5 Ways to Combine Physical and Online Jewelry Shopping

In-store jewelry shopping is not dead; outdated in-store shopping is!

If there’s anything we’ve all learned in the past year since the pandemic started, it’s that, you cannot ignore the digital revolution. Digitize or perish! In this post, we’ll tell you a few basic steps on how to combine physical and online jewelry shopping.

Let’s get down to business!

Why Go Digical?

Digical—the practice of mixing digital and physical has long been predicted to affect diverse businesses across the globe. For a long time, many businesses have ignored the challenge, thinking that new and advanced technologies would never amount to anything until they woke up to the inexorable threat to their long-built successes staring them in the face.

The failure is obvious as no company can ever escape from the impact of digital technologies, especially with the rapidly growing digital life. Nothing beats TIME when it comes to teaching us a lesson because now more than ever, technology has shown you that you cannot ignore it any longer. When most stores temporarily and permanently closed, movements restricted, and the economy forced into shutdown, businesses have turned digital.

But don’t go rushing to close your physical store yet. In-store shopping is not dead, thanks to new and existing technologies that allow stores to safely operate. It’s going to be a difficult year but the agile and flexible jewelers will always rise above. If you can seamlessly merge physical and online jewelry shopping, you’re already ahead of the others.

It’s time to go digical!

5 Ways to Merge Physical with Online Jewelry Shopping

1. Send digitized catalogs

One way of mixing physical and online jewelry shopping is through digitized catalogs.

Digital or e-catalogs offer a lot of advantages to your consumers.

• Accessibility and convenience

Your consumers can view your products wherever they are as long as they have a mobile phone and internet. It’s also a good way of keeping your subscribers updated about your latest products and offers, which can encourage them to click the link to your website or visit your physical store.

• Shareability

Reach out to as many customers as possible by sharing your digital catalog link with your followers on social media. You can also send it via email while giving consumers the option to click each linked product to go directly to a specific and complete product information page. This practice eliminates distraction for consumers; thereby, clearing the path towards making a purchase decision.

• Cost and time-efficient

When you send e-catalogs, you reduce printing, admin, and distribution costs. Further, you get to save a lot of time and effort because updating product information like prices, colors, and style is possible electronically and instantly.

Digital catalogs also win in terms of scalability. As your business grows and your product inventory expands, so does your digital catalog. There’s no need to worry about space expansion costs and maintenance. You can increase your e-catalog size and even make product search easier for your customers by introducing e-catalog categories and subcategories.

Wholesale Jewelry Website leverages e-catalogs by making jewelry shopping convenient for all customers. For example, in the product catalog above, consumers can simply click on the product they are interested in and it will take them to the exact information page of that product. From there, they can have all the information they need and check out at the same time.

With the help of new technologies, creating e-catalogs can now be done instantly. Wholesale Jewelry Website creates their jewelry product catalogs using the GemLightbox, a jewelry photography solution that allows jewelers to capture jewelry images on a solid white background in seconds using just a smartphone.

2. Offer virtual consultations

If you’re not familiar with the power of virtual jewelry consultations, look at Signet Jewelers who has completed 100,000 virtual consultations and 20 million customers digitally during the pandemic.

Signet Jewelers is one of the many jewelry brands that temporarily closed their physical stores when the pandemic started. However, this doesn’t mean that they can no longer help their customers celebrate special moments; thus, the birth of virtual consultations. With virtual consultations, customers can do shopping activities that they would normally do in-store like working with a jewelry consultant for custom design engagement rings.

Like Signet Jewelers, you can offer virtual consultations together with in-store consultations to provide consumers with options on how they’d engage with your brand. This allows you to recreate the physical engagement level for consumers online. Offering virtual consultations is a powerful approach to combining physical and online jewelry shopping.

3. Introduce apps

As we have mentioned, there are many reasons why your jewelry business needs a mobile app. Among these are accessibility, top-of-mind awareness, and push notifications—all of which are helping you build a connection with your consumers.

Whether you want your target consumers to shop in-store or on your website, a jewelry business mobile app is one of the compelling touchpoints to drive foot and online traffic. With your mobile app, you can add in-app purchases and other AI features like virtual try-ons. As such, consumers cannot only quickly access relevant information about your jewelry products before they shop, but they can also virtually try on jewelry products like rings and earrings to see how they would look on them or interact with customer support within the app.

When designing mobile apps for your consumers, keep it customer-oriented bearing in mind that it is a supplement, and not a complete replacement, for an outstanding personalized service.

4. Make self-service technologies available

The key to a frictionless physical and online jewelry shopping combination is balance.

Balance is critical when introducing self-service technologies to consumers. Self-service technologies go beyond the current health crisis because consumers have always been attracted to a convenient and immersive shopping experience.

Your self-serving technologies may include an interactive touchscreen display, an interactive customization corner, or an interactive retail display case. The first one allows consumers to search for jewelry products that they have already bookmarked on their phones. The second one lets them design their custom jewelry pieces. The last one enables them to interact with display cases. For instance, they can pick up rings or watches and then, touch the touchscreen display to reveal complete information for that specific product.

Self-service technologies should not replace face-to-face interaction. Rather, it should complement to provide a meaningful and productive omnichannel experience.

5. Keep online and offline inventory synchronized

Lastly, reduce friction when going digical by synchronizing your physical and online jewelry inventory.

Managing your jewelry inventory is a laborious task; however, it’s critical when you’re merging physical with online jewelry shopping. Ensure that your physical inventory and your online inventory data are on the same page. For instance, you don’t want to disappoint customers who place their orders online only to arrive at your physical store and find out that the item is no longer available.

This is where inventory management technologies would enter. Marrying the physical and digital retail world requires a lot of work, but you have nothing to fear if you have the right technology combinations. Ensure that every technology you are using allows for a connected consumer-facing experience and real-time inventory updates.

Digical is the new normal for jewelry retail

Online shopping and e-commerce have benefitted from the current health situation. Consumers and business owners have become more open to adopting new technologies, but post-COVID 19, consumers have expressed willingness to experience the best of both digital and physical retail.

Make the physical and digital shopping combination frictionless by allowing them to transition seamlessly throughout the whole buyer’s journey—from their desktop to their mobile, all the way to physical stores.

Needless to say, the union of physical and online jewelry shopping is here. It’s the future.