4 Trends That Will Shape Jewelry Ecommerce Sales in 2022
By Emmanuel Raheb
Founder and CEO, Smart Age Solutions
Retail sales in the United States are on fire! According to Trading Economics, year over year growth is expected to be 10.80 percent by the end of this quarter, with double-digit growth continuing well into next year. With the biggest gains coming from low interest rates and full wallets, jewelry consumers are ready and eager to spend.
It’s time to celebrate again with engagements, wedding anniversaries, birthdays, graduations and more! No matter what the circumstances, life doesn’t slow down. Joy always finds a way to express itself, even if it’s virtually. Jewelry is a gift that can be easily bought online and received anywhere.
To take advantage of consumer demand, you’ll need to continue to keep holiday jewelry customers engaged with your brand even after the new year.
As an added bonus, the price of gold remains high and jewelry continues to be one of the best value sustaining goods consumers don’t mind spending money on. They get to wear their wealth and enjoy it at the same time while it holds its value!
Here are 4 trends every jeweler should know which will continue to shape ecommerce sales into 2022:
- Social media has become a dominant sales channel.
Social media audiences are in the billions globally and every platform is evolving to include some aspect of social commerce. This allows users to buy from anyone without leaving the app, including your jewelry store. Instagram recently launched a shopping tab and Facebook has a fully built-in storefront.
Over 90% of users access social media via a mobile device and 54% use it to research new products or upcoming purchases. One secret is that you should always tailor your marketing message to how customers engage with your channel and which jewelry styles they show the most interest in. Brands can now place purchase links directly to styles they feature on social media.
Consumer’s use of social media is only increasing over time and it’s a prime opportunity for you to ride this trend upward.
- Visual commerce is a hot trend.
Visual commerce is more than just “shopping by image”. It includes leveraging user-generated content, interactive videos, and even augmented reality.
Every jeweler should be investing in the future, starting with improving their images. Change your default product image format from JPG or PNG to WebP, which is a new format to improve quality and loading speeds. You should also create 360-degree rotating images or videos of your top-selling jewelry styles.
Consider the impact of user-generated content from your audience and get their permission to share their photos and videos on your own channel. The content is “free” and often times better than your own.
When the time is right, you can look into expanding your offering to include augmented reality and virtual “try-ons” which are quickly becoming the new norm.
There are many ways you can grow your business when you make visual commerce a core-part of your digital marketing strategy.
- Online events will continue to grow and are worth investing in.
With the pandemic, online events are no longer rare. They’re commonplace. Your audience spends much of it’s time online and will embrace a new style launch, fashion webinar or even just a simple Q & A session with a local jeweler.
More and more jewelry brands are investing in online events to gather insights directly from their audience and learn more about them. This data is helpful to build consumer profiles and better target your local market.
Remember, some consumers are shy and will never want to step into a physical jewelry store. Online events provide a non-threatening way to connect with people and make jewelry sales you might have never had otherwise.
- Personalized marketing continues to be a game changer.
Know who your customers are, what they’re buying, and what their motivations are. If you’ve done your “marketing homework” correctly, no one will know your audience as well as you do. You have a direct channel into their mind and can personalize your content, special offers, and jewelry styles especially for them. Break your audience up into segments and customize your campaigns for each
group. With immediate feedback, digital marketing is your crystal ball and will tell you exactly what you need to do.
Before choosing which trend to focus on, you’ll want to examine your jewelry store’s current marketing mix (both digital and traditional media), speak with your employees about what’s worked in the past, and conduct a detailed analysis of your current business, including sales goals. Think about which trend would be easiest to implement and what your existing resources are. It’s better to get started small, that not to get started at all.
What these 4 trends have in common is that they’re all customer driven. Each method speaks directly to the jewelry consumer’s needs. Large brick and mortar stores no longer hold all the power. With ecommerce, any jewelry store (of any size) can easily compete on a level playing field.
On the Internet, we’re all equal and have the same opportunity. If you know how to market effectively, your jewelry store can become a formidable challenger to even the strongest competitor.
By incorporating these 4 trends into your jewelry store’s digital marketing strategy, you’ll be well positioned in 2022 to ride the wave of prosperity into the new year.
