How to Sell Semi Precious Gemstone Cabochons in Various International Countries and Markets
In a thread started by Alana over at CST. “I believe these are some hard times for our business right now” we seem to have discovered common sales experiences in regards to a greater percentage of International sales recently as compared to National. Possibly a connection to the present Global Recession.
I can speak from personal experiences that it is possible to achieve international sales without any special marketing techniques. For myself, that became apparent when I sold Chines Snuff Bottles on eBay. A collectible item. For that reason the international buyers would go the extra step in figuring out how to deal with communicating and purchasing from an English website/store without any extra effort on my part.
This chart that shows how the International Internet is now the fastest area of online revenue growth.
It describes perfectly my own personal experiences with International “buyers”. With the exception of a couple shown on this chart I would say that it closely represents my percentages of International sales when selling Chinese snuff bottles.
So.. without any extra marketing techniques the buyers will come and buy if we are selling something desirable, competitive and collectible. Of course certainly having a simple site translation capability is a big plus.
In order to really get in and get our semi precious gemstone and gemstone jewelry design sites in the face of potential International buyers there are other things I am learning are necessary.
What if we sell gemstones that other Countries mass produce. Things like gemstones that are mass produced and sold cheaply because labor can be pennies on our dollar.
I know that I can not compete with these run of the mill semi-precious gemstones. Basic minerals and especially basic shapes. Especially oval, round and straight forward domed gemstones. It seems like the Asian and India markets dominate mass producing these common semi-precious gemstones. We can compete with the freeform designer type semi-precious gemstones though. Just like the Chinese Snuff Bottles that are desirable. Truly collectible bottles are not able to be mass produced in any market. Each can be and should be unique. Freeform and or designer type semi-precious gemstones are desirable to jewelry designers in many Countries. Unique and unusual freeform semi-precious gemstone cabochon minerals.
I believe that for a Lapidary this opens the door for International sales Making it quite feasible to enter into International SEO and SEM (Search Engine Marketing).
But how is it done? It does take a little more than just placing a language translator on our gemstone and jewelry design sites.
I have just started to search for information on how to best communicate my semi-precious gemstones to the International markets, shown in the chart above.
I thought it would be a good start to make a blog entry to maybe stir up some discussion, experiences, advice and guidance from other Lapidaries who are involved with or interested in talking a bit more about how to get our semi-precious gemstones into these markets.
These first couple of terms (International SEO and SEM) that I stumbled upon while searching for information about how to sell Internationally.
Here are a few more terms/phrases that I am still investigating.
Deliver qualified global visitors
Visibility within foreign search properties
Global internet search
E-Globalize
CE Certification
Power supply conversion
Gate way page.
The first most interesting and seemingly a great place to start is with the Gate Way pages which is directly related to SEO and SEM.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Using Search Engine Optimization (SEO), we can use keywords and phrase information and construct what is called a “gateway” page, or page that introduces our company/site.
Incorporate our gemstone related keywords and phrases into the text of the gateway page, as well as in the HTML code that is used to build the page. Apparently each search engine is different with the “rules” that must be followed when submitting pages to their search engine, and moreover those search engines within each country has different rules. So apparently we need to learn how to optimize our gateway page for international search engine optimization.
This page will need to be translated into the language of the Country of choice. Looks to me so far like a gateway page for each language/Country.
Then we submit our gateway pages to the various key search engines in the Country of choice. Over time (this will depend on the search engine and market) our gateway page will continually gain visibility within the natural search engine area on each of the key search engines in that Country.
The following may help explain better how the process works.
The Opportunity
In the last 10 years, the total number of non-English searches online has completely reversed to now include over 75% of the total population, and this number is still increasing.
Keyword Density, or the amount of traffic online in markets outside of the US is not nearly the same as it is in the US.
What this means is a much higher chance for a successful long term top ranking in international gemstone and jewelry design markets compared to the US market, if we act before the global markets catch up to the US in online search competition.
The Global SEO Process Steps
First of all, we know that 99% of all searches abroad are conducted in the native language of the user. So gemstone cutters, lapidaries, and gemstone jewelry designers have a chance to be seen globally be those searching for our gemstone related products or lapidary services. We must have a presence in their native language.
The first thing to do is to create an “entry” or “gateway” page that can be submitted to search engines in the global markets we select. Let’s now take Chinese as an example. This Entry or Gateway Page will be consistent with your Website look and feel, and be fully optimized to achieve top rankings in the selected markets.
There are different accents, different symbols and different alphabets, and the rules, regulations, and algorithms vary by market and search engine within each market, which is why a thorough understanding of international search engine optimization is important.
When a prospective customer does a search and finds our gemstone and or jewelry design Entry or Gateway Page, they will see at the bottom a link to our gemstone / lapidary home page, with an explanation in Chinese that once they click on this link they will go to an English only site, and that all subsequent correspondence will be in English.
The prospective customer then clicks on the link at the bottom of the page and is transferred to your main gemstone or jewelry design page. Statistics show that 85% to 90% of foreign users will click through to your English language home page!
From the same site there is a FAQ page that gives us some things to think about.
So… this is where I am at.
Because of the above, it is apparent that I will need a gemstone / Gemstone jewelry design gateway page for each language/Country I would like to target.
I am not sure yet if I need to have a separate dot com for each of these gateway pages, or if we can simply create one.
With a Wordpress Blog, perhaps use the static page that is available, create another separate gateway page, etc..
With a ZenCart, maybe the same. Create a EZ page or something as the gateway page.
It seems a fairly easy and straight forward technique in regards to the gateway page concept. Then simply submit to the various International Search Engines.
I am off to do some more research and figure out how to best create my first gateway page. Probably for my ZenCart to start with. Then perhaps my blog. Likely starting with China, or possibly Spain. The two larger pieces of the pie in the above chart.
One thing…. I have no experience with making the payment process and currencies set for the various countries. I think this will be the biggest challenge.
If you work with gemstones and or gemstone related jewelry or gemstone art work feel free to comment. Very interested in hearing from others who have or are interested in any part of selling gemstones Internationally.
Thanks for stopping by my blog and reading through this entry!
January 20th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
In regards to production of stone items in Asia. Its not like you imagined it, or to make a mass statement about the quality, its a matter of steps. You can get the highest quality, depending on the cutter, then it depends on you to make sure everything goes right. There is a lot of mass produced items on the web, as Ebay has spent a lot of promotion with China. Some of the worst cutters don’t perceive themselves as poor cutters. I recently showed a very rare alphabet set photo to one of my cutters in China. He told me it was dyed and maybe he could make it. That was his point of view on a natural item made up in the mountains of Indonesia. And this is how it goes. Also, if you are a hobbyist cutter, its not possible to compete with pro cutters that have done it 12 hours a day every day of their life since they were 14. That is a false notion to think so. Most jewelry, craftsmen in the USA would have to work for years to reach any kind of level of the factory production of silver work in Asia. You would need both technical ability and natural design talent. We all would like to not have the competition from countries that have cheap labor, but its never gonna happen. If anything, the price of gas will make a lot of digging in the USA no longer profitable. I see a lot of the stone going away. Some vendors on Ebay are selling the worst stuff, calling it top grade. Some companies just lie.
Like these guys on Ebay. They lie. Its all African Jasper. My friend had a dig there.
Owyhee Picture Jasper Pendant Bead H18706(Free ship)
Item number: 110338006509
Owyhee Picture Jasper Pendant Bead Set N209023
Item number: 200298244919
Waly beads in the USA, 75 lies. He dont care as we pointed this out to him. He is selling $60,000 a month, average $6 each, all cut in China, many low quality said to be high quality. You will have to fix your own market in the USA and set standards before you need to worry about the Asian market. Its right in your own back door. (Fraud)