Jewelry is a very competitive market. As such, it is important to distinguish yourself from the competition. However, it’s easy to innocently make a claim that you can’t prove. Here are a few of the most commonly misused pricing claims BBB|NCTX has spotted in jewelry advertising.
Lowest or best price claims
Underselling claims are extremely common, especially for gold buyers. If you say you have “the best price in town,” be ready to substantiate that your prices are lower than all the local competition. As quickly as gold and silver prices change, it is almost impossible to know that you have the lowest price at any given moment.
Businesses can avoid having to continually monitor the competition by implementing a price matching guarantee whereby they’ll beat lower prices under certain circumstances. You can avoid having to substantiate best price claims altogether by modifying your claim to “some of the best prices” or “among the best prices.” Properly qualified claims may not require substantiation.
Price matching (meet or beat) claims
If you want to say “best prices” and have a price matching guarantee, as we mentioned, no substantiation is necessary to prove the “best price” claim.
However, there are important rules when advertising these “meet or beat” guarantees. Always include any terms and conditions necessary for customers to receive the guarantee within your ad or direct consumers to your website to read the terms. No one wants to lower their prices to compete with an inferior product or be forced to honor an advertised price years later. So, be sure you insulate your business with terms like:
- We will only beat written estimates
- Must be sufficiently similar product/service
- Proof of purchase is required
- Must provide estimate within 10 days
Make your terms obvious. And, remember the terms you select shouldn’t be too difficult for consumers to meet. You can also avoid having to include terms by avoiding statements such as “Cannot Be Beat,” “Unbeatable Prices,” or “Guaranteed Best Prices,” altogether.
Wholesale, wholesale price, and factory direct claims
While they all sound similar, these are all very different claims. When it comes to substantiation, they all require different documentation.
To honestly say wholesale, you must be able to show that the majority of your business is done with other retailers for the purposes of reselling the product. If more than 49% of your sales are taxable, then you likely shouldn’t be saying you’re a wholesaler.
Similarly, wholesale price means that you sell a product to consumers at the same price that you, the retailer, would sell to other retailers for resale. There should be virtually no mark up.
Lastly, to claim you have factory direct prices, you should operate a factory and manufacture the end product yourself. If you don’t have the necessary proof for these claims, BBB suggests avoid these claims altogether.
Free prior to publication review services: If you want to make sure your ads adhere to BBB standards for trust and transparency, contact BBB Serving North Central Texas's Advertising Review Department at adreview@nctx.bbb.org. We will gladly review any content free of charge for all businesses, BBB Accredited and non-accredited businesses alike.