A Little Known Reason You Should Consider Selling Silver Jewelry
Create a new revenue stream, earn your customers’ trust, and convert more customers.
Here at Elf925.com, we’re always looking for new ways to make you money.
As business owners, we understand how important the financial health of your jewelry enterprise is.
And we want you to be as successful as possible, because if you’re successful, we become more successful as well.
In today’s post, we’re going to talk about a very new and underused source of income: selling anti-bacterial products that contain silver in them.
You may be thinking: why would a jewelry retailer sell antimicrobial products? Aren’t those products more suited for a pharmacy or drugstore?
Yes and no. While these kinds of products are definitely different than jewelry, they share a theme: using silver to make your life better!
And we’re betting that some of your customers will see and appreciate the “themed” branding as well.
There are a few good reasons to sell silver health related products:
- They can provide an alternate income stream aside from jewelry
- They are an easy, low cost way to differentiate your store from others
- They can help you create trust with your customers
By the end of this article, you’ll have all the tools you need to create a new source of revenue at your jewelry business!
How Silver Works To Destroy Germs
Now, here at Elf925 we are jewelry wholesalers, not medical doctors.So we’re going to “call in the experts” on this one to explain how silver does it’s job.
Here’s a video from the Silver Health Institute explaining things:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ0UCeamYug
And here’s a nice statement from Bullion Street, quoting one of their articles about how silver kills bacteria:
“Here is silver’s multi-pronged approach: first, silver sticks very strongly to sulfur, found in parts of proteins. These sulfur groups normally bond to each other in proteins, holding them together and keeping the protein folded up in its correct shape.
But if silver interacts with sulfur then the protein cannot fold correctly, and thus it cannot do its job.
Next silver interferes with how bacteria use iron. Iron is often held in the places it is needed by binding to sulfur. And since silver also interacts with sulfur it stops the iron doing so.
Finally, silver causes bacteria to produce extremely toxic substances called reactive oxygen species. These go on to cause damage inside the cell, harming the DNA, proteins and even the membrane that surround cells.
The net result of this silver onslaught is bacteria with severely damaged defences. Most importantly the membranes and walls that surround it are leakier after the silver treatment.
Once weakened, they are much more susceptible to conventional antibiotics.”
An Important Disclaimer
Your customers should use colloidal silver on their external skin as a topical antibiotic, NOT as a substance to be ingested orally.
While many people do ingest silver orally, it is better to “play it safe” and only sell silver compounds that are designed to be applied to the skin for short periods of time.
As an article by the LA Times states:
“Silver undoubtedly has some germ-killing powers. Silver compounds are sometimes applied to bandages to prevent infections, and silver is also used to treat drinking water.
….(However), contrary to claims made by some websites, silver in large enough doses can cause side effects. In rare cases, it can collect under the skin and react with sunlight to create a permanent bluish tint, a condition known as argyria. Although unsightly, argyria is not dangerous.
The EPA estimates that a person could safely take up to .005 milligrams of silver per kilogram of bodyweight each day without side effects. Because almost no research has ever been conducted on colloidal silver, the agency warns that this figure is a very rough guess.
But, by that standard, a 150-pound (68-kilogram) person could safely take seven times the recommended dose of Sovereign Silver or 1.2 times the recommended dose of Silver Shield.”
#1: Silver Health Products Can Provide an Alternate Income Stream Aside from Jewelry
Depending on how much you mark up the jewelry you buy from wholesalers like Elf925.com, your lowest cost items may be quite a bit more expensive than what silver health related products would cost.
This is a big deal.
In these tough economic times, you want to have as many different income streams at different price points as possible, so that even if customers’ wallets are feeling light, you can still sell them something of value.
Additionally, some customers are what we like to call “window shoppers”. They’ll come in, ask questions, and look at all of the fine jewelry you have to offer – but they won’t ever buy anything.
Why do window shoppers exist? We don’t know for sure, but here are a few possible reasons:
- They simply enjoy the experience of looking at jewelry and imagining they owned it
- They don’t have the money to buy your jewelry, but they would like it
- They have the money, but believe that jewelry is an unnecessary indulgence that they shouldn’t spend money on
For the people who just like imagining they are wearing jewelry without buying, silver health related products won’t help you. But for the second two reasons, silver health related products can make a big difference towards turning a “window shopper” into a paying customer.
Think about it: the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. So if you want people to buy from you in the future, you need to get them to buy in a small way right now.
You can intentionally use silver health related products as a way to “get your foot in the door” with some potential customers.
Once they’ve bought from you once, the chances that they’ll buy again skyrocket.
And the next time, they just might buy some jewelry as well!
Additionally, jewelry sales are very seasonal in nature. By offering silver health related products, you can have a small but steady source of year round income in addition to your main offering.
Marketing Action Step: Offer some silver health related products for free in exchange for a customer’s email address. Once you have their email, you can use the whole toolkit of email marketing to try and make some big jewelry sales.
#2: Silver Health Products Are an Easy, Low Cost Way to Differentiate Your Store from Others
One of the biggest rules in marketing is that you have to stand out from your competitors.
Another rule of marketing is that “perception is reality”. When you combine these two rules, you get this maxim:
You don’t have to offer radically different services or products than your competitors. You just have to offer a different perception of your products and services.
Let’s be honest: selling a few dozen units of colloidal silver each day or week isn’t a huge differentiator in and of itself from an “objective” point of view. While the income is nice, these silver health related products don’t change your fundamental business model.
But from the eyes of the consumer, things look quite different. Instead of just being a jewelry store, you’re the store that is doing something new and exciting.
People might say things like, “Ahh, I bought some new soap from the jewelry store when I was buying earrings for Tiffany. Apparently silver is really good for you!”
Small word of mouth exchanges like this are one of the most powerful forms of marketing. Don’t underestimate how much people trust causal recommendations from their loved ones or even acquaintances.
In other words, selling silver health products at your jewelry store can legitimately be seen as a brand building investment. An investment that makes you money!
And unlike jewelry, which must be stored with care and cleaned regularly to look appealing, you don’t really need to do any sort of special maintenance for silver health products. Just store them in a cool dark place and you’ll be fine.
Finally, silver health related products are low in cost. That means that your brand building exercise won’t cause you any financial worries – you can feel free to experiment without fear of damaging your bottom line.
Marketing Action Step: Bundle several small pieces of sterling silver jewelry together with silver health related products. Savvy customers will appreciate the theme of the packaging and you’ll move more jewelry as a result!
#3: Silver Health Products Can Help You Create Trust With Your Customers
Seth Godin likes to say that the most important currencies in the modern economy are trust and attention.
With jewelry, attention is relatively easy – you literally have something shiny that people want to buy!
Trust, however, is a bit tougher. You can put seals on your cabinets stating how high quality your jewelry is, and employ very socially skilled reps to man your counters, but there is another option as well.
Use silver health products to make your customers feel like you really care about them on a personal level – not just a financial one.
You see, jewelry has a relatively short “relationship time”. Typically, customers come in, see a piece they like, and either buy it right then or wait a bit and then buy.
Customers might come back to you if the jewelry breaks or if they want more, but otherwise, you don’t see them too often.
This can make building a relationship with them kind of tough. However, when you offer them silver health products, your customers will think:: “Wow, these guys aren’t so bad after all. Yeah they want my money… But they are also looking out for me. Maybe this is my place.”
Of course, it’s VERY unlikely your customers will be aware of these thoughts. They’ll just notice a feeling – a feeling of a bit more trust.
And that trust can convert into hard revenue numbers for your bottom line.
Marketing Action Step: Put silver soap in your bathrooms for your customers to use. Above the urinals, put a short information sheet that tells them about the health benefits of silver.
Finale
We’ve covered that silver can work as a new revenue stream, a way to convince potential customers to buy from you the first time, and a way to earn the trust of repeat customers.
We hope that you use this information to make your jewelry business even more successful than it already is!