GlitzyLadies

Check out the new revamped Glitzyladies.com site.  As I mentioned in my previous blog, I decided to narrow my product offerings to jewelry and related jewelry items.  Glitzyladies now sells fun jewelry, elegant jewelry and bridal jewelry as well as jewelry pouches.  In my quest to find really nice, but not too expensive, bridal jewelry and jewelry for spring, I attended the famous Watch and Jewelry show in Basel Switzerland.  The show was held in 10 different locations with shuttle buses running between the various venues.  The organizational was truly admirable.  Although I was only there for a day, I did manage to see many of the jewelry exhibitors. As you can imagine, most of the jewelry pieces were extraordinary and quite expensive.  However, I did find some exhibitors who sold unusual necklaces in our price range.  You can see these on glitzyladies.com.  So let me know what you think of the redesigned site - and the spring and first bridal jewelry collections. 

Glitzyladies.com has now been in business for one year.  So what has this year taught me?   For starters, e-commerce is harder than it looks.  Google and Yahoo marketing pages are still somewhat of a mystery in terms of getting Glitzyladies’ name near the first page.  Word-of-mouth marketing is important as are some of the more traditional marketing methods such as catalogs and trade shows.  It has also become clear that niche marketing is perhaps more important than offering a variety of products.  With that in mind, I have decided to focus on jewelry and jewelry related products as we grow in 2008.  Unique, pretty jewelry sells whereas pocketbooks and belts sell much more slowly.  I’ve also decided to offer bridal jewelry as a subset within the general jewelry category.  Do you have any thoughts on this?  I’d love to hear your comments about my new direction.

It’s time to start thinking about Christmas gifts.  It’s never easy to come up with the perfect gift for that special friend.  What to buy when everyone seems to have some of everything?  I’ve thought of buying special gifts on my travels to other countries but even then, many products are the same everywhere.  If a friend collects special items, then it’s fun to try to find that unique item to add to her collection.  But more often than not, one would have to be more creative.  Jewelry always seems to be a good answer as are handbags and unique gift items.  Another totally different kind of gift may be to donate money to a good cause in your friend’s name.  Kiva.org is an organization which supports entrepreneurs in developing countries through loans as small as $25.00. Globalgiving.com is another interesting organization which gives money to worthwhile projects.  So this year be creative and let us know where you’ve found that perfect gift.

Once again, I’m off to Bangkok and Vietnam to see what wonderful items I can find for Glitzyladies.  Bangkok is such a dynamic city with so many interesting places to visit and so many fantastic items to buy.  A big disappointment is that my favorite Bangkok jewelry designer is no longer making jewelry, having moved on to other creative activities.  So I’ll be interviewing and investigating other unknown designers to see if I can find the perfect person to make unusual jewelry for Glitzyladies.  In Vietnam I hope to find special gifts which might interest you for Christmas giving.  I’m looking forward to seeing everything and to finding the best buys for you.  Let me know if there are special items which you’d like Glitzyladies to offer.

Fashion is one area of your life where there is little risk involved.  And what better way to experiment than with shawls and scarves – especially in the summer.  They are as perfect for the little breezes which always seem to appear just as you’re sitting down to a wonderful alfresco dinner as they are for protecting you from the chills of air-conditioning.

So what scarves are in for summer?  Definitely not Pashmina scarves which were the rage about 4 years ago.   And not something big and chunky.  What is in are stylish,

pretty, delicate scarves which provide some warmth.  For a summery look, scarves with

bright colors and white background go with everything from jeans to summer dresses.  For a cooler, edgier look, choose darker, more solid colors and prints.  Scarf headbands also seem to be a fashion look.  So what are you choosing for your summer experiment?

Not much response to my first blog but I thought I’d keep trying to see if anyone was out there.  Lately I’ve been thinking about handbags primarily because today we seem to be in a period of extremes.  At one end are the very large, somewhat glitzy, handbags.  These would seem to hold everything needed for a short trip.  They’re heavy and they take up space and yet….they are the fad of the day.  Then there are the tiny handbags which don’t seem capable of holding anything more than a single lipstick.  I admire how some women seem to fit all their necessities into such a tiny space.  Neither the large nor the tiny handbags seem to work for me.  I’m stuck somewhere in the middle, wanting a bag that’s big enough but not too big or heavy and small enough but not too small.  Any thoughts on what will be popular for fall?

Glitzyladies is a fun site for jewelry and fashion accessories.

I teach entrepreneurship at a University in Geneva, Switzerland. Much to my surprise, I discovered that many of my students had started small e-commerce companies.  Not to be outdone by my students, I decided that I needed to start an e-commerce company as well.  And, thus, Glitzyladies, was born.

These are not your grandmother’s accessories.  The accessories I was interested in had to be fun, glitzy, different and reasonably priced.  So off I went toThailand where my Thai partner, Alisa, helped me find some really nice accessories and her friend, Pheung, agreed to design exclusive jewelry for Glitzyladies.  We’re still working on choosing really special accessories for the site.  Any ideas would be welcome.