What to do with jewellery items that don’t sell?

This is something jewellery designers have to deal with from time to time – you made a beautiful item and it is just sitting in your inventory. You tried selling it through your website and at fairs and shows or even at jewellery parties, but it just doesn’t shift and you are getting tired of the sight of it and simply need the space.

Don’t despair, because here are 9 things you can do:

1. If you only list it on your website – try other shopping platforms such as Artfire, Etsy, Folksy or DaWanda. This is especially useful if you only have one-of-a-kind items
2. Offer discounts for this item (if it’s part of a range) or reduce it.
3. Earmark it as a giveaway for a good cause that is close to your heart. This can also potentially help you in attracting new customers.
4. See if you can simply improve the piece by making slight changes – this is obviously something you can’t do with every item as it depends on the materials you are using. It would be difficult to alter a finished silver ring, but is achievable with a charm bracelet.
5. Offer it as a giveaway for your newsletter readers as an incentive to fill in a survey or just to celebrate a business milestone (it could be a number of subscribers or Facebook fans, or your business anniversary).
6. Wholesale the item to a shop or gallery.
7. Sell the tutorial of the item to a jewellery making magazine – you get paid for the tutorial and get more exposure for your business. I have done this with foot thongs I made when I just started out and a friend of mine, who is into belly dancing, suggested to make these. I found it impossible to market them and make them as cheap to be able to sell them, and I didn’t enjoy making them much either, so  I offered the tutorial to Making Jewellery magazine and in the end I was making some money of the unloved foot thongs. I then followed point 9 and destroyed them.
8. Earmark it as a gift for a family member or friend – however this is only advisable if you feel it would be something the recipient would really love to wear – for example if it’s her/his favourite colour or stone.
9. And finally – destroy the item and re-use the beads, findings and what’s left of the stringing material in future designs. This works well with beaded jewellery, but wouldn’t work with things like silver sterling items or polymer clay pendants. You will lose some of the stringing material – especially,  when it’s knotted, fishing line or beading wire with lots of crimps. I tend to keep the beading wire bits though and recycle them for test pieces. They also can come in handy for earrings.

So there are quite a few things you can do with your slow selling jewellery.

If you have any other ideas let me know. Next time I will be testing different types of moulding compounds.