Although it also applies to traditional brick and mortar jewelry retail stores, the surge of e-commerce through the advancing internet infrastructure and a significant decrease in overhead costs enable many entrepreneurs to start their own businesses online. Combined with the exponentially increasing number of web users, online retail has become an attractive opportunity for people who want something for their own.

The online retail sales grossed about $110 billion in 2005 and jewelry category accounted for 5% of the total. Other major categories include books, apparel, computer related, electronics and drugs. The reason why jewelry is particularly attractive to a lot of entrepreneurs is that the startup capital could be small and the logistics is easy to control. The reason is that the spectrum of jewelry range from costume jewelry to silver jewelry to diamond luxury items, which offers a flexible startup capital requirement. Also, due to the nature of jewelry, it does not require a large storage space in the beginning and is relatively easily to package and ship.

For someone who is already convinced that jewelry store is a feasible online business, the next question would obviously be where to get the merchandize. To answer this question, we have to state the characteristics that one should look for when selecting a vendor. I know some of you are thinking prices. Sure, different vendors have different prices for similar items, is the one with the lowest prices odd to be the one we should work with?

Granted, your vendors pricing is crucial to the success of your business, this is all about money after all. Nonetheless, in order to be competitive in the market, there are many other facts you might want to get from a wholesaler before any decision is made.

Firstly, especially in jewelry and apparel industry, the vendor has to have the sense to the changing fashion trends. New styles come out every day and popular styles are changing every season, it makes a huge difference between your vendor selling styles that were hot last summer rather than styles that just got exposed in a French fashion show. You should do your own research, of course, but a vendor with the good connections and senses propels your business and saves you a lot of time.

Secondly, if you decide to carry some unique styles that can rarely be found anywhere else, do make sure you get them from a vendor who guarantees the availability of the stock. By doing this, you can maximize your effort for processing each item. Typical pre-processing of an item are photo-taking, editing, copywriting and data entry. If the vendor runs out of stock for most of the items you purchased, and not being able to perform back-ordering, the effort for maintaining the inventory will be dramatically increased.

Also, the reputation for a vendor is very important. The authenticity of goods is vital to building a successfully business. Ask for reference if possible and get multiple of them for the same vendor. Selling counterfeit or fake jewelry not only will harm your business, it is illegal. Watch out for fake gemstones such as diamonds and sapphires, treated gemstones for enhancing colors, incorrect purity of metals such as 14k, 18k gold and 925 silver not having the amount of metal as claimed.

Finally, like any business relationships, vendors with good customer services can help your business in many ways. For instance, custom jewelry manufacturing, resizing and repairing are typically services that a jewelry wholesaler might provide.