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Originally when JewelerWebsites.com was offering individual packages, there were different "levels" of what you could get on your website. This quickly became useless as even if it was a great starting place for jewelers: all jewelers are different, and it's not right to pigeonhole someone into a Basic Package OR an Advanced Package.
So you start off with the "basics," but do not have to buy-into the advance: it's always there and you can grow without having to pay to upgrade to something else--or bite off more than you can chew.
Admittedly, if you're looking for eCommerce, the parameters truly are great, so we do that on a case-by-case analysis.
JewelerWebsites.com is not just another web programming company for jewelry tores, we provide full end to end education for the very beginners all the way through the largest jewelry companies that spend more than $250,000 on their website.
We have the experience and in using the internet, and we know how to correctly build the smallest of websites for jewelers for the best expansion in the future.
We don't just follow directions when building jewelry website, we bring you the best ideas we've learned from everything we've previously created.
Our Psiclopedia Jr. comes with what we call a "Product Showcase" and it's a small product catalog that allows people to see what kind of merchandise you have in your store. You can show a photo of the piece, it's designer, and how much it costs. With our Psiclopedia Jr. software, you have the ability to edit your products whenever you need to. Check out our Retail Jeweler Packages to determine what's best for you. An eBusiness Product Catalog has the same idea, but with an option for the viewer to buy the piece online directly using credit cards. To sell jewelry (or anything) online, you need a secure website. Check out our eBusiness packages to determine what's best for you.
We have three different non-ecommerce Packages: Basic Jeweler Website Plan is for jewelry stores that want to show products online, but not sell direct, and present a general overview of the personality of the jewelry store. It comes with a 2000 item product showcase. You may also take a different approach and present the popular designers that you carry in your store. Each details of each jewelry designer are presented in an attractive way with animations of jewelry items. Your site should also present a general overview of the personality of the jewelry store. Any website ican be utilized for jewelry stores that want to get online quickly with minimal effort on their part. You have the ability to explain your jewelry store and also provide simplified product education.
Psiclopedia™ Jr. is the smaller of our two Content Management Systems.
It allows you to edit your product catalog and all of the content on your website. It has a built in Content Image Manager, a PDF Manger and even an SWF Manager.
"Junior" follows our philosophy that you can enter any content into your website through a standard interface and then later select how it lays out on your website. We call this our Content Layout strategy and it's very easy to use once we walk you through 1 or 2 examples.
Psiclopedia™ Jr. meets the needs of every jewelry store website owner that wants control over their website without the burden on actually programming HTML.
When using this CMS there is no need to worry about fonts, colors or any other styles because we set them all up for you, which allows for a uniform presentation of your website.
Psiclopedia™ Jr. comes with every non-eComm site we create.
We provide two approaches to selling online: Simple single items sales using PayPal and full shopping cart systems with built in checkout procedures and at your option, automatic credit card charging. Psiclopedia™ Jr. provides smaller product catalogs and the PayPal buy now buttons. Check out our Basic Website PlanPsiclopedia™ eBusiness is capable of providing unlimited item product catalogs with full WebCatalog shopping cart software. It allows for product search, category organization, add to cart, add to wish list and a lot of other features that a site visitor would expect from a large e-tailer which create a pleasant experience. For all these features, you would be getting a Psiclopedia™ eBusiness plan.
Psiclopedia™ is our proprietary Content Management System. Now in version 6.x, we've been developing it since 1998 and it has evolved entirely from customer requests, and emerging trends in each market segment we have services. Since 2003 we've added many features specific to the jewelry industry, including a very robust product catalog that has more than 70 details fields for jewelry, including fields for diamond characteristics, pearl characteristics, chain & bracelet types and lengths, vendor style numbers, and a lot more. Psiclopedia™ is the only CMS devoted to the jewelry industry. It is proudly build with WebDNA technology which allows us rapid development of new features that can be delivered to our customers regularly. Some of the core features include: • Wish Lists • Gift Cards • Online Layaway Payments • Cell Phone Notifications for Repairs • Cell Phone Notifications for Specials • Cell Phone (.mobi) Version of your jewelry website. • Customer Account Management • Customer Purchase History Ask for an online demo today. Then once you've seen our demo we insist you check out our competition: Ashi-Avalon, Vslash, E-Commerce Partners, GemFind, Polygon, Abbott Jewelry Systems, Cool Banannas and anyone else you can Google. We're confident you will find we are the leader of technology (and at a reasonable price too) websites for online jewelry stores.
Well, because it's so much more than selling online, that's why.
Anyone can sell online with a free cgi shopping cart. There are hundreds of them! But our Psiclopedia™ system is designed for site visitor interaction with many features that your visitors will expect.
Some features include:
• Wish Lists
• Wish Lists Printouts for mailings
• Gift Cards Balance Lookup
• Online Layaway Payments
• Online Repair Status Lookup
• Shopping Cart with various payment methods
• Email Notifications of purchases and shipments
• Product Catalogs that are easy to navigate
• Suggested Products
• Cell Phone Notifications for Repairs
• Cell Phone Notifications for Specials
• Cell Phone (.mobi) Version of your jewelry website.
• Customer Account Management
• Customer Purchase History
• Online Specials
• Product Catalog Analytics
• Tracking of offline advertising
• Built in Email Messaging tied to your customer database (like Constant Contact)
• Glossary of jewelry terms accessible from any page of the site
• Much More!
With all this customer interaction we can't call it eCommerce because it really is an extension of your brick and mortar business, thus "eBusiness".
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Yes you can get a website from your software vendor. Many of the reputable jewelry software management systems come with their our intent website integration. Companies like Logic Mate and Abbott Jewelry Systems, etc.
Before we put these guys down, we need to say that there is a time and a place for everything. We also have a good working relationship with Abbott Jewelry Systems because their EDGE software actually uploads to our Psiclopedia System.
However, JewelerWebsites.com is a full internet service provider (ISP). We have our own programming team, our own design team, our own copy writer, our own SEO guru, our own tech support department, and our own server room with a Tier 1 connection to the internet with 24/7 server room monitoring. We've also been in business since 1994!
So as you contemplate your decision to get online, think about your options fully. If you have a limited budget and want to simply upload products online, then the right choice is your software vendor, or even your print catalog vendor. But remember, those companies outsource everything.
If you are interested in dealing directly with the guys who do the work, who have their finger on the pulse of internet trends and jewelry trends at the same time, then hire us!
Sorry for being blunt. Don't take our word for it though, you should think for yourself and question our claimed authority. Do some Google searches, talk to different people and make your own conclusion.
Ultimately you will need to spend a lot of money to make your jewelry website work. That money needs to be spent with the company that will serve you best. Lastly you should do a 5 year projection of the cost of your vendor compared to ours, the results are eye opening.
Many vendors now offer websites for their retailers. These are great options for starting websites, but they are nothing more than cookie cutter designs with limitations on the amount of original content you can provide, and they are preloaded with merchandise from the vendor that you cannot control.
We are not married to any one vendor, although we do work with many to get their product information for you.
Our jewelry websites are designed specifically for you. Each is unique or customized in their design and include the features from our Psiclopedia Systems as mentioned in the other answers on this page.
If your vendor is only offering a cookie cutter website, we suggest you look elsewhere. But if you need another reason you should take a look at our sales kit which has a 5 year projection of the cost of several different types of websites from other manufacturers and software vendors compared to ours.
We will let someone else answer this question for us. Read this article yourself!Here's excerpt from nationaljewelernetwork.com NJN retail forum shows importance of Web presenceJuly 30, 2008 by Michelle Graff
Statistics also show that watches and fine jewelry is the fastest-growing category for online shopping.
All of this underscores the importance of having a good Web site, and not one designed by a relative or a friend, Lynd said.
"It's time for professional Web site," she said.
Lynd also encouraged retail jewelers to make their Web sites more interactive through the use of tools such as video and blogs, and to check out how they can utilize social media sites such as Facebook and MySpace.com.
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Realistically, as long as YOU want it to take.
Every one of our website REQUIRE a large amount of interaction, approval and copy writing from you. We do not create cookie cutter websites and as such they all take a considerable amount of time to put together.
Most of the time is due to work flow. We do something, send it to you, wait for you to approve it and send it back. If you take too long (more than 24 hours) in the approval process we will have to move on to the next project.
We understand and really do appreciate that you are running your jewelry store business. A new jewelry website is not your primary daily focus. It's always best to delegate the project to someone on your staff you can trust so they can work more quickly with us.
The fastest we can produce a website is about 15 days after the approval of the design.
On average we are able to produce non-eBusiness websites in about 1 month and request that jewelers approve the sites we create within 14 days of our completion. The Psiclopedia eBusiness website are a lot larger and you are required to have training on the software before we make it live. Our contracts stipulate that it will be a minimum of 3 months to build an eBusiness website.
1. We need your logo.
2. We need you to select a template.
3. We need you to select a color scheme.
4. We would also like some photos of your store.
If you do not give us any of the items 1, 2 or 3 we will cannot get started.
You can pay for your website's set-up cost using a check or a credit card.
Typically we accept monthly payments thereafter that are conveniently billed to your credit card.
We do accept checks (and cheques) for payment, but only as a payment for the set-up costs upon signing of the contract. If you are a ChekXcept member you can also select to make a monthly payment through the ChekXcept program.
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Here's what you need to do once you sign our jewelry website contract:
1. Send us your logo in digital format.
2. Select one of our templates as a starting point for your website design.
3. Fill out our EZ Sheets which help you figure out what to write for the website.
4. Make comments on the mockup designs we give you.
5. We adjust the mockups
6. You make more comments and approve the design.
7. We build the website and insert the copy you give us.
8. Another approval and comment step to review the built website.
9. Training on Psiclopedia as needed.
10. Site goes live.
Indeed, we do custom work.
We are telling you to select a template simply as a starting point for your website design.
The template is only a starting point. We will modify it to match your store colors and other aspects of your business to make it uniquely your design.
That said, if you want to start from scratch with your own design, each contract includes 4 hours of design work. If the design process exceeds 4 hours, additional charges per hour will be incurred. We will provide tracking of initial design time as well as estimate how much additional time might be needed if the initial 4 hours are fully used.
The colors of your website should match your store. Any designs or backgrounds should also match any patterns you have in the store, like carpet or wall paper. You should send us a several photos of the inside and outside of your store so we can get a understand what we need to match. To help choose the correct colors you can use the Color Library link on the left side of this page, or click here.
Well, typically we keep trying until you do like it.
Remember, our mockups are based on design ideas you selected and crossbred with photos of your store and colors you selected. The more information you provide us initially, the better chance we have of creating a mock-up you like.
If we are past 4 hours on mockup and you are still completely unsatisfied, we will want to talk to you and figure out what is going wrong and perhaps what other color schemes or design attributes may be more appropriate.
Firstly, know that you can link to any website's homepage that you want. To link to any interior pages of another person's website, you will need their permission, and it is best to get that in writing, such as e-mail. One thing you absolutely want to avoid is direct-linking to a designer's website that will either bring your potential customers to another place entirely where they will buy from someone else. Instead, we recommend having the jewelry manufacturer's information on your own website, so that both you and they will profit, and you are not sending a customer somewhere else where they may become frustrated, give up, or find an item somewhere else. We also recommend that you link to manufacturer website's only on a designated "Links" page, and never on your main navigation.
Of course you should check every website that you are linking to. Make sure it's up to your standards, will actually benefit the customer, avoid sending them to your competition, and is not simply a username/password protected website for retailers. You would be amazed at how many jewelers blindly link to their vendors without thinking ahead.
We have found that several of the manufacturers want to control who has their products on the web. In most cases it is just a matter of the manufacturer making sure that only their customers list their items. Our feeling is why would you want to show items online that you don't sell in the store? In most cases, if the manufacturer has already provided you with images for use in your store, you are already granted permission to use them on the web.
That said, check your manufacturers' agreements in case there is any specific wording that they request, or whether you are allowed to sell directly from your website.
You can have as many pages on your website as you so desire.
However, don't have pages JUST to have pages--have pages that are relevant to you and your products and business.
All pages benefit from photos (the internet is a visual medium, after all), and can be enhanced with video (never autoplay!)
We do not recommend autoplay music on anyone's website.
All pages to meet current SEO specifications should be at least 250-500 words.
Many years ago, it was the thing to do: a midi (keyboard) file of a popular jazz piece, or classical score... However, it becomes increasingly grating for return customers to hear the same song start and stop from page-to-page, and while it seems neat and fun for you since it is your favorite song or you are very proud of your jingle, imagine hearing the same 30 second clip whenever you turned a page in a magazine.
Additionally, there is always the issue of public domain and rights: you may not be allowed to play the song you want on your website if it doesn't belong to you.
We suggest you leave the music selection to the iTunes of your customers and not try to guess what music they want to listen to while viewing your products. Music is evocative and personal--you don't want to risk it going down wrong.
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Yes.
Get ready to swallow a huge required bill every money!
If you want to sell online, your bank, not us, will require you to prove that your website is PCI compliant. You will have to prove it to them 4 times a year with reports from a security company.
We EXCLUSIVELY use McAfee Secure. We have a contract with them to allow their scanners to enter our firewall and test your website.
They charge about $139 per month. So if your website is not producing sales, then this is not something you should be pursuing.
This is why we have a product catalog that uses PayPal and Google BuyNow buttons. Those buttons save you from the security need because your website is not collecting credit card information.
A secure web site has the ability to encrypt all the information being sent over the Internet. This means your web visitors can safely enter their personal information and their credit card number and feel safe knowing that they are protected against identity theft. This encryption is achieved with a Secure Certificate that you will need to pay for.
As your web hosting company we have to order the secure certificate for you. Typically we order them from Stellium Networks since they are less expensive than Verisign. The cost of the certificate is about $139, which you will need to pay for using a credit card. Once we order the certificate, Stellium will do a brief investigation on your company to make sure you are actually legitimate. Part of the investigation includes a telephone call to you asking some questions about you and your company. Once they are satisfied that you are a real business they will issue the certificate.
We have a complete back-end system for you. On a daily basis our servers generate statistics of your visitors, what they viewed and when they viewed it. There is no need to have a counter on your web site to track visitors since this system will do it for you. Once we set up your web site we will give you the URL and directions how to read your statistics.
It will have the form of mail.domain.com. So if your domain is TheJewelryStore.com then your POP3 setting will be mail.TheJewelryStore.com.
Due to spam filters and restriction we cannot allow you to send email through our system. You can receive, but not send. You will need to get the SMTP setting from your ISP. Since you are connecting to the Internet through them, they will be able to give you outbound (SMTP) email ability.
You are welcome to continue sending us updates and changes to your site after your site is completed with us.
If you are interested in making changes to your web site on your own you can choose use either our eBusiness Psiclopedia Content Management System (CMS) or our Psiclopedia Jr. CMS. Both systems are easy to use and very powerful.
We will train you to make changes using the Psiclopedia software set up for your site. You will be able to edit your store information pages, products displays, photos, and add new pages as needed.
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Yes and no.
Although we created all of the IJO websites, and we host and maintain them, IJO is simply one of our customers and they have their own technical support staff that can help you.
Please contact Barbara DeRosa at IJO. Her email address is:
barbara (at) ijo . com
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