Choosing a website builder and theme for your jewelry business

One of the first things you’ll need to do when using a website builder like Shopify, Wix or Squarespace is to select a web template (or theme).

If you’ve never built a jewelry website before, it’s hard to know exactly what you are looking for in a template. This article will explain what to look for and show you examples of templates across several different website builders.

There are usually dozens if not hundreds of template options available. How do you know which is the best one?

When choosing a template, keep in mind functional features and design elements. The functional features are will make sure that you have the right tools and processes to run an online eCommerce business while the design features will help you to sell more products and build your brand.

Functional features when choosing a website builder

1. Search bar and product filters – If you have a large catalog, search bars and product filters are essential so visitors can find for what they need. Most jewelry shoppers come looking for something specific (engagement rings, necklaces, bracelets, etc. or even a specific style name) so providing search functionality and product filters needed to narrow down their search is important.
2. Mobile-friendly responsive designs – In 2021, 54% of online transactions will come from mobile devices. So, make sure that the template you choose is mobile-friendly and can adapt to different screen sizes. This will make sure that your website can be accessed from mobile, tablet, and PC devices.
3. SSL certificates – SSL certificates are essential to protect your customers’ data from hackers. It will also benefit your SEO efforts and help you to show up on search engine results pages. Most platforms offer free SSL certificates with paid subscriptions but it’s worth double-checking as it’s something you will need.
4. Blog – Jewelry is a competitive industry. Having a blog to publish content that explains your jewelry in more detail will help you convert more visitors into paying customers. A blog will also help you drive traffic via SEO so we highly recommend blogging. If you decide you want to blog, make sure your template has a blog feature that lets you create and edit posts.

Design elements to look for in a web template

While functionality is important, the design of a jewelry store is even more important.

If you think of a brick-and-mortar jewelry store, a lot of attention and detail goes into lighting, placement, and displays to make the products look glamourous. Presenting jewelry online is no different.

Look for the following design elements while evaluating ecommerce site templates.

1. A homepage with a picture-focused design. Showcasing big clear jewelry photos makes an instant impression.
2. Image and gallery display options to use across the home page and product pages (360-degree product images are a big plus).
3. White space is essential to create a clean premium feel and so that the visitor isn’t distracted too much from the products themselves. A good jewelry template lets the jewelry do the talking.
4. Logo placement – branding is a key element to justifying the value of the jewelry. Having a logo that is placed front and central, rather than to the side of the page, is a simple web design trick that you can use to make visitors take notice of your brand.
5. An attractive and easy-to-read testimonial content block design is important so that you can include social proof on your website. The prettier the testimonials look, the more your visitors will pay attention.

6 website builders with the best ecommerce themes for jewelry businesses

Now you have a better understanding of what to look for in a website template, here are some examples across several different website builders.

Shopify – Canopy (Elda style variation)

Shopify needs no introduction. They are the market leader and you’ve probably tried them already. Shopify powers 18% of eCommerce stores globally, making it one of the most sought-after website builders. The easy-to-use website editor makes it great for beginners while the advanced eCommerce features give you what you need to scale. Huge brands like Gymshark, Fashion Nova, and Redbull use Shopify.

This Canopy jewelry theme from Shopify has been designed for stores with a large number of products.

• It has exciting features like a home page gallery where you can list up to 20 products and a home page video that allows you to embed a YouTube or Vimeo video.
• It’s mobile-friendly, has a search function, and users report excellent customer support from the designers.
• The downside is that the template costs $180. However, given all the features, we think it’s worth it after comparing it with the free jewelry templates on Shopify.
• The design we previewed is the Elda style variation which has a muted color palette, plenty of white space, and a centralized logo.
• Just like the Wix template, you can preview another image when users hover over products on the listing pages.
• The template also includes a neat promotional banner underneath the navigation menu that you can use to communicate your latest promotions and sales to your web visitors.

Here are three more jewelry website template options from Shopify that are worth a look:

• Maker – $180
• Editions – $100
• Supply – Free

Squarespace – Hester

Squarespace has gone on to become one of the most popular online DIY website builders with around 1.8 million live websites using the platform. 9% of all eCommerce sites are built with Squarespace and they offer 60+ templates that are famous for their stunning designs. Prices start from $16 per month.

The Squarespace designers have chosen to use other industries to showcase their online store templates. However, there are at least three that would work great for online jewelry businesses. 

Our top pick is the Hester template.

• It has a full-width design, a centralized logo, large hero image blocks, and stunning product galleries.
• It has a blog already set up so you can publish content that nurtures customers and boosts your SEO straight away.
• Finally, it also has a members login tab that allows your visitors to create an account. You can incentivize your customers to sign up for an account with a discount on their first order or faster checkouts. In return, you will get detailed customer data that you can use to improve your sales and marketing campaigns in the future.

Two more Squarespace templates that are worth checking out for your online jewelry store are Alameda and Ventura. 

Wix – Watch Store

Over 160 million people use Wix to power their websites – not all of them are ecommerce sites but they do have a good selection of ecommerce templates. The Wix website editor is easy-to-use, intuitive, and gives you complete freedom over your designs.

The watch store template from Wix ticks a lot of boxes when it comes to finding the right jewelry store template.

• It combines white space, a centralized logo, and a picture-focused gallery slider on the home page to create a fantastic first impression to visitors.
• Underneath the gallery, there is a ‘featured products’ block that allows you to show your visitors your best products right away.
• On the product listing page, a cool feature is that when you hover over a product it switches the image to a product variant or another angle. This makes the page more interactive and gives the visitor more information about the products, even when just browsing. 
• While there is no blog built-in, there is an FAQ page that you can use to provide answers to common questions that your customers might have. It’s also easy to add a blog to a Wix site if you want to add this feature.

If you decide to go with Wix, there are two more templates that are worth checking out that have similar features presented in different styles. 

• Wix – Jewelry store template
• Wix – Jewelry designer template

Webflow – Opale

Webflow launched in 2013 and powers more than 200,000 live sites. Its advanced website editing software that allows you to create interactive designs but it has a steeper learning curve than most website builders – so don’t choose this if you’re a beginner.

Webflow says that this Opale template “tells us a story, a story made of elegance and glamour” and we couldn’t agree more.

• It has a split header image that allows you to link to two category pages and a hidden menu that you have to click on to reveal.
• There is also a search function so that visitors can find what they are looking for quickly and it’s a fully responsive design so it displays perfectly on desktops, laptops, and mobiles.
• The coolest thing about the template and Webflow, in general, are the ‘interactions’ that you can apply to your website. Interactions are animations and effects that you can apply to your content to make it move and dance around the page. For example, on the Opale template, the testimonials section has been set up so that they fly across your screen from right to left which is triggered by your scroll.
• Play around on the template and you will see a bunch of eye-catching interactions.
• At $79, this template is less than half the price of some of the Shopify templates we selected and is just as alluring.

Another Webflow jewelry template that caught our eye was Refraction.

Simvoly – Bellatrix

Simvoly is an up-and-coming website builder brand that launched in 2016. They have over 200 web templates to choose from and we think their Bellatrix template is great for online jewelry stores.

• It has a simple layout but it supports the use of large pictures to allow you to show the detail of your jewelry products.
• There is a blog already built-in so you can start producing and publishing content about your products and the industry right away.
• There is a ‘quick view’ button that allows visitors to load a pop-up that includes a small description, a couple of product images, and an add-to-cart button. This means that shoppers don’t have to leave the listings page to find out more about a product they like. So, they can get right back to browsing after they’ve checked it out.

The other Simvoly template to check out is Rigel. It has a neat filtering system and a nice home page.

Ucraft – ACC.

Our final template is from Ucraft. Ucraft is a low cost website builder with a free option that allows you to connect a custom domain with very limited features. They have fewer features but their pricing is cheaper too.

• The ACC. template is a picture-focused design with lots of white space and fantastic gallery content blocks.
• The logo is centralized for maximum brand recognition power and the huge header image space lends itself perfectly to high-quality, artistic product photographs.
• Within the footer, there is a customer photos feature that allows you to show six photos of real customers using your products. This is a great way to add an element of social proof to your website.
• The product listings page has an advanced filtering system and a search bar to help your customers find what they are looking for quickly.

Conclusion

There is a huge variety of templates available on the website builders listed in this article. We’ve selected the best templates that have jewelry featured but don’t feel limited to choosing only templates showing jewelry. Now you know what to look for, as long as the template has the correct functionality and design features, any template can work for your jewelry store.

If I can leave you with one piece of advice that would be to take your time selecting your template. Why? Because while it’s possible to switch templates on some platforms, others will make you start from scratch. So try to get it right the first time by using the checklist in this article or use one of the examples featured here to save yourself the time in evaluating templates!

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Author Bio

This is a guest post by Jake, a digital marketing specialist. He is the head of content marketing at Website Builder Ninja, and a contributing writer for a variety of marketing-focused online publications. Website Builder Ninja reviews the world’s leading DIY website builders to help you to find the right platform to grow your online business.