Jewelry retailers looking to accelerate their recovery strategies in the post-COVID black swan must make bold decisions to prepare for the new normal. This means conducting due diligence on their existing retail strategy and business models as they must look for ignored blind spots and key challenges facing the jewelry industry.
The jewelry industry will need to embrace digital transformation and work hard to meet the ever-changing demands of the customer experience in order to succeed and remain competitive.
The current problems faced by jewellery industry are real. But the digital world also has solutions. Let’s explore both here and draw an overview of the jewelry industry landscape of 2022.
1. A Seamless Omni channel experience
Online sales of the industry constitute the growing size of the market share; there are variations across regions, types, and brands of jewelry. While consumers prefer to visit the store and feel the jewelry before purchasing, online sales also dominate affordable branded jewelry.
Retailers must also use digital platforms to measure and track data that will shape brand identity and help build relationships with customers. As the jewelry industry focuses on omnichannel, it offers greater control over consumers to connect with them and also offers higher margin potential.
2. Real-time Customer Data
Today, customers want retailers to keep an accurate record of when and where they interacted with them. With isolated systems, information is recorded in a single channel (the in-store point of sale) and only provides a snapshot of the customer’s profile without considering other channels they may have used, such as e-commerce, mobile apps, social media, etc.
The more effectively you mine your data across all the channels with advanced retail analytics, the more you can optimize processes and improve decision-making across your retail chain.
3. Consumer Behavior Patterns and Shifting Dynamics
Today’s modern consumer has more knowledge than store employees and has information at his fingertips. They can easily access information such as reviews, competitor prices, etc., and it is more common for a consumer to know more about the store product. This will encourage the consumer to use their cell phone instead of interacting with the salesperson, and you also risk losing your consumer to your competitor.
Therefore, staff must be knowledgeable to Keep up with ever-changing customer expectations and educate consumers on the value of each type of gemstone and metal to justify luxury prices. Established jewelers have a system for managing custom orders. With pre-defined jewelry attributes, a fingertip away, you can build custom jewelry in a flash right in your point-of-sale system. Therefore, you must be able to keep up with consumer demand.
4. Supply Chain and Inventory Management
Various retailers use separate systems to manage their store inventory, online orders, and manufacturing units. This results in an incomplete view of total inventory across trade channels, and because of this, retailers will have fewer sales, stock-outs, and overstock issues. There will be significant disruptions in supply chain management, and retailers will have to rethink their strategies to meet customer demands. So, the inventory and logistics need to be planned in a streamlined manner until businesses return to normalcy.
5. Maintain Customer Loyalty
Customer experience is the biggest contributor to brand loyalty, with a negative experience being the most significant factor that affects the likelihood of a customer returning. While promotions and offers can certainly help make customers feel unique, personalization is the real key to an outstanding experience. Maintaining communication with customers is essential to keeping them loyal to your brand.
6. Embrace the Evolution of Fashion
When a new design or pattern appears in jewelry, it is appreciated by most people, and wearing that specific type of jewelry has become a trend. But this momentary choice disappears after a few months. This negatively affects the gemstone trade and the jewelry industry, especially the small traders. International marketing needs a changing fashion of gems and jewelry, especially in the context of very high prices of diamonds, gold, and silver.
By paying attention to the latest jewelry trends, you can inspire your customers and stand-alone from your competitors.
7. Hire, Train and Retain Talents
Acquiring skilled and qualified workers is critical. Today’s shopping experiences include automated checkout lanes, AI-powered recommendations, and customer service chatbots, among many others. Unfortunately, many retail workers lack the digital skills to support and deliver these innovations. Metrics need to be set to evaluate performance and upgrade workers’ skills from time to time. Ensure that you train your staff to provide a positive, consistent, and personalized experience for all your customers.
8. Market research and Technology Adoption.
Innovation is essential to succeed in the export market and to develop the domestic segment. This requires the use of modern design and the latest technologies. Although the industry is adept at traditional designs, there is a lack of design-based innovation.
Because of the rapid changes in digital marketing, modern businesses need to reach potential customers through several different channels. Multi-channel marketing must encompass several methods, including email, social media, and traditional paid advertising.
Augmented reality is the jewelry industry’s secret to enhancing the virtual customer experience. If you Adopt AR technology like Tanishq with mirrAR, you can begin to build customer loyalty and improve sales.
Business owners need to understand exactly what the software offers and if it fits the needs of their business model. Retailers have been looking for the best automated retail software solutions to streamline their business processes, but their choices often end up with the wrong software. Either they are difficult to use, or they lack the capabilities to overcome the challenges of retail. ChainDrive provides the most comprehensive retail software and various other systems that can help grow your retail business.
Conclusion:
Today’s retail environment is challenging, but that doesn’t mean jewelry retailers can’t find smart ways to connect with consumers and keep them coming back. Armed with online and offline customer data and the right marketing technologies, retailers can create personalized experiences for their customers with a multi-channel approach that bridges departmental silos and builds loyal relationships with shoppers.
The challenges we’ve discussed aren’t unique to the jewelry industry, but that doesn’t mean you can’t overcome them. Only by combining streamlined, non-silent data science, seamless customer service and cross-channel marketing, and authentic personalization can retailers hope to create shopping experiences that can combat the fickle nature of the modern consumer. To reduce turnover and unleash the potential of retail workers, you need to implement an effective retail strategy. After all, jewelry store management software is key to a successful jewelry retail business.
If you want to step up your remote retail strategies and digital transformation, consult our jewelry software experts to see how we can take your retail chain to the next new normal.
