He wanted to continue what he loved to do — to custom design jewelry — and realized the Internet had opened up an option for him that wouldn’t have been possible a decade ago.
Dawson is the focus of a “Best of the Best” article in the upcoming June issue of INSTORE.
Nearly his entire online business (at garydawsondesigns.com) is about custom design, a business plan that sets him apart from most online jewelry services.
One aspect of his new venture I found especially interesting is the fact that he finds he needs BETTER people skills to develop relationships with clients online than he did in person. After all, getting the tone right in e-mails and breaking the ice over the phone can be tricky.
One client sent him approximately 35 emails before committing to the job, explaining that she had to feel comfortable with him and get to know him before doing business with him from afar.
On the other hand, his clients haven’t so far needed to SEE HIM via video conferencing, and though he offers to send them wax models they’ve also been content with photographs.
Dawson has drawn clients from nearly every state and around the world.
“It took a leap of faith,” he says, “but there seems to be a niche of demand that previously was not being satisfied by existing sites. I think I couldn’t have done this 10 years ago. We are just at this point reaching a critical mass of techno-savvy consumers who trust that when they push the “buy” button they are going to get the product in the mail. So, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to trust me with their grandmother’s 2 carat diamond in the mail.”
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