We like to know who our customers are. When it comes time to restock or source new lines of fashion jewellery, the more we know about our buyers and their businesses, the better able we are to meet their needs.

Over the past year, it’s become clear to us that we attract different sorts of buyers in different countries. In Ireland we sell to a lot of market traders and small independent shops - in Denmark there ARE no market traders. And in the UK and US, a high proportion of our customers are Jewellery Party Planners.

When I speak of Party Planning, I’m not referring to weddings or corporate events. Think Ann Summers and you’re nearly there: small, intimate groups of women gathering in one person’s home or hotel, a few bottles of wine too many, and an opportunity for one aspiring entrepreneur to sell their wares. Fashion jewellery, necklaces and rings are very common items to sell at these events, as are handbags and watches.

There are companies set up specifically to ‘manage‘ these sorts of events - selling pre-prepared, mixed packages to the party organisers, who work on a strange kind of commission. They offer little choice in terms of stock, but call their buyers ‘Consultants‘ to compensate.

So why are the Jewellery Party Organisers choosing to buy direct from us? This quote from one Party Plan web-site sheds a little light: “As an Independent Consultant you will earn 25% commission on total party sales.”

WHAT?

You sell a very attractive sterling silver ring or necklace for £10 and you make £2.50 profit - and that’s before you factor in petrol and babysitting costs. Is it any wonder many financially-aware buyers choose to bypass the hand-holding of these companies and source their stock themselves?

And it’s not only these poor profit margins that make buying direct from wholesalers a huge advantage. These ‘party packs‘ always seem to contain a few items that just can’t be sold. Now, this may be because the seller or party organiser is just not that good a salesperson, but it’s far more likely that whichever company put together the party pack in the first place made a poor buying decision and found itself with a number of difficult to sell lines. For which YOU pay the price.

The advantage of buying from wholesalers is that you choose exactly what to buy, and how many of each item to buy. You know your buyers better than we do, and better than any ‘Party Planning‘ company or organisation. People’s tastes in London and Cardiff are NOT always the same, and twenty-somethings do not buy the same styles as their mothers.

All our fashion jewellery and watches are sold and priced individually and you always see exactly what you are getting beforehand - the same goes for many other wholesalers. So if 25% profit margins sound as silly to you as they do to us, maybe it’s time you dropped the title ‘Consultant‘ and began to work for yourself.