A Guide to Safe Online Jewelry Shopping: Shop with Confidence
By TOI Staff June 18, 2023 Update on : June 18, 2023
Jewelry is all about expressing yourself. However, buying fine and safe jewelry is one hell of a task. You need to do a lot of research and review many online selections. And let’s not even get started on the detailed price comparison for online jewelry shopping!
When you think about buying jewelry, think of it as an investment. Remember, fine jewelry does not get rusted, water damaged, or tarnished. These jewelry pieces last for years, and you can sell them anytime at your convenience at almost their buying price. That’s why it’s important to learn how to shop with confidence online.
Read this guide to safe online jewelry shopping to buy only authentic jewelry at the best prices.
Is Buying Jewelry Online Safe?
We are living in a world where counterfeit products are quite common. So, buying designer jewelry online is risky, and you, as a buyer, are at the most risk if you don’t know what to look for. So, buying jewelry online can be safe only if you know how to look for an authorized retailer and merchandise seller who sells authentic and guaranteed jewelry.
There are benefits of buying jewelry online like–
- Huge selection of jewelry at your fingertips.
- You can calculate the price of jewelry items at your convenience and buy them. Remember, credible online retailers price their pieces fairly, intending to sell them online.
- Convenient feature evaluation like the look, carat weight, quality of the gemstone, and condition with 0 pressure of making a decision then and there.
Step-by-Step Guide to Safe Online Jewelry Shopping
Before hitting “CHECK OUT” and regretting your jewelry purchase, you should follow these practical steps so you don’t get scammed online with fake jewelry.
Step 1: Company’s legitimacy
In the U.S. alone, more than 6,000 online jewelry stores claim to have authentic and guaranteed jewelry selections. However, that’s not the case–we all know it! A lot of these websites are not even legitimate, so here are some tips that will guide you to find a legal and reputable online jewelry store–
- Go to “ABOUT US” and read the history of the business.
- Look if the company has given the address.
- See how well they’ve written the product description and their grammatical errors.
- View if the website is professional-looking and if it has high-quality photography.
- Lastly, see if they have accessible customer service!
Step 2: Website security
If you’re looking at the best online jewelry shopping sites, there is no doubt that their website is secure as their website’s URL has “https” at the start of the URL and a lock symbol. So, firstly look if the jewelry store’s URL is secure.
Since you’ll enter your personal information like address and credit card information, read the website’s privacy statement and terms of use to determine if you have legal rights over how your information will get shared/used by the website.
Step 3: Fair pricing
Do your research rather than pooling your money to pay for high jewelry prices. Remember, prices too low are too good to be true. Similarly, too high prices are not worth it. So compare the prices of different jewelry on different websites and see if you’re getting a fair deal.
Step 4: Authority of the retailer
As mentioned earlier, counterfeits are a huge problem these days. So when searching for designer fashion jewelry online, you might come across various companies with a particular brand. So always find the information on designer jewelry on their official website and research their authorized retailers.
Step 5: Reviews
An online store can easily pass on being legitimate. They can also pass on having a secure website. However, it would help if you researched how good their products are because many stores falsely advertise their products and end up sending poor-quality products. And poor quality jewelry is never worth your time and money. So always read the company’s product reviews on their website or check Better Business Bureau!
Step 6: Payment
Once you finish selecting jewelry from particular online jewelry stores, always see if they offer multiple forms of payment. See if they accept all major credit cards, PayPal, and gift certificates. If multiple payment forms are available, it shows that they are genuine and want to make things convenient for their customers.
Step 7: Product guarantee
Sometimes, you just don’t love what you’ve received or ordered. And nobody wants to spend a great amount of money on jewelry that they don’t absolutely love. So, if you’ve shopped from a respectable business, you should be able to return it easily. A trustworthy and reputable online jewelry store that sells designer fashion jewelry online always has a 100% guarantee or risk-free return policy with their product. If you come across a store that doesn’t give it, find another one.
Step 7: Shipping policies
It’s true that shipping policies differ from one store to another. But if you buy jewelry online, you should always check the store’s jewelry shipping policies. It’s best if you look for–
- Cost of shipping or if there’s any free shipping option
- Shipping date, i.e., when can you expect it to arrive
- Whether you get tracking information on your order or not
- Policies clarity on what happens if something is missing with your order
You need to take care of these details if you are shopping for a special occasion because if you’re new to shopping for jewelry online, there are tons of things that can go wrong.
Shop with confidence
A beautiful piece of jewelry is important for boosting your self-image and confidence. So understanding that online stores have jewelry with high-quality, long-lasting material is an important step to feeling powerful and confident. So shop with confidence for online jewelry shopping and keep enhancing your beauty.
Read more: A Guide to Safe Online Jewelry Shopping: Shop with Confidence