How to Set Repair Pricing in Your Jewelry POS
Most jewelry stores price repairs from memory or a laminated sheet from 2015. Here’s how to build a repair pricing matrix in your POS that’s accurate, consistent, and profitable.
- Standardized pricing eliminates quoting inconsistency across staff
- Pricing should account for materials, labor, and overhead -- not just gut feel
- POS-integrated pricing speeds up intake and reduces quoting errors
- Tracking repair profitability by type reveals which services lose money
Walk into most independent jewelry stores and ask what a ring sizing costs. The answer depends on who's behind the counter. One associate quotes $45. Another says $65. The owner, if she's around, says $55 but throws in a polish. The customer hears three different numbers for the same service and wonders if anyone actually knows what they're charging. This is how the majority of jewelry stores handle repair pricing: from memory, from a laminated sheet printed during the Obama administration, or from pure gut feel.
The laminated sheet is the most common system, and it's the one that fails most quietly. It was accurate when it was printed. Gold was $1,300 an ounce. Your bench jeweler was making $22 an hour. Rhodium plating solution cost half what it costs today. None of those numbers are still true, but the sheet hasn't changed. You're quoting 2015 prices with 2026 costs and wondering why your repair department barely breaks even.
Why Gut-Feel Pricing Fails
The fundamental problem isn't laziness -- it's complexity. Repair pricing has more variables than most jewelers consciously track. A simple sizing involves the metal type (14K yellow is different from platinum), the width of the shank, whether there are channel-set stones that need to be removed and reset, and the current spot price of whatever metal you're adding. A retipping job depends on the number of prongs, the type of setting, and the stone's value (because the risk premium on working near a $20,000 diamond is real and should be priced). When you try to hold all of that in your head, you round down. Every time. You undercharge because the path of least resistance is quoting a number that won't make the customer flinch, not a number that actually covers your costs.
The inconsistency problem is just as damaging. When different associates quote different prices, you train your customers to shop for the cheapest quote inside your own store. Regulars learn that Mike quotes lower than Sarah, so they wait for Mike's shift. You've created an internal arbitrage problem that erodes trust and margin simultaneously.
Building a Repair Pricing Matrix
A pricing matrix starts with categories. The major buckets for most stores are: sizing (up and down), retipping and prong repair, stone setting (new sets and resets), soldering and assembly, chain and clasp repair, polishing and rhodium plating, and custom/fabrication work. Within each category, you define a base price that covers labor and overhead for the simplest version of that job, then add material modifiers. Sizing a 2mm 14K yellow gold band is your base. Sizing a 6mm platinum band with channel-set diamonds is base plus metal adder plus width adder plus stone-handling adder.
The material adders are where most stores leave money on the table. Gold fluctuates. As of early 2026, gold is hovering above $3,300 per troy ounce -- nearly triple what it was a decade ago. If your sizing price doesn't reflect the actual cost of the gold you're adding to the ring, you're subsidizing every sizing job out of your margin. MJSA publishes bench pricing data and industry benchmarks that can help you calibrate labor rates against what other shops charge. Use it as a sanity check, not a ceiling.
Integrating Pricing Into Your POS
A pricing matrix on paper is better than nothing. A pricing matrix inside your POS is better than paper. When pricing lives in the system, the associate at the counter selects the service type, the metal, and any modifiers. The system calculates the price using current material costs. The quote is consistent regardless of who generates it, and it's automatically attached to the repair ticket. No mental math, no rounding down, no forgetting to account for the platinum surcharge. The customer gets a printed or texted estimate that looks professional, and your margin is protected.
The best implementations tie metal cost adders to live or periodically-updated spot prices. You set a formula -- sizing base price plus (grams of metal added times current cost per gram times your markup factor) -- and the system handles the rest. When gold moves $200 an ounce in a month, your pricing adjusts automatically. You don't need to reprint the laminated sheet.
Tracking Profitability by Repair Type
Once pricing is systematized and every repair ticket flows through your POS, you can answer a question most jewelers have never answered: which repair services actually make money? Run a report by repair category. You might discover that chain soldering jobs average $25 in revenue but take 20 minutes of bench time -- meaning you're paying your jeweler more than you're collecting. You might find that stone setting work has a 70% margin while polishing jobs barely cover labor. These insights let you make informed decisions: raise prices on unprofitable services, promote the high-margin ones, or stop offering services that consistently lose money.
You can also track turnaround time by repair type and by bench jeweler. If sizings average two days but retipping averages nine, you know where the bottleneck is. If one bench jeweler consistently takes twice as long on chain repairs, that's a training opportunity, not a mystery.
The Intake Experience Matters Too
Speed at the counter directly affects whether customers bother bringing repairs to you or just go to the mall kiosk. If quoting a repair takes five minutes of flipping through a binder and consulting a calculator, you've already lost the customer mentally. POS-integrated pricing means the associate selects the service, confirms the details, the system generates a price, and the ticket is created -- all in under a minute. The customer gets a text confirmation with the estimate, the expected completion date, and your store's contact info. That's a professional experience that justifies your pricing and builds trust.
Repair work is a relationship anchor. The customer who comes in for a $55 sizing today is the customer who buys a $4,000 anniversary band next year. But only if the sizing experience was smooth, fairly priced, and competently handled. Your pricing system is the first impression of your repair department. Make it precise, make it consistent, and make it reflect what the work actually costs in 2026 -- not what it cost when your laminated sheet was new.