Your Daily Jewels

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

25 Days until BLACK Friday, 50 DAYS Until CHRISTMAS, 22 days until CHANUKAH - What Are You Waiting For?

Happy Holidays

Do you loathe doing battle with the crushing holiday shopping crowds? I get panicky just thinking about it. Does competitive parking bring out a side of you that no one would recognize? Have you ever encountered a sold-out toy shelf only to silently berate yourself for not rising at 4:00 a.m and waiting on line at the risk of being trampled by adrenaline and Starbucks crazed shoppers ready to SPEND, no SAVE, no SPEND, SAVE! It is all truly crazy when you think about it.

Whether you're buying or selling this holiday season, the time to be on the move is now! I have read countless news articles and seen TV news features about how retail prices are lower than, or as low as Black Friday right now!
According to Time magazine, Sept. 24th issue, 49% of big marketers stated they will launch Holiday Marketing prior to October 31st . A 2.4% rise in spending is forecast for this holiday season and adding to the rising pressure is this:

"Retailers have a reduced window of time to capture peak holiday spending as only 25 days lie between Black Friday (Nov. 29) and Christmas this year, compared to 32 days in 2012. Typically, weekends are busy times for customers to visit stores and, unlike last year, consumers have only four (not five) full weekends to shop. Also, Hanukkah starts 11 days earlier than it did a year earlier"

Retailers are rolling out the big guns:

Layaway

Early 'hot toy' lists

Giant retailers are price matching

Buy-Online, Pickup-in-Store

Newcomers entering the Online arena: H&M and TJ Maxx.

My boyfriend and I love to go to garage sales during the Summer. After a while you see the same people at each one, (if you get up as early as we do). We started recognizing other early regular's cars because of their particularly crazy and fast driving speeds, passing us at 8:00 a.m. in a sleepy beach town.

Then we realized they all had the same look on their faces. Stress, anxiety; almost seething to get to the sale before the others. We deemed it "Garage Sale Face".

One time we needed a new "beach bike" because one of ours had rusted to smithereens. We knew we had to get there early because good beach bikes go quickly. Off we went with our coffee mugs from home in our hands, "early-birding" the homeowners (annoyingly arriving ten minutes before the start of the sale). Sure enough, we looked at each other and laughed, we each had Garage Sale Face as the other regulars pulled in. We got the bike, but we had fallen right into the frenzy!

Well, Holiday crowds to me, all have Garage Sale Face and it ain't pretty!

"Garage Sale Face" examples: (not exactly but you get the idea )

Take advantage of the early savings and beat the crowds. Coupons and free shipping deals abound. You must put in a little extra time, do your due diligence and you will reap the benefits of early Holiday shopping deals.

Shop early and you will also find the best inventory because of the recession of recent years, retailers have scaled back on inventories in order to cut back on end of season overstock and unplanned super-markdowns.

Use positive visualization. YOU, finished with your shopping a week before Thanksgiving. You saved lots of cash and you can actually enjoy the holidays instead of frenetically stressing out through them.

This is the buying side of the coming season. What about all of you online sellers.
What are you doing to get your ONLINE Shop Ready? We'll talk more about that next post.

Thank you for visiting and reading,

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

R.T.S. -- READY to SHIP - Get Your Etsy Shop Ready for the Holidays NOW! 77 DAYs Until Christmas.

Oh boy, Christmas is coming!

Black Friday

Ready to Ship Department

at Your Daily Jewels

I don't know about you other Etsy sellers, but I was caught very un-prepared for last year's holiday season. I am not complaining, mind you, but it was crazy! And it started in October. I had very unexpectedly high sales numbers and stress.

I used this image last year, laughing. But it was truly how I felt. It was a real case of 'be careful what you wish for". Well, it is Oct. 8th and now Etsy has those snazzy stats that compare you to where you were last year this time. Well, apparently, if early indicators mean anything, this could be a very different (not in a good way) holiday sales season (filing nails, with feet up).

Black Friday Cyber Monday Shoppers

Many of you know I make mostly custom items so it is not that easy to have RTS items stocked. But I started in beading and wire-wrapping and I miss making those items! So, I spent most of September having so much fun, going back to the basics and filling my shop with the items that are ready to go. Now that they are made, I just have to list them. Ugg.

Here are some of my goodies in my RTS department. I have fifty more things RTL (ready to list). Anyone looking for part time work!

I hope its your year to be pleasantly surprised by more business than you can handle! I look forward to all the support and love of the Etsy community throughout another holiday season. I wouldn't want to do it without you, especially my JETS! (The Jewelry on Etsy Team) (Search "Jetteam" on Etsy - no quotation marks - for 120 of Etsy's premier Jewelers)

Thanks for reading and visiting!

Saturday, September 28, 2013

DIY = FUN: EVERYTHING You Need To Design Your Own Jewelry

My designing wheels are always turning. I wake up in the night with jewelry designs on my mind, envisioning not only how I will make it and what the piece will look like, but who would love it, and what it might mean to them.

I am really approachable when it comes to co-designing. Over the years, I have come to learn that my customers have great ideas, crystal clear vision and strong intention when it comes to designing jewelry that fills their particular desire/need. It really makes my job easy, and so personal. It is wonderful seeing how satisfied they are knowing they had so much say in their final result. Their "intention" was met. This is so important to me. We work together to design a jewelry piece with great meaning to them; that they or their recipient will cherish forever.

Working with a designer is not for everyone. With this in mind, I have sections in two of my shops, Your Daily Jewels and Silver Initial Jewelry, called "Design Your Own." In these sections, you are free to look around at options for adding on to your jewelry design, on your own, without me hanging over your shoulder. I include design ideas too, but mostly gemstones, charm bracelet blanks and necklace chain, leather, crystals, pearls, initial charms and lots more.

I can wire wrap a gemstone or Swarovski crystal in your birthstone or favorite color. What a perfect gift: a wax seal initial pendant necklace accompanied by the recipients birthstone. I would be happy!