E-commerce in jewellery, opportunities not to overlook

Federpreziosi has investigated the relationship between gold retailers and digital evolution. Numbers are decisively on the rise: Federorafi and Federpreziosi’s comments.

The starting point: in Italy there are over 15 thousand jewellery stores. The decisive question: how much are these stores related to or do they interact with the web world? A whole lot!

According to the research of the Osservatorio Federpreziosi led by Format Research on the relationship between gold retailers and digital evolution (“Multi-channel and Omni-channel – Retailing is in search of its own dimension”), during the last four years jewellery stores have made their web presence more and more active. 52.9% of them are doing e-commerce; jewellery stores having a website or a profile on some social network are 68.2%.

Italian jewellery goes towards digitalization

Ivana Ciabatti President of Federorafi

President of Federorafi Ivana Ciabatti explains: “The digitalization of Italian jewellery is a fundamental passage of the historic period we are in. Embracing e-commerce is for sure the ideal choice: besides increasing sale chances, it also strengthens the management of a business, its organization and the imposing of its own brand. Coming up with a stunning product is no longer enough: consumers want to be involved, they want to be told a story, the story that lies behind the products and the company. Social media undoubtedly allow us to carry out all this, and also allow smaller brands to lead marketing campaigns aimed at their specific target, with no need for unbearable investments”.

Having said this, in the jewellery world, where emotion and contact with the product remain a fundamental aspect of the purchase experience, digital solutions “do not replace traditional stores – she concludes – rather, if managed properly and with a specific strategy, they will simply strengthen them and open them towards new markets”.

A question to Steven Tranquilli, director of Federpreziosi

Steven Tranquilli Director of Federpreziosi

Which is a good way of building a “showcase online” that is able to properly attract customers and prospects?

"In our segment, both the physical and virtual showcase must merge into one single context which is able to arouse emotions, to tell a story – one’s own story – together with the value of the product (not only the intrinsic one). There is not just one “recipe”, despite the fact that some parameters can be homologated: each person has to ask him/herself questions and look for answers based on their daily experiences, while at the same time following the rules established by specific marketing strategies. To this purpose, it is important to compare oneself with other retail businessmen, not necessarily belonging to this sector. And here come into play the category representations of Federpreziosi Confcommercio Imprese per l’Italia, meant to help interact as partners and not as competitors”.