I am trying to open a side business by selling stuffs on eBay.
I am selling engagement rings made with cubic zirconia (middle grade ~ with high enough shine and durability) and 925 silver coated with rhodium (to ensure its shine is long lasting and avoiding alergic reactions (some people I researched are allergic to nickel which is in silver).
I priced my products quite low but not rock bottom low, as I cannot compete with bigger sellers who can get items at much lower prices.
I tried to have good pictures & some videos.
In IG (instagram), I have many likes.
I have people bookmarking or watching my items, but no one is pressing buy.
At this stage, I am hessitant in relisting the item before knowing how to ensure sales.
I wonder if anyone can help me to give any inputs about why these items are not selling.
It leaves the seller open to not as described cases & negative feedback as not everyone will pick up the reference in the item specifics (or even read the description, as we all know!).
Cubic zirconia should definitely be mentioned in the title, & also more prominently in the description.
I am selling engagement rings made with cubic zirconia (middle grade ~ with high enough shine and durability) and 925 silver coated with rhodium (to ensure its shine is long lasting and avoiding alergic reactions (some people I researched are allergic to nickel which is in silver).
Why don't you put the bolded bit in your descriptions? It's a good selling point and may persuade some people to buy. At the moment your descriptions don't say what people are actually buying (because they're not diamonds but you don't mention zirconia) or any of the benefits of what they're buying.
Why not say you use medium grade cubic zirconia as a cheaper alternative to diamonds but you use medium grade for their shine and durability? Pointing out the positive aspects is always going to help them sell, whereas at the moment the listings just set alarm bells ringing and scare buyers away because of all the negative or conflicting descriptions. If I hadn't read your post in the forums I would never have known what I was buying if I'd seen your listing - they sound like two completely different products.
Why be afraid to list them as cubic zirconia in the title and description? Lots of people who can't afford diamonds would search for cubic zirconia and wouldn't see any listings using the word diamond because their search would actually be for "cubic zirconia -diamond" (which blocks all listings using diamond in them).
First of all - without having looked at your listings (because I don't want to increase your page view without buying, as I seem to recall reading that this may be a metric that causes visibility for your items to lower) - I would say the following:
If a man went on bended knee and offered me a cubic zirconia ring as an engagement ring, I would not be impressed. A small natural diamond as the stone would be better than a large cubic zirconia. (Actually, I prefer coloured stones, and a ruby or an emerald or a medium dark sapphire or a padparadscha sapphire would be gorgeous in an engagement ring... but I know I'm in the minority, and most women prefer diamond solitaires for their engagement rings.) So... I am not sure that putting the word "engagement" into your title or description would be a good idea. If you list such rings as Stylish cubic zirconia dress ring (rhodium-coated silver band), I think you might perhaps get more searchers who are looking for that sort of ring, hence more searchers converted to buyers. That will positively affect your sell-through rate.
As has been mentioned by almost everyone else in this thread, don't use the word "diamond" unless you are selling genuine diamonds. It's one of the most annoying and off-putting things on eBay. It will have people who are looking for a diamond ring clicking onto your listing, reading it, and:
either hitting the back button when they read "cubic zirconia" in your description, or
going ahead with the purchase under the impression that the ring is a genuine diamond ring. The result of that would be bad; some of those buyers are sure to get an appraisal, and discover that it's CZ. There will be negatives, unhappy buyers, claims of "significantly not as described", enforced refunds, and a world of woe for you.
Secondly, as digital*ghost has said (and you should take great note of everything digital*ghost says, knowing that this is one of d*g's specific fields of expertise, and apart from that, d*g is one of the many very knowledgeable people on these boards - and there are other very knowledgeable eBay people who have also posted on your thread), jewellery is "one of the most saturated categories" out there. The competition is enormous, and a lot of your competition will be Chinese sellers who won't scruple to say "high quality", "best quality", "genuine", without those terms being true. (Some will even say "silver" when the metal is silver-coloured, who will say "diamond" when it's cubic zirconia, and in every respect seek to undercut and present low-quality or medium-quality or fake/replica items as genuine, high quality, etc.)
So... you need to differentiate yourself from that sort of seller. Don't scream "GENUINE!" in the title, and don't use the word "diamond" unless you're selling genuine diamonds. Don't think that buyers should realize from the price that they're not getting genuine diamonds; when it comes to eBay buyers in particular, there's a weird idea that one can get the real genuine item at rock-bottom prices by going straight to the source (i.e., buying online, cutting out the middleman - aka the jeweller's shop), and these buyers will expect an unrealistic bargain.
Think very seriously about whether you can compete in this category. There's no saying that you can't... but your business strategy must include a way for you to compete effectively against genuine Australian jewellers selling good quality (or medium-good quality) jewellery on eBay, against local or Asian sellers selling costume / dress jewellery of low through medium to high quality (at various prices - with the Chinese sellers usually able to offer the best value for various perfectly understandable reasons), and against jewellery designers who use a variety of stones (usually semi-precious) to craft pre-made or custom jewellery.
What can you offer to make yourself stand out?
Think about that, and use all the decision matrix tools you can to work out what to offer, how to present what you offer, and how to set your selling price (among other things).
And... again, as others have said, get your feedback up. Buyers will of course be far more reluctant to purchase from an eBay member who has a low feedback score, and few feedback comments/feedback marks given. Look at some low-value items that you wouldn't mind buying, and buy them. (Don't buy just for the purpose of getting feedback, as that's against eBay's policy... but there's no reason why the gaining of feedback can't be one of your reasons for purchasing.)
If a man went on bended knee and offered me a cubic zirconia ring as an engagement ring, I would not be impressed. A small natural diamond as the stone would be better than a large cubic zirconia.
I looked at getting some loose 5A grade CZs some months back....
Then I realised that even just to get a couple of hundred machine cut stones (which are cheaper and slightly sub-par to hand cut), I'd have to temporarily bankrupt myself, and that was wholesale pricing.
Diamonds have never done anything for me - complete waste of money as far as I'm concerned. I've heard that once upon a time diamonds were really cheap but some bright person decided to use clever advertising and suddenly they were the in thing for engagement rings and they've been worth a lot ever since. I don't know whether it's true or not but it wouldn't surprise me if it was.
Diamonds have never done anything for me - complete waste of money as far as I'm concerned. I've heard that once upon a time diamonds were really cheap but some bright person decided to use clever advertising and suddenly they were the in thing for engagement rings and they've been worth a lot ever since. I don't know whether it's true or not but it wouldn't surprise me if it was.
That would be De Beers - they are generally considered responsible for the idea that engagement rings should have a diamond and be worth 2(?) months salary, as well.
They allegedly monopolised the market and created a false sense of rarity by restricting availability, so they systematically worked to create demand but restrict supply to increase perceived value.
Haven't they found lots more diamonds apart from Africa now? I suppose it's too late because the idea's stuck well and truly in a lot of women's heads that they have to have a diamond or they're somehow inferior to everyone else. I know there are diamonds in the Kimberleys but I don't know how extensive the mines there are.
