Let’s go for optimism instead of fear

Too many jewellers are not prepared for a future where online sales will make up the majority of retail purchases. Most people agree that this brave new world is coming, but this industry has been particularly slow at embracing e-commerce as a revenue stream. There are some success stories out there, but there is much work to be done.

We’ve been working on a piece of research into how far jewellers have progressed their online offering. At this year’s IJL, I’ll be revealing the findings and discussing what they mean with Michael Rawlinson (newly selected CEO of the new National Association of Jewellers), and also Andrew Hinds, director of F Hinds and chairman of the NAG – so I won’t give anything away here. But suffice it to say, there is a severe lack of knowledge about how to get into the e-tailing game, and indeed a persistent attitude that it is not even necessary.

True, it is unrealistic to imagine that every independent jeweller in the land can have a large, successful online shop – after all, there are only so many consumers and marketing to them online is an expensive business. But the truth is not everyone needs to be Etsy or indeed H Samuel in order to be competing and winning sales. There is money to be made from just a modest investment in your website and in a world where we are constantly reminded of doomsday scenarios about the future of bricks-and-mortar, no-one can afford to ignore this important new strand of the retailing game.

As an earnest piece of advice, I call on jewellers who are not already entertaining e-commerce to start doing so. Not because some hyperbolic – and in my view hysterical – sense that the high street is in terminal decline, but because it is an opportunity in and of itself. If there are new-age tools available to help you sell more jewellery, they should be welcomed, not feared.

I will be at IJL on the Jewellery Focus stand for the duration of IJL, and I am always keen to hear jewellers’ stories about their business and the views on the industry at large. Do pop over to stand P134 and say hello.