include one of you in your jewellery studio or workspace as people love to take a peak behind the scenes.
3. High-Quality Product Photos
As I’ve mentioned earlier in this post, high quality photos are a must for any jewellery business. This is how you showcase your lovely handmade jewellery and people are able to see the quality in design and craftsmanship.
When selling online it’s a great idea to have a selection of different photos for each of your products, so that people can get a feel for things like the size and what it’s made of without actually seeing the jewellery in a shop.
Whether you decide to hire a professional photographer or take your product photos yourself, I’ve written a whole blog post which goes into how to plan a product photoshoot and what photos to include on your website here.
4. Detailed Product Descriptions
We all know that product descriptions are important for your customers to find out more about your jewellery and decide if they want to buy. But hands up if you’ve ever quickly written a sentence about your product and hoped for the best? Or even copy & pasted descriptions between your items of jewellery, simply changing a few words here and there?
Well, here’s the thing - although they can feel like a faff to write, product descriptions are not just there for your customers. They are also really important for SEO (search engine optimisation) on Google too. This is key to getting your website and products appearing in Google searches and appearing higher up too - meaning your jewellery is more likely to be found by the people who are out there searching for it!
There are a few key things you need to bear in mind when writing your product descriptions, to help them boost your website SEO.
Think about the types of sentences which people who are looking for your product would be searching for on Google, such as silver jewellery, or jewellery for bridesmaids, and be sure to include them in your product descriptions.
Include as much description of your jewellery in the product descriptions on your website as you can - really paint a picture of not only what the jewellery is made of, but why people might want to buy and wear it. Even if your customers only skim the text, Google really loves the detail!
Try not to simply duplicate product descriptions. Whilst some elements such as information about chain lengths, ring sizes, or packaging will be the same, aim to make the bulk of the actual description of your item of jewellery - which is what people will be searching for - different. This is because if Google thinks your page has been duplicated (it determines this by looking at the text) it won’t show all of the pages to your potential customers.
5. An Easy-to-Use Online Shop
I know this one sounds obvious - but believe me when I say, not all online jewellery shops are created equally! It’s not really enough to just put your products onto your shop and hope for the best, you need to make sure that the jewellery listings, and the shop itself, are well laid out and easy for people to navigate around, find what they want and to press buy.
This might mean separating your jewellery into categories such as pendants, earrings and bracelets, or organising them by themes or collection. It also means that you need to ensure your checkout process is really smooth and easy for people to use, with clear payment options and delivery information.
Another thing which is often missed in jewellery shops but is actually really important to the customers user experience on your website, is to include a clear link to the cart in the header and possible also in your footer, so that if people keep shopping or visit a different page on your site, they can easily find your checkout again and make that all-important purchase.
This is one thing I love about Squarespace ecommerce websites - the checkouts are really clear and easy for people to use, plus you can include lots of product information and pictures of your jewellery within each product listing.
