Advice on Buying Jewellery From Wholesalers - What to Expect

In an ideal world, retailers would buy all their stock from 1 or 2 local wholesalers. The stock would be well priced, come in wonderful designs, arrive in perfect packaging and pristine condition, never break or cause problems for yourself or your customers, and generate healthy profits. But we have to do business in the real world, and in the real world things are never perfect, and expecting them to be is not going to do you or your business any good.

For over 10 years we've been selling jewellery, first as retailers, then as wholesalers and importers. We've learned a thing or two in that time, the most important of which is to know what to expect from your suppliers. When you know what to expect, then you know when there's a real problem that you need to do something about. When you know to expect, you know when NOT to get worked up over something that either can't be helped or isn't worth the time and effort attempting to fix.

In this article, I'm going to share some of the things we've learned over 10 years in the jewellery business. I'll be telling you what you should expect from your wholesaler, and what you should NOT expect. Hopefully, this will make your lives a little easier, and prevent increases in blood pressure and aggressive phone calls that never do any good.

The first thing you should expect from your jewellery wholesaler is the items you ordered. This may seem obvious, but the reality is that many wholesalers - not the best ones, of course - do not always send you the precise goods you requested. This may take the form of supplying you with the correct items, but in different colours than those you specified, or in the worse cases, of supplying slightly different items.

There are two reasons why this may occur. The first is that their catalogue may have some small print somewhere along the lines of 'assorted colours supplied' or 'items similar to those listed'. This is often done to cut down on extra work for the wholesaler - rather than photographing each item in each colour and variation, they photograph only one, and pick and pack from the larger batch of assorted colours and styles.

The second reason is that they may have sold out of the items you requested, and rather than contact you and tell you, they attempt to pass off similar items rather than run the risk of losing your business. Of course, what they don't realise is that when you receive the unasked for goods, there's a very high likelihood that they'll lose your business anyway.

The second thing you should expect is that your jewellery arrive well packaged. This means that each item should be packed separately, especially in the case of sterling silver jewellery which can scratch easily. Items not well packed can be very difficult to unpack, particularly if there is a lot of necklaces with chains or strings involved. There really is no reason for poor packaging.

If any of these things happen, you've encountered a bad supplier and you should treat them accordingly.

What should you NOT expect from your jewellery wholesaler?

This is going to be a little more controversial, as many retailers expect the kitchen sink from their suppliers, and when anything goes even slightly wrong, they feel entitled to complain. Firstly, remember that you are not an end consumer. There is still risk associated with your buying, and there are things you must accept as part of the buying process.

Firstly, you cannot expect wholesalers to supply you with jewellery ready for immediate re-sale. This means that sourcing packaging (boxes, cards, etc.) is your responsibility. While the jewellery may come packaged, this packaging is not for retail display. You need to do some work in this area yourselves.

Secondly, you should not expect perfection. Though good wholesalers check items before they are shipped or unboxed into their warehouse, they don't spend the same amount of time that you, as the retailer, will spend to ensure that quality is 100%. What this means, is that for costume jewellery you shouldn't be surprised if one item in ten needs to have a clasp tightened or a stone super glued back into place. This is normal, and in many cases one faulty item in ten is a good result from a wholesaler. You should only consider sending the item back to the wholesaler if it can't be fixed by yourself. If you do start returning items that can be fixed by a single turn of a screw, you're going to frustrate your supplier, which won't do you any good in the long run. Only end consumers have the right to expect perfection.

In a similar vein, if you've received a batch of watches, and some of them do not appear to be working or are showing an incorrect time, then you should do one of two things: change the batteries or reset the watch to the correct time. The wholesaler is unlikely to change the time on a watch they receive, so it will usually come with factory settings. Likewise, a dead battery does not mean a dead watch. In a batch of 100 watches, you can realistically expect 5 or more dead batteries. This does not mean the watch itself is of poor quality.

The point I'm making is that though you can expect good quality goods, and you can expect the goods to be what you ordered, you need to remember that you're paying wholesale prices, not retail. The markup from wholesale to retail is there in part because of the extra work involved in ensuring each individual item is up to scratch. Within reason, it's your job to do this.