Jewelry Industry Embraces e-Commerce and Social Media
By http://www.jewellerynetasia.com
This year is the time where e-commerce becomes an integral part of the jewellery industry. The most obvious question is what took so long?
The industry as a whole has been terribly slow to accept the proven fact that people will buy jewellery, diamonds and gemstones online. From the mass-market chains to luxury brands, have gotten into the act embracing e-commerce and social media.
Diamonds and jewellery online retailer, Blue Nile Inc., set the wheels in motion in 1999 by proving that consumers in the U.S. will buy diamonds online site unseen for less than retail price, if it could be proven that the site was reputable. Its diamond and jewellery education section the use of certificates from reputable diamond-grading companies empowered people to buy diamonds and now jewellery online. It has grown to become the largest online retailer of certified diamonds. Other retailers that entered this space include iBraggiotti.com, Abazias.com and Ice.com.
Blue Nile added an iphone app to its digital toolbox and it recently paid off in a big way when someone purchased a $300,000 diamond engagement ring.
Mike Barnes, CEO of Signet Jewellers, the world’s largest specialty retail jeweller and the largest jewellery retailer in the U.S., said during their latest earnings report in August that website sales increased 50 percent and that it will be upgrading its websites prior to the holiday season. “That’s where the world is going now and we will focus on investing in it in both the U.K. and the U.S. markets”.
On the luxury end, companies like Tiffany & Co. are running a successful e-commerce operation, showing in its most recent earnings report that Internet and catalogue sales in the Americas increased 16 percent. In addition, as mentioned on my last blog, Tiffany & Co. is among those considered a “facebook overachiever” based on its facebook page popularity, by L2, a digital think tank, which published the Digital IQ Index: Specialty Retail, ranking of 64 companies in eight specialty retail categories.
One of the first luxury jewellers to sell online was Boucheron, which opened an e-commerce website in the late 1990s. At the 2010 FT Business of Luxury Summit, an event held by the Financial Times, Jean-Christophe Bedos, the Parisian brand’s recently retired president and CEO, told attendees that his company knew that affluent consumers were online and they needed to be there. The company took a learn-as-you-go approach and created the site without metrics or sales pitches as service to its clients.
“The question is not whether you should be on the Web or not”, he said. “The question is how you want to be there and how you want to be perceived there. This is still under your control. If you decide not to be there, you consider it as you somehow are totally losing what can be said about you. And therefore I think you’re not facing your responsibilities as a brand to monitor what is being said about you on this space”.
And the newcomers into this digital space with creative ideas are endless. For example, Elizabeth Galton, a British jewellery veteran and former creative director at Links of London, recently launched elizabethgaltonstudio.com, a luxury online destination for independent jewellery, accessories and gift brands showcasing a established and emerging talent that she selects and curates herself.
The Financial Times recently wrote about the company and I was asked to comment. I said that an authoritative figure like Galton headlining such a website should have strong appeal.
It may be a little late compared to other industries, but the jewellery industry is using creativity and innovation to propel itself as a real player in the digital retail arena.
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