NOTE: In descending order, “Others” included Podium, 1st Dibs, Amazon, Facetime, Shopify, LinkedIn, Chrono24.
ONLINE RETAILING WAS once the brave new world for independent jewelers, or to many, a frightening nemesis. But they are slowly adapting and a clear majority have now managed to complete a sale via their website or through another online platform.
According to the 2020 INSTORE Big Survey, Facebook was the No. 1 social media platform for successfully closing a sale, with 56 percent of jewelers completing a transaction on one of FB’s commercial channels, followed by Instagram (32 percent) and eBay (18%). Note that seventy percent of jewelers had managed to sell jewelry via their own website.
Fashion jewelry was identified as the category that sells best online, by 38 percent of the jewelers who sell on the net, followed by fine jewelry (18 percent) and engagement rings (14 percent). This was also reflected in the most popular price points for online sales with more than half of the jewelers, or 52 percent, saying items retailing for less than $500 sold best. That’s not to rule out higher ticket sales: 9 percent of jewelers said they had the most success with jewelry that sells for over $2,000.
Despite the virtual nature of online sales and the inability of the customer to touch the merchandise, few sent their purchases back with 95% of the jewelers saying their return rates for online sales were less than 10 percent.
The 2020 INSTORE Big Survey was conducted from September to October and attracted the participation of more than 750 owners or managers of jewelry stores in the United States and Canada. For the full results, please look out for the November edition of INSTORE.