Everything a jeweller needs to know before starting on their E-commerce journey

It’s not always glitz and glam for the jewellery industry. Retailers thrive on wooing the buyer with a high touch and feel the experience, allowing the consumer to immerse their senses in a world of luxury and drama. A lot of emotion goes into each piece of the article purchased, sometimes with years of money being invested to purchase it. Buying decisions are influenced not just on a rational level, but on a subconscious level as well, thanks to influence from powerful celebrities, friends and family, influencers on Instagram, and much more. As the world evolves towards embracing blurred lines between the physical and digital worlds, what can jewellery retailers do to keep up? This article looks at how Salesforce Commerce Cloud, formerly Demandware, can be the answer to bringing people to buy jewellery online, which are the top luxury jewellers who have implemented Salesforce Commerce Cloud as well as gives out industry best practices to consider while starting out.

A Path Toward Salesforce Commerce Cloud:

The E-commerce platform retailers pick significantly impacts their activities, scalability, agility, and particularly the customer experience. It is no wonder that a large portion of the top jewellery retailers such as Ben Bridge, Bulgari, Kendra Scott, Clairey’s, Pandora, Thomas Sabo and Leviev among others use Salesforce Commerce Cloud (SFCC). It provides a rich set of marketing techniques, promotions, customer service, artificial intelligence, and merchandising. Salesforce B2C Commerce additionally gives an open advancement and innovative mobile-first site framework that can be customized easily or extend further.

By using SFCC,  brands can take advantage of opportunities by utilizing cloud-based commerce technology, which eliminates the time expected to synchronize unique information sources and create highly personalized experiences. By using AI, retailers can understand their customers and manage data based on their interests while customers can try out the pieces they like virtually.  It also helps create complex sales flows and check outflows allowing for a hyper-personalized shopping experience.

With enhanced marketing tools and open customization, retailers can share and manage product information across multiple sites.

Snapshot: Benefits of Salesforce Commerce Cloud – Storefront Reference Architecture (SFRA) in Jewelry Industry:

  • Innovative mobile-first site framework promising a rich mobile experience (UX)
  • Optimized E-commerce experience
  • Enhanced marketing tools
  • Predictive artificial intelligence – Insights
  • Catalogue architecture – Managing products
  • Snap and search products

Now that we’ve gotten ahead of how SFCC can help get the right tools in place to set up a great online jewellery store, let us delve deeper into the business aspect of it and analyse the customer sentiment that goes into each jewellery purchase.

What stops people from buying jewellery online?

While most shoppers were comfortable buying jewellery from physical retail outlets they had been shopping at forever, a lot of them didn’t feel the same way about their respective online storefront. Even if they would stop at a website and browse through the online catalogue, only some would convert to an actual sale. Some background sentiments on why this happens:

  • Purchasing a high-value item online- am I being offered a fair price?
  • Would this item fit me/look good on me?
  • What if I get cheated on the purity of the gemstone/metal?
  • Is this a legitimate brand?
  • Will I receive a valid certificate/proof of product quality along with the item at delivery?
  • What happens if I don’t like it? What does the return policy look like?
  • I wish there was more information about the product on this listing
  • What do my payment options look like?
  • Do I get after-sale service just like I would at the physical store?

With 2020 getting more people to buy online by the minute, the “innovators” and “early adopters” have already started clicking on the “Buy Now” button. It is only a matter of time before the rest of the crowd follows.

Common pitfalls to watch out for:

Most retailers invest a lot of time and effort into developing their social media presence but fail to put in the same amount of focus on their E-commerce platform that gives them the adaptability to deliver. A study by Salesforce and Deloitte even revealed that on average retailers operate 39 disparate systems to manage customer engagement across the point of sale (POS), social media platforms, email marketing, and more. With leads/interested visitors coming from across these channels, there is no single platform to drive them to, thereby hazarding a loss of all the traction they worked so hard to gain.

Industry best practices: How can Jewelers gain a consumer’s trust, and thereby the sale, online? 

It begins with bringing in transparency in design, price, trust, the purity of metals, and durability. Having a large collection (think endless aisle), flexible payment and delivery options, and an engaging returns policy can make a significant change in the jewellery business. While trying to recreate the feelings of luxury and trust through an online platform, retailers should begin the journey from within, training staff to handle clients online as well as taking advantage of modern technology such as Virtual Reality to create an immersive experience.

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