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How to Sell Polished Rocks

Polished rocks are both beautiful and fun.
Matthew Wakem/Digital Vision/Getty Images

Polished rocks are semiprecious stones that have been processed in a rock tumbler, giving them a smooth and polished appearance. Whether you polish rocks that are collected from your travels or purchase already polished rocks for their beauty, polished rocks can provide you with years of enjoyment and satisfaction. Polished rocks also offer great business opportunities in the retail market, and sellers have multiple outlets in which to market and sell their products. Before selling your polished rocks, it is best to come up with an overall sales and marketing strategy to maximize your efforts.

Things You'll Need:

  • Digital Camera
  • Polished Rocks
  • Retail Storefront
  • Internet
  • Computer
  • Craft Supplies

Ensure that you have a good supply of polished rocks. You don't want to go into business and not have enough product to meet the demands of your customers. Since polished rocks are sold mostly for aesthetics, you should have a wide variety of colors, shapes, and sizes to offer.

Decide through what medium you want to sell your polished rocks. You can sell them online, through a physical storefront, or a combination of both. Deciding where you want to focus your sales efforts early on will help you stay on track toward meeting your financial goals.

Selling polished rocks online provides you with the most avenues for sales. You can sell polished rocks in any number of places, including online auction sites, online classified sites, through your e-commerce Web site, through large online retailers that offer third-party marketplace selling environments, and more. This is where a little time and research is well spent, as some online streams will provide you with a bigger bang for your buck when it comes to overall sales and traffic exposure. Selling online makes it easy to manage your business and comes with relatively low overhead compared to other options. All you need is an Internet connection and a digital camera to post photographs and descriptions of your products online. You can arrange your shipping cycle so that you have to go to the post office only once or twice a week. This will save you a lot of time.

Sell your polished rocks in your traditional physical storefront. In high-traffic tourist areas especially, this can be a great place to sell your polished wares. Location, location, location! If you don't have enough foot traffic and interested buyers coming through your doors every day, then online sales may be better for you.

Determine how you want to position your polished rocks in the marketplace. Are you selling to collectors of polished rocks? Are you selling polished rocks with any value added, that is, are you selling polished-rock jewelry or other craft items? By incorporating polished rocks into craft items, you can increase the value of the polished rocks by far more than you would fetch by selling the polished rocks alone. Alternatively, you can prep the polished rocks for other craft makers by drilling small holes through them or wrapping them in wire. Distinguishing your goods in the marketplace can help you find a niche that leads to increased profitability for your business.

Tip

Think about your overall strategy before taking your polished rocks to market. Conduct market research to see where to best position your polished rocks against competitors.

Warnings:

  • Profit margins can be low for polished rocks, so you may want to sell other items to increase revenue.
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