How to Price Jewellery: A Pricing Formula for UAE Jewellery Brands (Gold, Silver and Fashion Pieces)

Jewellery pricing approaches compared

What goes into the true cost of a piece

Materials

Metal by weight (with an allowance for loss during casting and polishing), stones, findings such as clasps and chains, and plating. Get quotes in writing and update them when you reorder.

Making and labour

Your own hours or your workshop's charge: design, casting, setting, polishing and quality checks. If you make pieces yourself, pay yourself an hourly rate in the formula, or you will underprice for years.

Packaging and presentation

Box, pouch, card, certificate and gift wrap. For premium brands this is part of the product, and buyers notice when it is missing.

Overheads

Photography, website, marketplace fees, payment fees, insurance, rent, samples and returns. Divide your monthly overheads by the pieces you sell in a month to get an overhead per piece.

Gold price movement

Gold prices change daily. Brands that sell gold pieces usually show or recalculate metal value regularly and keep making and design charges separate, so a gold price move does not wipe out margin.

How to set your jewellery prices step by step

1. List every cost for one piece: metal with loss allowance, stones, findings, plating, making, packaging.
2. Calculate overhead per piece: monthly overheads divided by average pieces sold per month.
3. Add them together for the full cost of goods.
4. Choose a wholesale multiplier that leaves a real margin for you, then check it against what stores in your segment expect.
5. Choose a retail price that covers wholesale plus a retailer's margin, so your own website never undercuts stockists.
6. For gold pieces, set a rule for how often you update metal value and keep making charges as a separate line.
7. Compare with three to five brands your buyer considers, and decide where you want to sit: entry, core or premium.
8. Build a collection with entry, core and hero pieces, so the hero makes the core feel reasonable.
9. Review prices every quarter, or immediately after a large metal price move.

The treasure: a copy-paste jewellery pricing calculator (fill in your numbers)

• Metal: weight __ g x price per gram AED __ x (1 + loss allowance __%) = AED __.
• Stones: __ pieces x AED __ = AED __.
• Findings and plating: AED __.
• Making / labour: __ hours x AED __ per hour (or workshop charge) = AED __.
• Packaging and certificate: AED __.
• Overhead per piece: monthly overheads AED __ / pieces sold per month __ = AED __.
• Full cost (add all lines above): AED __.
• Wholesale price: full cost x your wholesale multiplier __ = AED __.
• Retail price: wholesale x retail multiplier __ = AED __, then round to a price that suits your positioning.
• Check: margin on your own website = (retail before VAT - full cost - payment and delivery cost) / retail before VAT = __%.
• VAT note: confirm with your tax adviser or the FTA how VAT applies to each product and customer type.
• Gold rule: recalculate metal value every __ days or when gold moves more than __%.

A worked example

Here is an illustrative calculation with made-up round numbers, not market prices. A silver ring uses metal and findings costing AED 40, a stone at AED 20, making at AED 60 and packaging at AED 15. The brand's overheads work out at AED 45 per piece, so the full cost is AED 180. With a wholesale multiplier of 2, wholesale is AED 360. A stockist applying a multiplier of 2.2 would retail it near AED 790, so the brand sets its own website price at AED 795 to protect stockists. On its own site, after payment and delivery costs of AED 35, the brand keeps a strong margin to fund marketing. If the brand had priced at materials times three, around AED 180, it would have lost money on every sale once overheads were counted.

Want Husbar to do this for you?

Husbar can build your pricing architecture, collection story and launch plan, then run the ads and content that make buyers happy to pay. Book a free Growth Audit or a free Google Meet consultation to review your price list together.

Price psychology for jewellery

How a price is shown matters as much as the number. Round prices feel more premium than prices ending in 9 for luxury pieces, a hero piece makes core pieces feel reasonable, and presenting a gift set next to single pieces helps buyers choose. Keep discounts rare and planned around real moments such as wedding season, Ramadan and Valentine's Day.

Pricing for marketplaces and stockists

Marketplace and concept store fees can be large, so calculate a separate margin check for each channel. If a channel cannot pay a fair margin at your retail price, offer it a different range rather than lowering your main collection price.

When to raise prices

Raise prices when costs rise, when demand regularly outstrips stock, or when you improve packaging, photography and service. Announce increases on new collections first, give loyal clients early access at old prices for a short time, and keep the story about craft and quality, not costs.

How Husbar helps

Husbar helps jewellery and accessories brands with positioning, collection pricing architecture, product photography direction, Instagram and TikTok, paid ads, e-commerce and stockist outreach in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Our fashion and luxury marketing team can take this on end to end, or support your team. book a free Growth Audit.

Questions to ask before you start

• Do we know the full cost of each piece, including overheads?
• Does our website price protect our stockists?
• How do we handle gold price movements?
• Which piece is our hero, and which is our entry piece?
• How often do we review prices?

Key terms

• Full cost of goods: everything it costs to make and sell one piece.
• Wholesale price: the price you charge stores that resell your pieces.
• Retail price: the price the end customer pays.
• Making charge: the labour and craft cost added to gold value.
• Loss allowance: extra metal to cover what is lost in casting and polishing.

Mistakes to avoid

• Pricing from materials only and forgetting labour and overheads.
• Undercutting your stockists on your own website.
• Fixing gold prices for months while metal moves.
• Discounting so often buyers wait for sales.
• Copying a competitor's price without knowing their costs.

Why fashion brands win on identity, not discounts

Shoppers rarely buy fashion because they need another item. They buy because a piece says something about who they are or want to be. Boutiques and brands that build a clear identity, show real styling and treat customers personally earn loyalty that discounts never buy.

Related reading: jewellery brand marketing in the UAE, gold jewellery marketing in Dubai, how to price luxury products and how to price a clothing brand.