Notes for owners · Industry playbooks
Why a buyer trusts an online jewellery seller: certification, making charges and photographs
Online jewellery buyers trust a seller who shows the purity mark, the net weight, the making charges as their own line and the return rule before checkout, with photographs at true size.
The GullySales team · Updated 17 Oct 2026 · 6 min read
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A buyer who will happily argue the making charge across a counter in T. Nagar will not pay a website that hides it. Online she cannot weigh the chain, feel the finish or ask for another tray. So she trusts the seller who shows what the counter would. That means the purity mark on the piece itself, the gross and net weight, the making charges as their own line, the stones and the gold rate used. It also means the return and exchange rule before checkout, and photographs at true size.
What does a jewellery buyer check before paying?
She reads the price like a bill at the shop, line by line. A missing line looks hidden. Use this layout on every product page that is priced by weight.
| Line on the page | What the buyer reads from it | The mistake that loses her |
|---|---|---|
| Gold rate used, and when it was set | That the metal is not padded | A total with no rate, or yesterday's rate |
| Purity and the mark on the piece | That the gold is what you say | Purity in the title, no photograph of the mark |
| Gross and net weight | How much is metal and how much is stones or filling | One weight, so she cannot tell |
| Making charges | What she pays for the work | Making folded into a single price |
| Stone details and stone charges | What the stones are, their weight and their cost | "Studded with stones" and nothing more |
| GST, as its own line | The tax, separately | Tax appearing at the last step of checkout |
| Exchange and buyback terms | What the piece is worth to her later | Terms on a page nobody opens |
The table is long because a jewellery bill is long, and buyers expect that. Holding the rate line from cart to payment is covered in gold price movement and your online listing.
Show the mark, not the word
"Hallmarked" in a title is a word anyone can type. A sharp close-up of the mark stamped on the piece is evidence. Photograph it for every gold piece that carries one, and put the photograph next to the price rather than at the end of the gallery.
Hallmarking rules for gold have changed in stages and cover particular articles and purities, and they may change again. Check the current requirement with the Bureau of Indian Standards or your own adviser rather than copying another seller's wording.
The same close photography that shows the mark makes a pendant look bigger than it is. Show each piece on a person and once beside a ruler; close-up photographs for small shiny products sets out the full shot set and what never to retouch.
Stones: their own weight, their own rate
Gross weight includes the stones. Net weight is the gold. A buyer who sees one weight and one price fears the oldest trick at a counter: stones, kundan or wax weighed and charged at the gold rate. So give the stones their own row. State their weight, the rate you charge for them and the stone charge as a separate amount.
For diamonds, show the grading report from the named laboratory and its number, so the buyer can look it up where the lab allows. Small diamonds set in numbers rarely carry a report each. Say what certificate covers them and who issued it.
For lab-grown diamonds, put "lab-grown" in the title. The description is too late. Name moissanite, cubic zirconia and synthetic gems as what they are. On exchange, say whether stones are valued at all, or only the gold is.
Making charges, in the words your buyers use
In much of the south, the charge for the work is quoted as wastage or VA, sometimes alongside a separate making charge. In the north and west it is making charges. Use the word your buyers use and explain the other in one line. A buyer in Chennai who sees only "making charges" may wonder whether wastage will be added later.
Say how you charge it: a percentage of the gold value, a rate per gram, or a flat amount per piece. Each is fair. Unfair is advertising low or no making charges while the gold rate on the page sits above the day's rate. Buyers check the rate, and one who catches it may not come back. If reduced making is a festive offer, say which pieces it covers and when it ends.
For example: a family jeweller in Thrissur
Imagine a family jeweller in Thrissur opening an online store for light daily-wear chains and studs. The first version showed one price per piece, worked out at checkout from the day's gold rate, with no breakup. The shop phone rang all day with one question: what is the wastage on this? Several buyers who reached the payment page left there.
The mistake was expecting the trust a counter earns by showing the bill. The jeweller put the table above on every page, with the time the rate was set. Each page also got a close-up of the mark, the wastage shown as its own line, and the return rule in three lines under the price. The calls did not stop, but they changed from "what is the price?" to "can I see this one in the shop?", which is a better call to get. The jeweller and the sales are invented, and the shop still had to staff the phone for a month while buyers learnt the new page.
Returns, exchange and the pieces that belong at the counter
Put the rule under the price, not on a separate page. Say what can be returned and in what condition: unworn, with the tag and any certificate. Then say how many days you allow, how exchange value is worked out at the current rate and what you deduct, and whether you buy back. Say how the parcel travels: insured, in tamper-evident packing, handed over against a code or signature. Check what your courier offers before promising any of it, and the consumer rules on returns with your adviser.
Some pieces should not be sold through a checkout at all. Bridal sets are chosen by a family together, so online they work as a catalogue and an appointment; how to increase jewellery store footfall covers that buyer. Families abroad paying for a piece someone collects in India are a different sale again, set out in NRI jewellery advertising.
What to do next
Open the page that brings the most WhatsApp questions on your phone and read it like a bill. Mark every missing line from the table and every photograph that hides the true size, and fix that one page first. That is enough for a first week. Jewellery is one of the categories in e-commerce sales and marketing where the bill decides the sale. If what is missing is bigger than one page, tell us what you need.
