Rotten Apples!!

It's a pity but I'm having to change the shop policy for replacing and refunding on missing parcels. Royal Mail do pay compensation for missing parcels after 15 days of non delivery so long as you have the proof of postage and the receipt showing how much postage you paid - there is a form to fill in with the seller and buyer details, then the buyer is contacted by Royal mail and asked to confirm non-delivery - fair enough. The only problem with this procedure are the buyers who decide the issue is closed as they have had their items replaced or have the payment refunded by myself!!

Brilliant! So I lose the cost of the item(s) I replace or the refunded payment plus the postage I paid due to customers that cannot be bothered to sign and post a simple form! Thanks!!! Considering Paypal (if used) would not automatically refund the customer when the proof of postage is provided as they then regard the fault as not the sellers and case closed!

Anyway, rant over. The new shop policy will be to NOT refund payments or replace any items until Royal Mail have received the signed form back from the customer, sorry to all those customers that are honest and would take matters to their final conclusion but a few rotten apples spoil the barrel for everyone.

Favorite piece of jewellery for today - Diamante heart earrings

Parcels in transit.

Very annoyed today. Another parcel has now been 'lost' between being posted and the final destination! How can packages get lost? Do people see items of post laying around on the floor and say "oh look, an item of mail" and walk away?

I understand human error - sending an item to the incorrect county, etc, but said item should eventually get to where it is supposed to be even if it arrives weeks late!

As all my parcels are sent with the packaging slip (clearly showing the address) within a plastic stick on sleeve on the front of the package, a return address label on the back plus a copy of the packaging note inside the parcel (in case all the addresses are ripped off somehow! then the package can be opened by authorised postal workers and sent on to their destination or returned to myself). So how are my packages lost?

I read in the news occassionally that postal workers do get charged with stealing mail, maybe the CCTV needs to be updated to prevent more of this happening!

Time to fill out another 'lost' package claim form and replace the order to the customer - this time by recorded delivery!

It's a good job I always get the proof of postage stamped so hopefully I get the item cost refunded by the delivery service - sometime in the next 3 months - if I'm lucky!

Favorite item today - Long diamante necklace

Rain again.

Any business guide you read will tell you to try starting out with something you know, with me I knew how much my kids were spending on jewellery that fell apart within a few weeks and cost most of their pocket money! Hence Glitters jewellery.

If you still have no idea what to start selling to make a profit then how about looking up and around and seeing what other people want? In this country (UK) I would say umbrellas! Considering it has not stopped raining for the last 3 days an umbrella business would have a lot of sales! If anyone does decide to sell umbrellas can they let me know as I still can't find the see through enclose-your-entire-head umbrellas that the kids want!

Just finished putting some more items in the shop, chunky bracelets, pearl items, christmas party wear, etc, so lots more pieces for you to go and have a look at!

Favorite piece of jewellery for today - Chunky charm bracelet

Mobile phones.

I had to send my mobile off a few weeks ago to be 'wiped' and have new software re-installed as it would not turn back on after being switched off. It's amazing how much I relied on the information the mobile contained. It wasn't just my contact list and not being able to text or ring anyone, I also keep my business info - payments, advertising dates, links to check my emails, received payments, etc on the mobile. Without easy access to all my data I was totally lost! So much faster to quickly check info on the mobile instead of switching on the computer. Plus it's taking ages to put all the info back on the phone again as I did not have any of it backed up!! Now everything is backed up every week - a bit like shutting the stable door after the horse has escaped!

Lots more jewellery items should be listed within the shop over the next few weeks as I will be buying this weekend, I've found some really good pieces for Christmas party wear! Yes, I know I've mentioned Christmas - did you know it's only 15 weeks away.....

Favorite piece of stock today..... Diamante drop belly bar

Slide show music!

If you haven't got your speakers on, then you're missing a great song!

When you make a slide show of whatever pictures you want you can add effects and music to enhance the final result. I love this song!!

Further down the page to the right is my slide show and the link for you to make your own.

Chain maille jewellery

I've mentioned making your own jewellery before but haven't yet shown a link to a really good site - www.culturejewelry.com. This site shows you how to make chain maille jewellery and gives you a free pattern to wet your appetite and get you started!

I've downloaded the pattern but have yet to make anything, as (a) no time (b) do I really have the patience to make this? (c) answer to b = no! I will get around to this one day!

To make more of these really good pieces of jewellery you have to purchase the ebook but if you are into this pastime then it would be worth it!

Favorite piece of jewellery for today - Pink crystal spider brooch

The Top 100 Jewelry Sites

The Top 100 Jewelry Sites

A really good list of jewellery sites (mine amongst them!) If you can't find what you want then have a look at this site and find an online shop that sells what you've been looking for!

Raining....

Ok, my fault, I listed sunglasses on the site and then....it rains! I'ts like washing and polishing your car - get the finish perfect and then a thunderstorm kicks up!

Well at least the rain got me out of gardening...and into re-tiling the bathroom. I can't win at the moment.

New earrings shall be appearing within the shop soon, diamante sparkly hoops and red crystal hearts. I love sparkly jewellery and not just for 'going out' or party time as you can wear a georgeous pair of sparkly earrings to work just to make yourself feel better about being at work!

Like many people I have a lot of costume / fashion jewellery and can usually remember when I last wore a certain necklace, bracelet, etc, if the night in question was a good one!

Favorite piece of jewellery for today - Dog charm / pendant.

Finally, sunshine!

Brilliant sunny weather we are having at the moment. I've managed to put sunglasses in the shop just in time!

I know I should be catering to other peoples taste by purchasing lots of different styles but I can't resist aviator sunglasses! These glasses are classics and always remind me of a young Tom Cruise in Top Gun.

My husband loves the mirrored aviators and wants a pair of the new stock just purchased as I've just broken his whilst cleaning them! I have a sneaky suspicion they were cracked already and just waiting for me to pick them up to fall apart!

Hopefully the warm weather will last for a while as I should really get off this computer and get my garden sorted out before it rains again. The darling dogs have helped by flattening everything in the garden so at least I have space to put some more plants in!

Favorite item today - Beauty bath pearls and cd set - Good for relaxing after gardening!

Prices of jewellery!

I've been looking at the competition today, fashion / costume jewellery online shops that sell similar kinds of items to mine.

Most sellers sell their stock for what they think it's worth - as it's fashion / costume jewellery then prices are usually a few pounds. A few sellers seem to think their stock is so much better than everyone else's as they price a bracelet (for example) at over £10! when others are showing the same picture and selling for under £3.....and still making a profit!

The mark up on some items is ridiculous. I know that price fluctuation is normal but usually the prices differ by small amounts not by over £5.

I did find one bracelet that I would have bought for myself - at only £2.95 I though it was very good value and I loved the beads and things hanging from it, problem was when I put it into the basket the postage and packing costs appeared.......£4.90 for delivery!!! (Shop within the UK to delivery within the UK). Considering the bracelet was silvertone with plastic beads there was no way it could have been heavy enough to warrant nearly £5 for postage (maybe the packaging was 'special'?).

Anyway I emptied my basket and 'walked away' from the shop. One lost sale. I wonder how many people did the same thing due to the inflated postage costs and how many lost sales this seller had?

Favorite piece of jewellery - Crystal bunny necklace set.

Accounts!

I just had a self assessment notice for my tax, after enrolling on-line I had a look at my accounts and realised I haven't touched them for the last few weeks! Very bad thing to ignore as it took me 2 hours last night to catch up!

Accounts are easy to keep, detailing all the in goings and outgoings of the shop, but when it's left for a week or so then bedlam sets in with me scrabbling through a pile of invoices and receipts trying to get them in some sort of order!

Like most people I use bookkeeping software instead of a paper manual to make all the calculations a lot easier but still, keeping all the paperwork in order to back up the figures gets a lot harder when I don't make the time to keep up the order on a regular basis!

At least, for now, it's up to date!

Favorite item of jewellery for today - Black & silver disc necklace.

Sunglasses

I used to love mirrored sunglasses in my youth, mainly to look at 'talent' unobserved! Nowdays I prefer avaitor style sunglasses.

The great weather in the UK at the moment reminded me that I do not stock sunglasses in the shop as yet, seasonal items should be bought a few months ahead of time so you can get them listed before anyone needs them! I'm so behind I'll be stocking Christmas items on the 20th december!

I've had a look at some of the wholesale sites and found some really good avaitor sunglasses so hopefully will be listing these in the next week or so.....just when it starts raining again!

Some of the stock just purchased comes from overseas, with the volcano erruption and the 'planes grounded over the last week these items have been delayed so no new items listed this week.

Favorite piece of jewellery today.....Deer pendant necklace

Brilliant pictures!

I've been going through the pictures on the shop and have realised that the white background is so much better than the black! Now I have to re-photo all the items with the black background.....this may take some time!

Many of the guides on 'how to set up your own online business' say to purchase the best camera you can get, this is not always possible though as starting up has enough costs involved, purchasing stock, advertising costs, etc, so unless you have pots of cash, a £300 camera to take pictures of your stock may end up with having no cash left to buy stock!

A good way around this is to use your mobile phone camera to start with until you have made enough profit to purchase a camera just for business use. Most new mobile phones have great cameras built in and the price for a good mobile phone is usually a lot less than a stand alone camera.

I'd better get back to my photo re-taking, yawn......

Favorite piece of jewellery today - Baby items charm bracelet.

Charms

Received new jewellery in the post yesterday, some of the items were charm bracelets. These were from the new supplier I have previously mentioned who makes her own items. These charm bracelets are unique not just because they are handmade but due to the charms hanging from the links.

One of the bracelets is aimed at new mothers or pregnant women as this bracelet has charms related to babies - e.g. pram, bottles, baby shoes, dummy, etc, a nice idea for a gift from a husband or grandparents. Plus the bracelets are not expensive as they are silver tone not real silver so the cost won't dig into the baby items fund!

These charm bracelets do make me start thinking 'out of the box' and start imagining different / unusual jewellery pieces for resale, but as previously stated I don't think I'd have the patience to make loads of jewellery!

Favorite piece of jewellery today - Heart fairy necklace

Jewellery making.

I've been looking at jewellery making sites online and found some really good designs. I'm not sure if I would have the patience to actually make any for resale, I get bored really easily, but making one off for personal use could be interesting!

One of the sites I looked at was chain maille jewellery making with jump rings, some of the finished designs looked really intricate but are (supposedly!) very easy to make. Hmm, I might have a try later next week and see if these really are simple to put together.

I did start thinking if anyone can make lovely costume jewellery then why would anyone buy costume jewellery? I then answered my own question - time, energy and being bothered to make it in the first place!

I have found a supplier who can be bothered, has the patience and whose handmade jewellery seems to be excellent from the pictures supplied, so I've ordered a sample of her work. Hopefully I'll be expanding the store later this month if this suppliers work really is as good as I think it is!

Favorite piece of jewellery today - Flower ring.

Starting a jewellery store.

I've just spent some time putting some more items on my web shop. I'm really getting good at this!, when I first started uploading the photo's and putting in descriptions it took me ages... now I can do this in half the time. So if anyone out there is thinking of starting their own online shop as a hobby or trying to make an online wage then I can say it's not as hard as it looks.

Personally I use auctiva commerce as all the basics are there ready and waiting for you to use, they have step by step tutorials and a support team for the really hard problems!

The hardest part of web sales is getting customers. Putting all your stock online is great fun but if you are sitting in front of your computer screen waiting with bated breath for orders but are not getting your site promoted then you are going to suffocate!

Google is great with all the help they give, google base, adwords, etc, as I've had quite a few orders coming through from google. Getting banners/links on other websites is also good.

Favorite piece of jewellery today - Blue crystal necklace.

New Costume jewellery store blog!

Hi, as everyone knows, jewellery (the stuff you would want to wear!) isn't cheap. Assuming you don't wear the plastic lucky bag style stuff :-) Glitters jewellery sells the pieces I would wear, (hopefully my taste isn't awful!), none of the items are silver or gold and as such are at affordable prices.

Glitters jewellery started due to my kids spending their entire pocket money on one or two pieces of jewellery that either fell apart or looked tacky. I looked at a few wholesale places and found these high street shops were not just pricing their jewellery at double their buying price or even triple, they were getting jewellery for mere pennies and making bucket loads of profit!! For example - plain butterfly stud earrings, available in a local shop for £4.99 each, available wholesale pk 10 for £5.99! (no, I don't sell these in my store!)

So, I decided to purchase the wholesale lots of jewellery and let the kids buy what they wanted without using up all of their pocket money! Result:-) kids not moaning for more money!! (Happy mum!)

Only problem was what to do with the rest of the items. Solution - sell the remaining jewellery at much lower prices than the high street shops, make a bit of profit and feel happy that I'm not fleecing anyone blind! (plus this indulges my love of shopping for nice jewellery without annoying my husband!)

Glitters now stocks womens jewellery as well as mens and childrens and some other bits and pieces (e.g: perfume) as I can't ignore a good deal when I see one.



Favorite piece of jewellery for today - Pink dangly