Although it also applies to traditional brick and mortar jewelry retail stores, the surge of e-commerce through the advancing internet infrastructure and a significant decrease in overhead costs enable many entrepreneurs to start their own businesses online. Combined with the exponentially increasing number of web users, online retail has become an attractive opportunity for people who want something for their own.

The online retail sales grossed about $110 billion in 2005 and jewelry category accounted for 5% of the total. Other major categories include books, apparel, computer related, electronics and drugs. The reason why jewelry is particularly attractive to a lot of entrepreneurs is that the startup capital could be small and the logistics is easy to control. The reason is that the spectrum of jewelry range from costume jewelry to silver jewelry to diamond luxury items, which offers a flexible startup capital requirement. Also, due to the nature of jewelry, it does not require a large storage space in the beginning and is relatively easily to package and ship.

For someone who is already convinced that jewelry store is a feasible online business, the next question would obviously be where to get the merchandize. To answer this question, we have to state the characteristics that one should look for when selecting a vendor. I know some of you are thinking