Starting a retail business does not have to be that difficult, with a little logic and research, you will find that one thing above all will determine whether your business is successful or not – and that is, whether or not you have the right product.  To my mind, the best way to start a retail business is to choose a product that you know is always popular, easy and cheap to package and deliver, and fashion-forward.  That is why it pays to consider buying something like wholesale bracelets.

Buying bracelets wholesale means that you will be able to get a lot more product at a good price, allowing you to raise your retail charge and make a profit.  The reason it makes sense to start with a wholesale bracelet is that, regardless of the specific current fashion trends, bracelets are always popular: every woman (and now increasingly men) knows that the right fashion accessory can really set off an outfit to perfection.

Bracelets are also good wholesale items to buy because, so long as you have a good retailing point and advertising, they are the kinds of things that lots of people like to buy as gifts.  Plus, as fashions change so often, so do bracelets and so it is a good way for most people to update their look without changing their entire wardrobe.

However, it will be important that you keep an eye on the latest fashion trends before you commit yourself to bulk buying a particular style of wholesale bracelet; after all there are lots of different styles to consider – such as wholesale charm bracelets, ankle bracelets, cuff and bangle bracelets.

Spending time researching fashion magazine and fashion shows will quickly help you decide which wholesale bracelets to buy.  But be careful – whilst current trends, for example, may seem to be favoring bright, beaded cuff bracelets, this trend may be short lived.  The equally current trend for chunky, metal cuff bracelets may well prove to have a longer shelf life, so I, personally, would go for that when buying.

Once you have researched the fashion trends, you now will have to make sure that you are properly registered as a business so that you can easily process your wholesale order – getting in touch with your local chamber of commerce or business advice service will no doubt get you the information you need to be registered.

Now you are ready to find the wholesale bracelet supplier you want to deal with.  My top tips are:

• look for a reliable wholesale bracelet company – look for any positive client testimonials, and check on business registers to confirm that the wholesale business is legitimate

• make sure you compare the prices of a range of different wholesale companies – and be sure when you’re making comparisons to do so for like for like products and quantities

• think carefully before you place your order – whilst the price may be less for more product, be realistic about how much of the product you think you can sell, because the last thing you want is to have stock left over

Once you have mastered the art of choosing the right wholesale bracelet stock at the right price from the right trader, the next step of the game is to perfect the art of presenting your product to the customer.  Think of innovative ways to display, package and market your wholesale bracelets – it pays to give a good quality personal retail service so that your clients will keep coming back and recommend you too!

Bangle Bracelets

A perennial favorite for both girls and grown women alike is the bangle bracelet – as a child I was obsessed with them and I still love them now, and I recently bought some bangles for my three-year-old niece who went crazy for them!  So it would make sense to stock up on wholesale bangle bracelets for your jewelery business.  But thanks to the endless choice in styles and materials, the trick will be how to decide on exactly which bangles to stock.

The thing to do is to clearly define your target client. You may decide the best way to go is to target bangles for young girls.  These are a great idea because they are usually extremely cheap (mostly made of plastic), very lightweight so easy and less costly to deliver, and often you will get bangle ranges which coordinate with a particular girls favorite brand, such as Hello Kitty or Disney Princesses ranges.  If you’re aiming to the young girls fashion market, you may also want to consider stocking “make-your-own” bangle and bracelet kits as these are a great way to combine the natural love of all things girly and a useful educational activity.

Going along the same thought process, stocking inspirational, memorial or personalized, engraved bangles aimed towards children’s sizes may be a potentially interesting business strategy.  These kinds of bangle can be more expensive and high-end, as they are essentially seen as an heirloom product – something that a godmother might buy for her godchild – that gets handed down from generation to generation.

Another specific wholesale bangle bracelet you might consider targeting is the Indian glass bangle market – these bangles are especially worn during wedding and honeymoon celebrations and have a number of symbolic meanings.  Indeed the market for Indian bangles is very extensive as bangles are an essential item for many Indian women. Whilst the glass bangles are the ones mostly involved in symbolic wedding practices, stacks of thin metal and even plastic bangles are also very popular.

In fact, the idea of stacking bangle bracelets together is key when considering this kind of bracelet.  It seems that over the years the trend for using large, chunky bangle bracelets, to create a fashion statement, has become a major theme in the haute couture fashion houses and this has been readily accepted on the high street. Indeed, in very recent years, it seems that bangle bracelets have become massive – quite literally!

Understanding, however, that the way to wear these statement bangles is by stacking them together means that you might want to choose ranges of wholesale bangle bracelets that go together.  You could, for example, stock lots of different styles of bangle but all within the same color group.  And then repeat that idea for all the other colors.

The only problem with buying wholesale bracelets and targeting a specific market is that you are rather backing yourself into a corner and are not open to wider markets. It is, therefore, more important than ever to consider carefully who you are going to target and then work out how!

Cuff Bracelets

To my mind, if I were researching which kind of wholesale bracelets to invest in, I would go for the cuff bracelet style. There are several reasons why I think they make the most interesting option for a specialist jewelery retail business.

First, there is the sheer breadth of range.  Wholesale cuff bracelets come in all sorts of different materials and styles including both fine metals and alloys, leather, fabric, embroidered, beaded, filigree, chunky, delicate, clay polymer, acrylic, wood, bejeweled, vintage, modern, tribal, designer, hand-made – the list goes on and on!  There are even cuff bracelets with watches integrated into them! There is absolutely no reason why, therefore, having done a little research into the market you want to target, that you couldn’t find a range of cuff bracelets to suit.  You could decide to specialize only in metal cuffs and still have thousands to choose from.

Secondly, the great thing about wholesale cuff bracelets is that generally one size fits all, so no messing around with deciding how much of each size to order from the wholesalers.  Beware though, that the “one-size-fits-all” rule is not always true for all cuffs. You see there are three sorts of cuff – one which wraps right round the wrist and has either a stud or clasp to close it; the second sort wrap all the way round, but are elasticated; the third sort only wraps round the wrist to a certain point, leaving a gap – this allows for the wearer to slip the cuff bracelet on and off as there is usually a bit of in-built flexibility.  It is the second and third sorts of cuff that can fit all sizes.

Thirdly, the cuff bracelet is the one kind of bracelet that has been really accepted as both a women and men’s fashion item.  This gives you plenty more scope for targeting a wider client base, particularly if you choose to stock the leather cuffs that are most popular in men’s fashion.

Fourthly, there is a practical side to wearing a cuff bracelet that makes them really popular – they tend not to slip or jiggle around on your arm.  The whole point of a cuff bracelet is for it to fit snugly onto your wrist (I have also seen many cuff bracelets being worn on the upper arm too).  This means that you can still be fashion-forward whilst being discrete and practical – having lots of jangly bangles on your arm might be pretty, but not terribly good for wearing to work – and especially annoying if your work involves typing on a computer!

So for all the reasons above, I think wholesale cuff bracelets are definitely the way I would go when choosing which bracelet product to stock.

Ankle Bracelets

After doing your research on the local and wider market, you may feel that your retail jewelery business should be targeted to a specific product – particularly if you find that there is already a lot of competition. For example, you might find that a lot of jewelery outlets stock ranges of bracelets to be worn on the arm, but not that many different types of ankle bracelet.

Whilst that may at first seem like a perfect product to go for, it is a risky business buying a whole load of wholesale ankle bracelets only to find that there is, in fact, no market at all for your product.  It might therefore be worth looking to see if there is a specific angle to take within the ankle bracelet spectrum so that you can then concentrate on targeted marketing.  For example, there may be a market for plus size ankle bracelets or for extra small anklets, or another route may be to specialize in Indian, Arabic or Middle Eastern wholesale ankle bracelets, which are typically worn by women as part of their bridal outfit.

It is very tempting to try and find a specialized product but beware also of falling into the trap of investing into the, very short-lived, high fashion trends that come round from time to time. For example in the 2008 Chanel Spring/Summer collection ankle bracelets sporting a little attached purse were featured.  The look, in my opinion, was completely ridiculous, and thank goodness it did not translate to the high street!

If, however, you do think there is a gap in the ankle bracelet market and feel that you have what it takes to make it work, then there are a couple of key things to consider before sourcing your wholesale ankle bracelet order.

First of all is size – this is, on the whole, much more important for anklets than for arm bracelets.  Ankle bracelets typically come in a range of sizes from 9 inch extra small to 14.5 inch plus sizes, and usually are made in half-inch increments. Take time to research your key clients, and bear in mind that if the client’s actual ankle is 9.5 inches then the bracelet needs to be 10 inches in order to hang prettily rather than strangle the ankle!

So, how large is your typical clients ankle?  Perhaps, it would make more sense to stock more of the average size anklet than too many of the extreme sizes at either end of the scale.

Secondly, in fashion – as mentioned above, there are all kinds of ankle bracelets to suit all kinds of tastes.  They come in a range of materials and styles – from bejeweled ones made of precious metals, to less formal ones made of woven hemp or leather aimed at the surfer/ skateboard market.  It would make sense, I think, to start out with one style of anklet to test your capabilities in marketing, rather than trying to cover all bases.

As always the key is in researching your market thoroughly!  Find out who you want to market to and what they want, and then source the wholesale ankle bracelet that fits!

Charm Bracelets

When considering which kinds of bracelets to buy from wholesale bracelet traders, it is important to keep abreast of all the current trends.  One kind of bracelet that has seen a huge resurgence in recent years is the charm bracelet.  The resurgence of the charm bracelet in fashion circles came around in 2000 and shows no sign of abating, with different themes, but along the same lines, emerging every season (for example when the movie Pirates of the Caribbean was released in 2003, there were suddenly a lot of bracelets on the market sporting skulls and crossbones charms).

Indeed those looking to make money by selling bracelets would be well advised to consider buying wholesale charm bracelets, as the great thing about them is that they can be made to suit all tastes.  The whole point of a charm bracelet, in modern times, is for the wearer to show off some of her personality with the different charms.  Thus an animal lover might have an animal themed bracelet, and sporty type might have charms depicting different sporting disciplines.

When it comes to choosing wholesale charm bracelets it is also worth deciding whether or not you will stock ready made charm bracelets, or bracelets to which the client can then add individual charms.  Going down the individual charms route may give you greater flexibility to change directions according to trends in the market.

What is both brilliant and complicated about choosing this kind of bracelet is that they come in such a diverse array of themes and prices.  So you can find cheaper charm bracelets more suited to young girls pretending to be princesses, and very up market bracelets with charms made from precious metals and gems that would be targeted at an entirely different market.

It is also worth knowing that these days there are three kinds of charm bracelet.  The first is what we might call the traditional charm bracelet – essentially a linked bracelet from which the charms are hung.  The second is a modular style made with interchangeable beads and charms – this is effectively a make your own kind of bracelet.

The third style is also modular, known as the Italian charm bracelet, but instead of the charms hanging off the bracelet, it is made in such a way that the charms lock onto each flat link of the bracelet.  The Italian charm bracelet is quite different in its look compared to the other kinds of charm bracelet, and commands a whole different kind of client base.

So, as you can see, because of the diversity available in charm bracelets, they might be a good item to stock. But the key will be to do plenty of research to decide exactly which kind of bracelet to go for before buying wholesale.