Nice Gems Shame About The Pics and Prices
This article in the Shropshire Star, lured me over to Julieann Beads (Handmade Glass Bead and Gemstone Jewellery) website this afternoon. I landed at the home page and thought how professional the design looked and the showcased pieces looked gorgeous. Unfortunately, things went downhill from there.
This kind of thing really bugs me. So, in a break from previous form, I am going to review the website NOT the jewellery.
My first gripe is that I couldn't trackdown the pieces so graceful splayed across the homepage. Frustratingly, the images are not clickable. Are these current pieces and for sale or not? And, if not, why show them?!
Undeterred, I set about finding them. And, that's when the my initial enthusiasm faded fast.
Clicking through to necklaces from the (unconventionally-placed right-hand sidebar), you are presented with a page of small, murky images with only a name, price and more info button for each. It is obvious that these images in no way do the jewellery on sale justice.
Click-through again to the details page and the images, whilst larger, don't get any clearer or more appealing. I can accept that cut outs on white backgrounds are hard to achieve, but many of the images here are just plain out of focus (as well as underexposed!).
Looking at the prices, everything becomes apparent. Here's a situation I see all too often as a buyer at gift retailer pressies4princesses; the prices are simply too low. They are too low to be credible - is it realistic to believe you are buying "Distinctive Handmade Glass Bead and Gemstone Jewellery" when earrings start at £7.50 a pair?! And they are probably unrealistic for the business as well.
Many small businesses do not account for cost of selling the products in their prices. More still find themselves victims of their own success, when the VAT man pitches up and asks for his 17.5% of the value of every order! Incredibly, Julieann Beads offer to supply wholesale to the trade. Where the extra margin would come from is anyone's guess - unless, of course, they routinely undercut their retailers.
Ranting aside, I can see how this sort of pricing comes about. Firstly, the maker is their worst critic and is far too modest. They lack the confidence to meet the market head on. They simply don't believe people will pay "that much" for their product.
From the outset the maker is thinking, "what's the minimum I can sell this for to make it worth my while". Out comes the calculator and they start counting beads. Then they start thinking about how many they can make an hour. Next thing, they have a price that completely ignores all the other costs of running the business. Worst still, it is entirely incongruent with the product positioning (in this case UK and handmade and distinctive). It places absolutely no value on their design skills (only making). And, is most likely unsustainable in the long run.
My advice to Julieann Beads (I know - you didn't ask for it), double your prices and use the money to take some pictures that do your range justice. From what I can make out (squinting), you've nothing to be so modest about.
This kind of thing really bugs me. So, in a break from previous form, I am going to review the website NOT the jewellery.
My first gripe is that I couldn't trackdown the pieces so graceful splayed across the homepage. Frustratingly, the images are not clickable. Are these current pieces and for sale or not? And, if not, why show them?!
Undeterred, I set about finding them. And, that's when the my initial enthusiasm faded fast.
Clicking through to necklaces from the (unconventionally-placed right-hand sidebar), you are presented with a page of small, murky images with only a name, price and more info button for each. It is obvious that these images in no way do the jewellery on sale justice.
Click-through again to the details page and the images, whilst larger, don't get any clearer or more appealing. I can accept that cut outs on white backgrounds are hard to achieve, but many of the images here are just plain out of focus (as well as underexposed!).
Looking at the prices, everything becomes apparent. Here's a situation I see all too often as a buyer at gift retailer pressies4princesses; the prices are simply too low. They are too low to be credible - is it realistic to believe you are buying "Distinctive Handmade Glass Bead and Gemstone Jewellery" when earrings start at £7.50 a pair?! And they are probably unrealistic for the business as well.
Many small businesses do not account for cost of selling the products in their prices. More still find themselves victims of their own success, when the VAT man pitches up and asks for his 17.5% of the value of every order! Incredibly, Julieann Beads offer to supply wholesale to the trade. Where the extra margin would come from is anyone's guess - unless, of course, they routinely undercut their retailers.
Ranting aside, I can see how this sort of pricing comes about. Firstly, the maker is their worst critic and is far too modest. They lack the confidence to meet the market head on. They simply don't believe people will pay "that much" for their product.
From the outset the maker is thinking, "what's the minimum I can sell this for to make it worth my while". Out comes the calculator and they start counting beads. Then they start thinking about how many they can make an hour. Next thing, they have a price that completely ignores all the other costs of running the business. Worst still, it is entirely incongruent with the product positioning (in this case UK and handmade and distinctive). It places absolutely no value on their design skills (only making). And, is most likely unsustainable in the long run.
My advice to Julieann Beads (I know - you didn't ask for it), double your prices and use the money to take some pictures that do your range justice. From what I can make out (squinting), you've nothing to be so modest about.
posted by Suggy at
17:09
3 Comments
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