Grading the 5 Best Jewelry Websites for Inspiration

Now that online shopping has become the go-to method for many consumers, jewelry businesses must have visually stunning and user-friendly websites. Whether you‘re a jewelry enthusiast or a business owner looking for inspiration, I’ve done the research to bring you the best of the best.

Join me as we delve into the grading criteria and explore the exceptional aspects that make these websites shine in jewelry e-commerce.

Grading Criteria

Here are the criteria that I used to narrow down this list of the best website designs for jewelry. When building your own website, make sure that you pass each of these points with flying colors, just like these websites.

We’ll evaluate each website based on the following criteria:

User Experience: How intuitive and user-friendly is the website? Is navigation seamless? Are important elements easily accessible?

Content Quality: Is the website's content aesthetically pleasing to the eye? Does it effectively showcase the jewelry in an enticing way?

Conversion Optimization: Does the website have clear calls to action? Is it structured to guide users toward specific goals, such as purchasing or filling out a form?

5

1. Kinn Studio - Minimalist
2. Mejuri - Interactive
3. Brilliant Earth - Unique Display
4. GLDN - Personalized Jewelry
5. Bea Bongiasca - Eye Popping Design

1. Kinn Studio - Minimalist Website

Kinn Studio’s homepage is a great example of a minimalist design. The simple background image uses a dull red to contrast the beautiful gold jewelry. Your eyes are immediately drawn to the jewelry and the ‘shop now’ button, making Kinn Studio’s homepage the perfect example of what to emulate.

User Experience: 8.5/10

This homepage serves as a good ‘feeder page’ to the product page, meaning that it quickly directs you to the product page. I did deduct a point and a half because of the pop-up that takes over the entire page and forces you to ‘x’ out.

Visual Appeal: 9.5/10

The product page is really fun to go through because of how interactive it is. If you hover over any product, you can get a visual representation of what the product will look like if you wear it.

Conversion Optimization: 9/10

As mentioned before, the website does a great job of navigating your eyes to the ‘shop now’ cta in the middle of the screen through its use of imagery and color. There are a couple of websites that do this better, so I give it a 9/10.

Overall: 27/30

The website has some room for improvement but is overall a great example for a minimalist website.

2. Mejuri - Interactive Website

Mejuri’s website is fun to play around with and has a lot going on without being overwhelming. I picked this website for its interactive design and creative way of showcasing its jewelry.

User Experience: 10/10

Mejuri is the gold standard for user experience. It has plenty of ways to hook you onto the website including functional dropdown menus and imagery that changes when you hover over.

Visual Appeal: 9.5/10

The use of white space makes each piece of jewelry stand out. The squared layout of this website allows Mejuri to showcase many jewelry options while allowing each to shine individually.

Conversion Optimization: 7.5/10

The ‘shop now’ buttons are scattered throughout the homepage, but they are somewhat hard to find and definitely don’t catch your attention like others on this list. The focus is clearly on the products, but if users can’t be easily directed to shopping areas, you might lose out on lead conversions.

Overall: 27/10

The product display and overall website design are amazing. Once the conversion path is optimized, this website could easily earn back a point or two.

3. Brilliant Earth - Unique Product Displays Website

I love how Brilliant Earth takes the chance to display its jewelry in a unique way with flair. My favorite diamond shape is pear, but I wouldn’t have been able to tell you that before visiting this website. Having the chance to learn something about jewelry reinforces Brilliant Earth’s expertise, making you feel more confident in purchasing from this website.

User Experience: 8/10

I would have liked more chances for interaction on the products from the homepage. I can easily find what I’m looking for, but unlike other websites on this list, I didn’t get lost scrolling through the dazzling display of diamonds.

Visual Appeal: 9/10

The navigability of this website stands out with the way it organizes jewelry into different categories. Categorization in and of itself isn’t unique to Brilliant Earth’s website, but the way it categorizes certainly separates it from other websites on this list.

Conversion Optimization: 7/10

The ‘shop now’ CTA is to the right of a captivating video display. It’s tucked away so that your eyes don’t naturally gravitate towards the CTA, making it easy to miss. When users see an eye-grabbing display on your homepage, their next step in scrolling is below the image or video, not to the right.

Overall: 24/30

This is a beautiful website that shows off its products well but definitely has room for improvement on the technical side of things. Brilliant Earth is the perfect example of a ‘good’ website that can easily be turned into a ‘great’ one with a few design modifications.

4. GLDN - Personalized Jewelry

GLDN is my number-one choice for personalized jewelry. A quick scroll downwards shows you a touching story of how the website personalized a ring for a couple’s special day. The CTA ‘build your own aurora’ is the cherry on top, allowing you to mentally create your own relationship with the brand before you even purchase.

User Experience: 8/10

The lack of interactive elements knocks off two points for GLDN’s website, but it is still beautifully designed and pleasing to the eye.

Visual Appeal: 10/10

This website is very beautiful to look at. The subtle beige background makes the gold jewelry pop. The story of the Aurora bar ring is also touching and separates GLDN from the pack when it comes to visual appeal. Customers love stories that they can relate to. After all, without the personal story behind it, a piece of jewelry is just a beautiful rock.

Conversion Optimization: 9.5/10

GLDN is a great role model for structuring a CTA. It places the ‘shop new arrivals’ in a box that contrasts the color of the image behind it. This is a great use of color contrast to strategically draw attention to where the website wants you to look.

Overall: 27.5/30

The personal touch of this website along with the beautiful layout gives it the highest rank on my list.

Bea Bongiasca - Eye Popping Design

User Experience: 7/10

The dropdown menu takes up more than half of the page, making any accidental hovers somewhat annoying on this website. If you scroll down the website, the interactive display makes this website fun to browse on top of the bright and enticing colors.

Visual Appeal: 10/10

This is the prettiest design for this ranking. The color scheme instantly draws your attention to the jewelry. The color pink brings about feelings of youthfulness, imagination, and quirkiness. There is no better example than Loop’s website.

Conversion Optimization: 6/10

You have to click on the background image to go to any product page. There is no CTA button, making this unintuitive for conversion optimization.

Overall: 23/10

The beautiful design can’t make up for some flaws in UX and conversion optimization, making this the lowest score on my list. However, Loop can easily bring its score up with tweaks to the technical side of things.

Tips for Creating a Visually Stunning Jewelry Website

Now that we’ve seen the five best jewelry websites, here are a few tips you’ll need to know to build your own.

Use Color Psychology

Color psychology studies how colors can impact human behavior and mood. Different colors evoke emotions like happiness, creativity, and innovation, along with negative emotions like anger, sadness, frustration, and more. It’s important to pick a color that aligns with your brand vision and mission statement.

Our linked article goes into color psychology in more detail, but here’s a quick rundown of the popular colors.

• BLUE: Security, strength, wisdom, and trust.
• PURPLE: Wise, wealthy, and sophisticated.
• ORANGE: Confidence, creativity, and courage.
• RED: Excitement, energy, power, fearlessness, and passion.
• GREEN: Relaxation, health, prosperity, hope, and freshness
• YELLOW: Youthfulness and happiness
• BLACK: Sophisticated, powerful, and elegant
• WHITE: Pure, innocent, and pristine
• PINK: Youthful, imaginative, and quirky

Try to use a variety of colors on your website where relevant. You can use an eye-popping red on the homepage to grab your visitors’ attention and white on your product pages for feelings of purity associated with jewelry. As you’ll see with the websites below, a good mix of colors can be effective.

Incorporate Visual Storytelling

A picture is worth a thousand words. When people visit your website, they don’t want to see you talk about how great your jewelry is. They want to see it for themselves. Visual storytelling is so important, especially on e-commerce websites.

The examples I’ve curated for you commonly have models wearing jewelry because it allows potential buyers to visualize themselves wearing it. Anything you, a web designer, can do to break the barrier between a customer seeing the product and buying it is a win.

Building a Jewelry Website

Each website has some unique features and designs to captivate and engage users. From stunning visuals to seamless user experiences, these websites set high standards for the industry. Whether you're in search of design inspiration or aiming to create your own successful jewelry website, studying and drawing insights from these top performers can undoubtedly elevate your own online presence. So, learn from the best, implement innovative ideas, and excel in the competitive landscape of jewelry e-commerce.