Hi - I’m posting this question because almost all I’ve seen on this site about online jewelry sales goes back to the early aughts and isn’t relevant anymore. I want to dip my toe in the online jewelry store market with a link from my instagram. Humble beginnings but we must start somewhere. My question is, who do you use for hosting and sales and do you love them?
Thank you so much for your insights!
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I had an ETSY site years ago and sold some jewelry through it. I closed it because I didn’t have the direct contact with customers that I like. In part I like to get to know my customers and I also need to get sizing information from them since I make cuff bracelets. My website has an online order page that I have used, but don’t like for the same reasons, so I have shut it down. I sell through my website and facebook page by starting a conversation with people who look at them and then complete the sale via email, phone call or in-person conversations. My customers have the option of paying for their purchases, in-person with cash, checks or credit cards or they can pay online using a square invoice. This all works for me. I also sell through local art, craft and gift stores. Most customers are local and can contact me with questions if they have any…Rob
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Hi,
I like Etsy, they remit the sales tax for you.
julie
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I go back to it from time to time, but just don’t have the energy to keep it up and miss the direct contact with customers. I do wish that I could get square to charge sales tax based on the ship to address…Rob
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I did a web search on “sales tax service providers” and found these. There are others:
Whether or not any can be integrated into one’s website or charge card service is another matter. That might require some programming.
If anyone does find an easy-to-use service please share.
Neil A
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Starting with an Etsy shop is extremely affordable and will give you some built-in traffic. You can link your items to Instagram as well for a direct check out.
You will most likely want to go with Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, Weebly, or BigCommerce. Check out their pricing for what works best for your needs, then do a free trial on each to see which interface makes the most sense to you. But you have to drive all your own traffic to these (SEO, social media, ads, direct traffic from events…) so it’s a much harder road than starting on a marketplace site like Etsy.
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I live in Tennessee and bought an expensive tuba in North Carolina last year. The $400 in tax was going to be a deal breaker, but they sold it without any tax and preteneded it was shipped. They explained that there is no tax due unless your out of state sales go over a certain amount set by each state. I looked this up and it’s true. So IDK whether you need to collect tax on out of state sales. I would be tempted to just charge my price with local sales tax figured in and just backtrack to that figure when paying the tax to keep things simple. -royjohn
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You only owe sales tax in states in which your business has a physical presence, unless your gross sales in that state are over a very high threshold. It’s called nexus. Before, I was assuming that Rob meant for within his state. For example, I live in NY, and every tax jurisdiction here charges based on the area of purchase, and there are different tax codes for each county/town. It’s not a big deal for me at my current size, but I can imagine “big small businesses” that really need the automation!
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Most states seem to require at least $100,000 in goods sold or 200 sales. It would be nice to meet those requirements. 
Neil A
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This is good information to share. My original question expanded to a general discussion of sales tax responsibility. My original problem was that I can’t get Square to automatically recognize that, if a sale is to be delivered to a customer outside of NY where I do business, not to apply NYS Sales Tax.
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Rob,
Maybe this video will help,
If you log into Square and search Sales Tax they’ll walk you through the process.
Good luck!
Pam
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Halstead Jewelry Supplies has a lot of marketing and sales information on their blog. They talk about different hosting options, social media, and pinterest. Worth checking out.
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Depends on your branding. If you want a super professional look to your site frim the start go with Shopify which is rated by every evaluation as best and easiest ecommerce platform. If you plan on staying small, Etsy will be your best bet, imo. Think longterm because branding/image is hard to change and risks losing followers.
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Hi
I set up on shopify. I assume that wix and square are very similar. They provide nice website templates which can be modified more than you will ever need. And if you need a special option like offering a chain size like i did, that can be programmed in by a third party supplier for a reasonable fee. Please check out bfosterdesign.com
But be prepared. There is a LOT of reading to do to understand shopify and all its options. Good reading for an entrepreneur too. I have spent probably 40 hours just learning how to set up items and shipping. The support video and menus are really professional.
Also regarding sales tax. In order to be required to pay / collect sales tax you need to have a nexus in a state. A nexus means that you are doing more than 50k in sales depending in the state. There may be rules if your home state has a sales tax but even then it may not be as issue based on sales thresholds.
Best of luck!!
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Hello,
We use Shopify and it works very well for us. It is also very important for direct to consumer to have some sort of social media presence to push people to your store. Another option is to sell directly from your Instagram and then generate a more for featured store later.
Whatever choice you make, you will offset Convenience with money, we often use free versions of software, but end up, having to do more legwork on the backend until our volume allows us to buy the paid tier.
A lot of success is down to marketing unless you have some thing exceptional about your jewelry.
Good luck!
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yes, but Etsy collects and remits sales tax for all states because they are considered a market place and are required to do so. They will even collect and remit for your own state. So, it does make it easy.
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