Guide to Attracting More Customers in Jewellery ecommerce | Sales Layer

Guide to Attracting More Customers in Jewellery Ecommerce

Table of Contents

  1. New markets and opportunities for the jewelry sector
  2. Why jewelry is the perfect online product
  3. Strengths of the jewelry industry in ecommerce experience
  4. The future is not so shiny for craft jewelers
  5. How the low-end market is killing the luxury jewelry market

Blame the recession: in recent years one of the favourite topics in the tabloid press has been to accuse millennials of having sunk the jewelry business. Without wealth, yet with new investment values, young people today aren’t interested in diamonds or emeralds.

Thank the recession: as every cloud has a silver lining, other demographic groups have actually increased the demand for luxury products, that is, once the first repercussions of the financial crisis had been overcome. This can be added to the rise of the upper and middle classes in countries like China, keen to invest in jewelry and western brands.

Currently, annual global sales figures for the jewelry sector reach 148 billion US dollars, which have a growth rate of 6% per year, and will reach 250 billion dollars by 2020. As far as online jewelry sales statistics go, digital channels still represent a small margin within the industry, just 5% of the market, forecast to increase to 10% in 2020. But that doesn’t mean the scene hasn’t already started to change.

Some of the trends that have recently challenged the jewelry sector include brand internationalization, the development of new omnichannel strategies and the fast fashion movement: of high speed, high class consumption.

New markets and opportunities for the jewelry industry

The process of searching and shopping online is becoming easier by the day, and luxury categories like the jewelry sector that have normally been difficult to access, have discovered a novel way to reach a wider public.

Many brands selling top-of-the-range, super-expensive jewelry have gone on to collaborate with big brands like H&M in order to attract the attention of a select public by presenting special collections.

According to an Oracle survey, 47% of sellers recognise that sales strategies involving smartphones have increased the value of their average user’s shopping basket for both online and offline purchases.

Why jewelry is the perfect online product

Although online sales figures appear to be low, the jewelry industry is becoming a pioneer in adopting new technological solutions for ecommerce. As it’s neither an essential product nor within everyone’s reach, jewelry retailers realise they have to cultivate their main selling point: a sophisticated experience that gives access to something unique and personalised.

eCommerce in the jewelry industry: Key design points

An earring, a necklace or a ring are rarely bigger than the centre of a mobile screen – that’s why jewelry looks so good online, and even more so with the extra support functions and search options that cannot be easily accessed at a physical jewelers’ shop.

These are the key design factors in ecommerce that empower jewellery:

Technical details inspire credibility

Product descriptions can include sufficient technical details to bestow a degree of credibility on the seller, and a completeness of information about the item (such as measurements, composition, alloys, weight, lustre, and even ways to combine the jewelry with styles of clothing).

Customers save time while shopping and are more likely to include additional features

YIELD includes a guide on their website to choosing jewelry by colour, skin tone and sensitivity, value of the metal, durability and strength.

By shopping online, you save a lot of time when comparing variants of a given item of jewelry; which then means you can choose additional customising features, such as engravings or gift wrapping, at your leisure.

Online images provide great detail

But even more important than data are online images, which provide access to a level of detail for each piece of jewelry impossible to attain by normal viewing. Jewelry datasheets that include this kind of high-value images result in better sales conversions and fewer returns.

Strengths of the jewelry industry in ecommerce experience

Being a very expensive product, comparing jewelry prices online is much more advantageous than going from store to store.

The following are some of the technological trends in ecommerce that are having a noticeable impact on the jewelry industry:

The future is not so shiny for craft jewelers

Top class jewelers are already taking the leap and investing in equipment for 3D design, which will shorten the time taken between the design being requested by the user and its subsequent manufacture.

Thus small jewelers need to take advantage of the marketing resources offered by ecommerce rather than its technological aspects. To boost their output, they can focus on a very specific target and thus avoid competing with big brands and commercial channels.

Also, small-scale craft jewelers find it difficult to financially sustain an ecommerce model, since marketplaces like Etsy, Artfire or Amazon Handmade take high fees from their sellers.

It’s not all bad news, though. To the benefit of craft jewelers, there’s a widespread upsurge in preference and demand for products that are Fairtrade, local, from sustainable and certified sources and avoiding overexploitation.

How the low-end market is affecting the luxury jewelry sector

Cheap jewelry brands are able to sustain a faster pace of production and release, fueling the fast fashion trend and preference for the latest, seasonal favorites in design, metal or precious stone. According to Mckinsey, by 2020, 60-70% of sales in the jewelry sector will be unbranded products.

What then are the most persuasive points for online jewelry shoppers?

Many of the newer websites work by buying lower-quality jewelry wholesale from cheap providers. The best means of counter-attack is to develop a very specific niche and to build a brand, especially making use of ‘ambassadors’ such as influencers or celebrities.

Adapting to ecommerce presents an unavoidable challenge for big and small jewelry businesses alike, as much for the dangers of becoming outdated in this technological environment, as for the fierce online competition, and the habits and demands of the modern user.