What to look for when buying jewelry online – words Alexa Wang
What to look for when buying jewelry online When you are looking at buying jewelry no one wants to discover that they have been sold glass instead of diamond or colored copper instead of gold. Buying instore is no guarantee that you are buying quality, no matter what you pay for it, unless you are a talented jeweler with experience in testing you can still be fooled.
Imagine then what it is like trying to purchase online! Stick with the old adage “if it’s too good to be true, it is” and you will probably have more luck in making a genuine purchase, but it is also a good idea to really do your homework before making that final purchase.
There are several sites that will objectively review different stores, both bricks & mortar as well as online jewelers, for example if you are looking at Blue Nile you can read the full expose on this retailer. However, what are some of the things that you should be looking at before you buy anything from a jeweler online?
I Sent A Letter To My Love
Hopefully your purchase won’t get dropped, but you do want to make sure that your jeweler is contactable. Most reputable stores are not exclusively online, with bricks and mortar stores having eCommerce as a value-add service rather than the exclusive way of selling. Even Tiffany’s has an online store to highlight new products that can be purchased instore or purchased online. Although you may find that smaller jewelers who specialize more in one off custom pieces or unique designs only have online stores. With specialist craftspeople (like any of these) you may find that their websites are not set up as an eCommerce venue but more as a portfolio of designs, meaning that if you want to make a purchase you will need to contact them.
Whether you purchase through a larger store or a smaller sole trader, you do want to ensure that your business has a physical address and that they are actually in business as a jeweler and not just a fake site.
Detailed Sizing Instructions
One of the downsides with any purchase online is the inability to actually try on an item. With good jewelry stores like My Jerusalem Store they will provide you with detailed instructions on how to get your ring sizing, in order to ensure that their products will fit you the way you’d like them to. Likewise with other forms of jewelry they should describe the item in detail, including the sizing of links, total size of a band or necklace, width of solid bracelets and measurements of pendants.
Graphic Details
A picture is worth a thousand words, and if you are spending a thousand dollars on a piece of jewelry you expect detailed pictures. Images should be clear, even when enlarged, and should show different angles. You not only want to see the top of a ring, but sides, particularly it’s a claw setting that has decorative detail. You also want to see the back of pendants to be able to judge the quality of the workmanship. Wholesale sterling silver jewelry can be crafted with many different details, it’s up to you how you want to design it.
However, you do still want the words, because although a picture is amazing to show you what you are getting, you can’t always tell from an image what the metal you are looking at is, 9ct or 24ct gold generally look the same in an online image. You will also want to ensure that any gems are described well, including size, weight, cut and clarity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_clarity
Payment & Shipping
This is probably the most important aspect of shopping online, how secure is their payment method? You may be able to do bank transfers, arrange finance or simply use a credit card, but you want to ensure that the website has security enabled.
One option that is often an after thought when people are shopping online is how items are shipped. Free freight sent by post when you’re ordering a $0.50c item from AliExpress is one thing, if it goes missing in the post or gets damaged be tossed around the back of a postal van the loss isn’t too dreadful. However, you want to ensure that your jeweler is going to take excellent care to safeguard your purchase and make sure that it arrives to you on time and in perfect condition.
