Your 2024 Guide To Jewelry Inventory Management

As the proud owner of a jewelry store, it is natural that you want to make your day-to-day operations as easy as possible. However, given the small yet expensive nature of jewelry, jewelry inventory management can be surprisingly challenging. With that in mind, how can you make this easier?

The following post is one of the first places to start when looking at any form of jewelry inventory management. Here, you will learn essential details about jewelry inventory and get some great tips and insight on managing your inventory in the future – including recommended jewelry inventory management software that can make your job much easier.

So, if you want to make running your jewelry store a much easier online and offline experience, use the below jewelry inventory management tips to your advantage!

What Is Jewelry Inventory Management?

Put simply, inventory management is how you keep track of your stock much more precisely. Inventory management means keeping a clear and precise track of all stock from when it is ordered to your store/warehouse to when it sells to a client. Inventory management is critical to your business – it can help to:

• Reduce loss and make sure that your business is not wasting valuable resources
• Minimise the risk of theft and make it easier to keep your store up and running
• Simplify day-to-day operations so your staff can get more work done daily
• Stop customers from ordering products which are out of stock, causing disharmony
• Improve your stock selection so you avoid over-buying poor sellers and under-buying favourites
• Trivialise accountancy and financial record keeping so your business is easier to operate

By committing to the ideas in this article, your jewelry business will be more organised and easier to operate than ever before. From helping you to understand what your clientele like to avoiding wasting resources on bad sellers and non-trending products, inventory management helps you to sell more of what your clients like and less of what they don’t!

One of the first places we recommend you start when modernising your online and offline jewelry store is to look at how you display your jewelry.

Setting Up Your Jewelry Display

Both online and offline, your jewelry store should be set up in a way that makes browsing products a piece of cake. The easier you make your products to find, the more likely a buyer can find what they are looking for and buy something special on impulse simultaneously!

First, spend time grouping all your objects in the correct category. For example, you should group your jewelry by key categories such as type, materials, and style, i.e., rings, necklaces, bracelets made from gold, silver, platinum, and stylised for formalwear, everyday usage, etc.

In your actual stores, too, you should be looking to organise items on your shelving through display cases. The aesthetics of your layout is very important indeed. Therefore, you should ensure an appealing layout – this can be done using grandiose storage solutions, display cases, and easily detailed sections on your website and store. This makes it easier for customers to find what they want.

You will find that your staff can close sales more easily by having a properly organised inventory. They can find in-store items, determine stock levels, and give customers feedback on when certain items will be back in stock or re-ordered. A well-organized online and in–store jewelry business will be much easier to manage. This will reduce losses, make stock-taking easier, and reduce the risk of being undersold or lost.

Sorting Your Jewelry Correctly

As noted above, all your jewelry should be put into sensible categories. You can also cross-categorise all of your gold jewelry in one section while allowing for easy separation of things like gold and silver necklaces, etc.

Sorting your jewelry into the correct in-store and online categories is essential to keep customers happy. Online searching is easy; you can break everything down using tags and labels (see below). At the same time, though, jewelry should be sorted and arranged into topical fits. For example, you might want to think about having additional sorting for things like seasonal gifts – Christmas jewelry, wedding and engagement rings, friendship rings, etc.

Grouping jewelry by type and style can be extremely useful to help customers find what they are looking for. By grouping all of your gold rings in one place and all of your silver necklaces in another, you avoid customers having to browse/scroll through items unsuitable to their preferences.

It would be best if you also looked to have a sorting that promotes two prominent specific searches: best-sellers and seasonal specials. Look to create in-store physical and online marketing that helps make it easy for customers to navigate your best-selling goods and the jewelry most applicable to that time of year. These are two of the most common jewelry searches, so having in-store and online sorting for these two headings, in particular, can help promote sales on your best attire.

Making Tags And Labels Work For You

Another important element of your jewelry inventory management is using tags and labels. Doing this for in-store browsing and your online store would be best. For your online store, tags and labels can be very important! To help make the most of tags and labels, try and consider the following:

• Avoid excessive long-tail tags; keep things short and sweet, i.e. materials, length, purpose, and occasion, i.e. gold rings, Christmas necklaces, etc.
• Break tags down into various categories; you can even include links to tag categories to help customers find their exact category
• Focus on the attributes prominent in jewelry searches, too; think about themes like ‘romantic’ ‘elegant’ ‘cute’ etc.
• Regularly return to your tags and labels and update them based on the tags that seem to be the most/least successful
• When creating descriptions for your products, use these tags and list them so customers can search for similar with one click

Getting this part of your search system right can make it easier for customers to find what they want. You can then analyse your tags and labels to find out your most commonly searched tags; you can then just stock purchases to focus on buying items in the most popular tags whilst holding fire on re-ordering stock on less popular titles.

This can save your business money, and it can help you to make sure that you keep prices accurate. For example, you might find that lowering the cost on some lower-searched tags can entice sales through value instead of best-selling visibility. Little additions like this can go a long way to making your jewelry inventory management process easier! Tagging can make it easier to carry out one of the most complex processes in jewelry store management: working out what your customers want to buy.

Getting To Know Your Customer's Choices

Given the cost of having jewelry created, stored, and shipped, you want to maximise your return on investment as best you can. The best way to do that is to evaluate what your customers are most interested in buying. Sometimes, jewelry stores can find that they give their customers ‘analysis paralysis’ as they offer too much stock without giving customers the correct filtering tools.

Getting to understand the products that your customers want to buy is essential. Through the analysis of your tags and labels, as noted above, you can determine what product types are selling the most. With additional per-product research, you can decide what products sell best!

Figuring out what jewelry types your customers are buying the most helps you to stock up on the correct items for the future. If you find that a certain type of ring sells constantly, you might wish to divert more resources towards that particular product. Only when you start to see a drop-off in sales consistently should you stock up on that.

Listen to your audience! Your stock levels should be determined by what your customers are buying. With enough analysis, you can spot important product selection elements. For example, you might notice a gradual but consistent uptick in a previously less-popular item selling a lot. Have you done something to market that product? Is something going on culturally, such as a seasonal time of year or celebration, that might help you understand why that product has suddenly become so popular?

Appreciating what your customers want to buy today – and what looks like a good bet to sell tomorrow – can help inform stock selection.

How, though, can you go about making sure that you understand what customers want the most? You can use jewelry inventory management software to your advantage. Software, when linked to your online store and in-store branches, can make it much easier to determine what your customers want.

Using Computers To Help

Today, it is important that you can use IT to your advantage. With the right jewelry inventory management software, for example, you can make all of the above – and below – easier to achieve. You can better tag your products, analyse what people are buying (and what they are not), and determine where your stock budget should be targeted.

The use of computer software can have a huge impact on how easy it is for your business to operate day-to-day. Technology does two major things for your jewelry business: it saves you time and helps you reduce the risk – and impact – of human error.

From automating mundane tasks that are easy to make mistakes on to speeding up data collection and analysis, computers can be a great tool for your business. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software is one tool you should invest in. ERP is vital to jewelry businesses today. Using bespoke jewelry software designed specifically for your industry is recommended in the jewelry industry. Let us look at how jewelry inventory software could benefit your business.

The Benefits Of Using Inventory Software

• Enhanced accuracy : One of the primary benefits of jewelry inventory software is that it can ensure you reduce the risk of human error. This means issues such as tracking inventory become far less likely, meaning you are less likely to over-sell popular products when no stock is present.
• Real-time data : Another major benefit of investing in jewelry ERP is that your data is updated in real-time. A product is marked on your software package as soon as sold. This means you always know what stock you have and what store you need to consider ordering more of.
• Saving time : This means you can reduce the time your staff spends managing inventory. Inventory is one of the most important but tedious processes to work for your business; automating this process means your team can commit their time to essential tasks.

Key Features Of Advanced Jewelry Inventory Software

While every jewelry inventory management tool is different, prominent tools (like EasyJewelry) provide you with key features such as:

• Web-based access so that you can access the ERP remotely and from other devices
• Branch management, separating each of your brick-and-mortar businesses from one another
• Barcode and RFID inventory control for quick and easy product additions for stock management
• Easy-to-use dashboard that allows for greater analysis of your financial records and performance
• Point of sale and store management features all in one place for quicker recordkeeping
• Invoicing and tax management that helps you simplify the end-of-year accounts process
• Tracking of customer balances, credit lines, and cash balances for your entire company
• Bespoke reports that can be used to help inform decision-making for the entire business

These features will play a huge role in helping your business simplify its day-to-day operations. Using software, you can automate many tedious processes while reducing the risk of human error. You can make the more time-consuming parts of your business – stock management and financial accounting – so much easier simply by having everything operate through the one easy-to-use ERP system.

Just as important as having a reliable inventory management software system in place, though, is understanding what your customers want. This includes keeping up with popular trends!

Employee Training For Jewelry Inventory Management

When your business employs an ERP for jewelry stores, your staff must know how to use the system. If your staff understand how to use each part of your jewelry inventory management software, they can easily keep the information up-to-date to avoid mistakes and losses.

Training Staff For Inventory Control

Explain how, by learning the system, they will make their jobs easier and that they can automate many of the ‘busy work’ tasks that would have previously slowed them down. It will take time, but ensure staff can use the inventory software. How can your staff make working life easier using your chosen inventory management software?

The Role Of Employees In Inventory Management

You might assume that inventory management is not a part of the job for your rank-and-file staff, but that is incorrect. Unless staff are regularly updating records and using the system properly, you run the risk of stock not being accounted for and over-selling popular products.

Staff are involved each day in making sure that stock records are updated. This can be as simple as ensuring all products sold are notified on the point-of-sale system connected to your jewelry ERP. Staff should be encouraged to report any issues or discrepancies found to your IT department for review.

With your staff trained to provide detailed stock reporting, it is much easier for your business to meet its customer service goals. Why? With the stock covered accordingly, your business can avoid disappointing customers by not having the required jewelry and accessories. If something is not in stock and staff are trained to alert the system to this, new stock can be automatically ordered, and customers can be given an accurate date for arrival/delivery. This improves your customer service process massively.

It also ensures that your staff have an easier daily working experience, freeing up time often spent manually keeping records to do other tasks that might involve more of their expertise. The more your staff can automate and quickly update the software system, the better!

Keeping Up With Jewelry Trends

By far and away, one of the most important elements of jewelry inventory management is ensuring you stay on top of trends. Customers come to your business because you should offer timeless classic jewelry – evergreen styles that always look good – and modern trends. You must stay on top of those trends and understand them best!

Keeping up with jewelry trends is not easy. However, staying up-to-date on what is and is not in fashion will help empower your business. Sure, your jewelry inventory management software will help you to determine what is fashionable in your current product selection simply by looking at sales.

Using The Internet

One of the best places to start when finding stock and keeping up with the times is Google Trends. For example, as we move from autumn to winter, you might want to run a Google Trends search for keywords like ‘Christmas jewelry’ and ‘Festive jewelry’. This will help you to see where searches are going for this kind of garment.

Look out for simple Google searches using the term “jewelry trends”. Searching the web and the News section of Google can bring you many articles from news platforms, social media, and influencers. These are people who, like you, are keen to know what the next big thing is in jewelry. This can help to better inform your product search simply by knowing what is already beginning to trend.

Making The Most Of Suppliers

One of your greatest allies in the world of jewelry is your suppliers. Not only do they keep you in stock as you need it, but they can give you access to new and exciting jewelry to start selling. How do you find the best new product styles from suppliers?

This takes more time and requires a better relationship with suppliers. We advise having more than three suppliers you can rely upon. Build good connections with them, pay your standing orders on time, and ensure you are as accommodating as possible with suppliers. As you build relationships with suppliers, they will be more inclined to give you insight.

For example, a supplier you work with and buy from regularly might offer you a product range ahead of the competition. This might be jewelry that fits modern trends or is perfect for seasonal events. Suppliers are very important to keep onside, so it is important to understand when supply chain issues might cause delays with stock arriving.

By using an inventory management tool, you can ensure that stock is re-ordered automatically for top-selling goods. This means re-ordering is processed so far ahead that you can sustain delays.

You should, for example, spend as much time as you can looking at the trends for each season. Many influencers and industry insiders will provide tips on what looks to be the big seller each spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Use that to your advantage to pre-emptively bring in new supplier stock ahead of the expected customer rush.

Being Ready For Surprises

Running a business means being prepared for any – and we mean any – eventuality. This includes being ready for surprises that might impact your stock levels.

For example, you should be constantly keeping an eye on the weather. The last thing you want is to procrastinate on stock order to the point where you order just as a region-wide blizzard hits. Jewelry ERP software can help you avoid this by alerting you when stock levels go below the needed level. Being prepared for that kind of surprise is very important.

It would be best if you also prepared for market changes. For example, what if one of your suppliers goes into administration? This is why you need more than one supplier you can count upon. If you find that one of your items you only get from one primary supplier is a best-seller, start looking for alternative suppliers who can offer access to the same jewelry.

Sudden changes can shock your business, impacting business performance massively. You can often be ahead of the curve through inventory management software for jewelry stores. By following trends, staying abreast of supplier situations, and keeping a close eye on weather patterns, you can ensure that stock deliveries are smooth enough to sustain any negative surprises.

This is why, above all else, staying on top of your stock is so important!

Checking Your Stock Regularly

Another essential benefit of a jewelry inventory program is simplifying stock-taking and checking. Software solutions make it much easier to reduce the risk of human error. This makes checking stock levels an essential part of your business – a quicker, simpler process than head counts carried out by staff.

The Importance of Regular Stock Checks

Regular stock checks will help you ensure your inventory is precisely detailed. However, these stock checks are easier to verify with jewelry inventory software, as you can cross-reference stock numbers on your jewelry ERP with what is physically available.

This can also make it much harder for losses to take place. Whether losses are happening through mistakes from staff, inaccuracies in the reporting process you used before, or theft, jewelry ERP systems make it much harder for stock to go missing or for stock numbers not to match up with available stock.

Methods For Accurate And Efficient Stock Checks

What, though, if stock numbers do not appear to add up? Then, you need to carry out a manual stock check. Stock checks can be carried out in several ways, including (but not limited to):

• Cycle counting : Cycle counting means doing small-scale inventory checks regularly instead of doing everything simultaneously. This is better for accuracy and for avoiding human error.
• Barcode/RFID : With jewelry inventory software, though, you can use barcodes and RFID scanning to quickly double-check the volume of stock that should be present for anything you sell.
• Staff training : Your business must also have a clear focus when training staff to utilise cycle counting and barcode/RFID checking. This reduces the risk of mistakes being made.

By using the above stock checking methods, especially when paired with a jewelry ERP system like EasyJewelry, you will find it much easier to ensure that your stock levels match up with what should be present at all times.

ERP platforms will always give you access to the tools you need to set up alerts for stock levels; if something appears to be over-stocked compared to purchase rates, stock can be halted. At the same time, though, if your ERP shows an extensive range of stock purchases for one item in particular, you can expedite and prioritise the delivery of shipments for that particular good to help ensure you do not run out.

Checking stock levels regularly using software allows you to strike while the iron is hot. When something is selling well, proper jewelry inventory management ensures you stay on top of the stock levels you need to meet demand. From avoiding excessive overstock on less popular goods to keeping stock levels high for the items you sell, stock checks with software are great for boosting profit margins.

Preventing Inventory Discrepancies

Software like EasyJewelry is a great place to start for any business dealing with discrepancies in-house. Software can make it easier for you to spot when it is clear that your inventory numbers in your ERP do not match up to what is in front of you physically. Spotting discrepancies is important to ensure that the issue's source can be located.

Bringing all of your sales under one banner via your jewelry ERP tool of choice makes it much easier to pair physical stock with recorded stock. Since your ERP automatically updates any sale being made, any missing physical stock should then become a priority. Your team can then utilise the data being automatically tracked in the ERP software platform you use to help determine what has gone wrong.

Without software, though, this often becomes a tedious back-and-forth process that halts efficiency and stops your staff from getting the job done as intended.

Security Measures

Of course, another major benefit of investing in jewelry inventory management software is simplifying the security side of things.

Security Importance For Valuable Items

As a jewelry vendor, your products are generally of high value. This means that they need to be properly secured. The more you can do to cut down on theft and loss, the better your profit margins will be. Jewelry software, then, can be crucial for making sure you can prioritise your stock by value. This helps you better prioritise your highest-value goods and your fastest-selling product lines.

Preventing inventory from being stolen by customers and staff alike is very important. If your business is brick-and-mortar, you must be very careful about customer theft. If you work solely online, though, in-house staff is the main culprit for potential theft and loss.

However, having something like an automated software tool that can make it easy to track discrepancies can be great for your reputation. By having secure storage cases for jewelry in-store and in your stock warehouses, you reduce the temptation for theft. You will also find that, with automated software, when paired with solutions like cycle counting, your business can quickly spot errors.

This reduces loss, improves profitability, and makes it easier to land insurance protection for your business at an affordable rate. The less theft your company witnesses, the less your insurance premiums will be.

Choosing The Right Security Measures

Of course, every business is unique. At the very least, you should look to install a series of alarms and surveillance systems. Alarms in your brick-and-mortar jewelry store can be great for catching perpetrators before they can leave the store. Security cameras can help you spot theft from customers in-store and staff in your back offices, stock rooms, and warehouses.

Access control, too, should be something you invest in heavily. Areas locked with keycodes and access keys can be expensive but worthwhile investments. This addition, alongside investing in security cameras and alarms, can make it much easier to know who has been in what areas of your business and when.

Preventing Theft And Loss

While training your employees to spot potential customer theft is important, staff must know what to look for when colleagues, not customers, are carrying out theft. The importance of having staff undergo training to spot these potentially fraudulent acts, as well as ensuring they understand that the jewelry ERP will make finding discrepancies easy, should help to mitigate the risk.

So, too, should invest in inventory audits. These audits should give you a much easier chance of spotting stock numbers that do not add up. In the past, it would be easy to put stock mistakes down to human error; with an ERP platform in place, the risk of human error is vastly reduced. As such, regular auditing will help ensure that stock is checked regularly enough to spot such issues.

Lastly, be sure to invest in safe storage for all of your most high-value pieces. These might even be best kept in an area where only your most senior and, thus, most trusted staff can gain access. The more high-security the high-value jewelry, the easier to know who could have gained access.

Wrapping Up: Easy Tips To Remember

Running a jewelry store is not any different to running a restaurant. In a restaurant, it is better to have an easy-to-navigate menu that provides a smaller proportion of relevant dishes that your chefs can readily produce. Your jewelry store will benefit from keeping the stock selection available and easy to navigate using tags and labels, making it easy for you to follow stock levels easily and to anticipate when more (or less) of a certain product line is needed.

Simple labelling for easy navigation for customers, paired with software-managed back-end systems via a jewelry ERP, creates an easy business to run and profit from. Update your stock regularly thanks to having good relationships with your suppliers, too, and you can ensure your business continues to produce consistent sales volumes on the products you expect to sell.

The more you simplify the buying process and the management back-end of your store, the easier your day-to-day operations will be. The easier your operations are, the more your staff can get done. The more your staff can get done, the more productive and profitable your business will be.

Simplify the back end of your store with a jewelry ERP system, and the benefits of this simplicity will be felt in everything from product selection to stock management. It is that simple to build a successful jewelry store!

How can EasyJewellery help ?

Many of the strategies outlined above for enhancing your jewelry business can be efficiently managed with EasyJewellery jewelry software. From superior inventory management to seamless financial processing, EasyJewellery empowers jewelers to implement these tips effectively. If you're looking to elevate your jewelry business with cutting-edge technology, consider EasyJewellery as your solution. Request a demo today and see how it can transform your operations.