Over the past decade, Online shopping has entered almost every aspect of our lives. It includes the jewellery industry as well. Any Business today, whether small or big, must have some online presence to stay relevant. In short, Blockbuster has lost, and Netflix has won. Today the most prominent marketing companies in the world are not newspaper and TV channels but social media and technology giants such as Google and Facebook.
With the rise of the internet, commerce has started to transform into e-commerce, or online business, leading to the creation of online retail giants such as Alibaba and Amazon Inc. However, the online jewellery market has not exploded like others such as electronics etc. Jewellery and luxury watch categories only made up about 5.3 per cent of the online luxury sales in 2016 (Milena, 2019).
The slow development of the online 3D jewellery market can be attributed to a few reasons. Still, the main reason is that jewellery is a high-ticket item and consumers want to see and feel the item before making a purchase decision. Other high-ticket items such as luxury watches and electronics usually have powerful brands, and it’s easier for people to buy them online from their respective brands’ websites and social media accounts.
Jewellery sales in South Asia, one of the biggest market of gold, are largely through small businesses with weak brands. Even the stronger brands, until now, have had little online presence, and this resulted in the slowed development of the e-commerce jewellery market.
However, e-commerce is the future of commerce. In the US, online retail had a 14.3 per cent share of the total retail market in 2018, up from 12.9 per cent in 2017 and 11.6 per cent in 2016 (Graham, 2019). It shows an increasing trend in e-commerce growth and emphasizes the importance of online presence for today’s businesses.
The jewellery market may have been late to the party. Still, it surely has joined it in recent years with high-end brands such as Richemont and Cartier buying or developing online retail platforms to cater to the increasing online jewellery market. The trend is expected to continue in 2020, and it is becoming essential for jewellery businesses to focus on their online presence and marketing.
