It may be a cliche, by this point but, year after year, online jewelry stores are home to one very specific kind of shopper at Christmas time: the clueless guy shopping for jewelry for his girlfriend.
Maybe it’s because most of us don’t buy jewelry for ourselves. Maybe it’s that we really are that dumb when it comes to women’s fashion. Whatever the case may be, the men in these women’s lives never seem to fail at being completely lost in the jewelry checkout aisle.
“How do I know which color of bracelet to get?”
“What does good quality look like?”
Join us, today, as we break down the most important factors to consider when buying jewelry online for your lady friends, this holiday season.
Quality
Some of the saddest stories in the history of modern relationships started with a gift that turned out to be trash. You could have the best of intentions (most of us do when we go shopping for gifts) and still trip at the starting line if you forget one thing: if it’s garbage, she’ll find out.
You’re not smarter than her, my friends. Maybe it’s made out of recycled Bic lighters and gold spraypaint but it looks just like the real deal. Maybe the difference is more subtle than that. The point is, if you don’t shop for quality materials in your jewelry, they will degrade, warp, and buckle over a lifetime of use. And she will find out.
Now, obviously not every person is operating with a huge budget. We’re shopping online for a reason, after all. We want good deals. Great deals. This makes it all the more important to do your research. Because it’s actually easier than you might expect to find competitive prices on high-quality accessories if you spend some time looking at your options.
No repurposed materials. Real gold. No promises of anything that couldn’t possibly be true. Something like a description of a 24 carat stone in a ring or bracelet for the “low-low price” of $50. Some of this may need to be sussed out using basic logic, but you can spot the warning signs easily enough if you look out for them.
Range of Options
They say “variety is the spice of life”, and there’s something to be said for that when it comes to online jewelry shopping. Sure, a boutique online store may offer three items with such wonderful craftsmanship that they only offer those three items. But where’s the fun in that?
More importantly, what if your SO isn’t interested in a basic gold bracelet with no color options? What if their favorite color is turquoise, and you’ve just given them a super high-quality accessory that’s also super boring?
There’s also the question of sizes. Wrists might not seem like they come in too many different widths, but you’ll learn they do pretty quickly the first time you buy your girlfriend a bracelet that’s too small for her.
Having items to choose from gives you more room to find the right one for any occasion. Whether it’s in the color of flairs on a bracelet or options for clasps, the best shops (in our opinion) are the ones giving their shoppers the gift of choice.
Good Reviews
And here we get to it: the most important thing about shopping for literally anything online, but especially jewelry. The king consideration whenever there’s digital commerce to be had. A tale as old as time for the consumer.
The reviews section.
No matter what a company tells you, they can never get away from the brute honesty of the reviews people leave on their products. Most online stores are forced to include some sort of review page, so if they’re out there selling substandard products, this is the perfect place to find the truth. This makes it more important for them to simply put out good products, so they can lock down those glowing reviews.
Buyers don’t care whether a company lives or dies — they only care about what their experience was buying any given product. So, when something (let’s say a sleek new ring for your boo) ships with nicks, scratches, or broken components, those same people are going to one place before any other. The comments and reviews section.
Pro tip: arrange the comments by “New” or “Most recent” whenever checking out reviews of a product. This lets you see what state the product is currently getting shipped out in, and learn about any recent defaults in its quality.
With this information in hand, you’re working with the truth. Not some spin put on a product by marketers. But the honest-to-God experiences of real people who’ve all recently bought or used the product. Good or bad, this is a real reflection of what you would be buying if you clicked “Checkout” right now.
Know What You Want
This next point may surprise you, but many men come into the jewelry shopping process without a clear picture in their minds of what they want to buy. They start off, once again, with the best of intentions: “I want to get her some jewelry to show her I care”. But they think buying jewelry online is going to make things easier and, instead, things get away from them pretty quickly.
Does she like chunky jewelry? Something a bit more delicate? Bold, colorful patterns and designs, or just a splash of color to remind people that the accessory is there? These may sound like small issues to you but can make or break the gift for the person you’re buying it for. There’s nothing more frustrating than having to smile at someone and thank them for a gift that just misses the mark entirely.
Talk to your SO. Ask them about what they like. Pay attention to the jewelry they already wear. Maybe it reflects their personality or their lifestyle. Maybe they just like to have fun with it. Using this little bit of spycraft can help you pick out something that really “speaks” to them. And that’s how you pick out a real winner of a gift from an online jewelry store.
Come With A Budget
Remember the guy who started shopping for his girlfriend’s gift without knowing what gift he wanted to get her? Well, that’s the same guy who “goes into” an online store and doesn’t know how much he wants to spend. And that guy is always going to run into issues.
If you’re shopping on a tight budget, ditch any kind of embarrassment you might have right in the beginning and commit to an amount you want to spend. If you know what the limit is, you’ll know never to go over it.
Obviously, the more you can spend, the merrier you can spend it. Whatever the case may be, however, if you know how much you can spend before you start shopping, the whole process becomes a whole lot easier.
For our money, one of the best options around for budget-conscious buying jewelry online, right now, comes in the form of the aptly named Designer Styles for Less.
