There is no dearth of clothing stores on the internet and women love them all. But when it comes to shopping jewelry online, the options are quite limited. This, however, has changed in the past few years as entrepreneurs have come up with online stores that are strictly designed for buying jewelry.
Analysts at FATbit think that online jewelry stores deserve more recognition for their growth potential. This is why we did an analysis of the leading jewelry stores. Our findings are for entrepreneurs looking for insights on how to start an online jewelry shopping store.
E-commerce has become a direct conduit to the consumers. As of 2018, there were a total of 25.9 million digital buyers in the United States and the number is expected to reach 307 million buyers in 2023. According to a Statista study, categories like clothing and shoes are topping the list for most purchased items online. Categories like food, beverages and accessories are also among the fastest growing ecommerce categories.
With the acceleration in digital commerce, more and more tech-savvy customers are turning to online shopping. According to an industry analysis, one of the major factors responsible for the increasing online jewelry market share is the convenience provided by online retailers. Benefits like easy product assortment, return policies, and cash on delivery (COD) are influencing customers to buy jewelry online. Below are some facts which validate the growth of online jewelry market and henceforth introduction of increasing number of online jewelry shopping websites:
Small businesses and startups are major disruptors in the ecommerce industry with their innovative ways of addressing the pain areas. In our research, we also came across few online jewelry shopping industry trends, such as:
In order to align online shopping experience with brick-and-mortar experience, online jewelry shopping websites are adopting the try-at-home model. Customers can get the best of both worlds, as they can select the jewelry online and see it in person, feel and try it before making the final purchase.
In today’s complex digital landscape it is very important for the businesses to map out the customer journeys across various channels, devices and platforms. Social commerce has become a mainstream sales channel and is driving a larger portion of the online sales. One of the latest examples is Instagram’s shoppable posts which allow users to purchase the product directly from the post.
Now let’s look at overview of online jewelry marketplace business model, big industry players, and most important website features:
As already stated, the online jewelry industry presents strong growth numbers. Like most online businesses that deal with physical products, these platforms get the benefit of low overheads and low inventory costs. While some opt for in-house manufacturing, others opt to source their products. An online jewelry shopping store generates profits like any other company dealing in finished products; that is, by keeping a small portion of profit on every sale. The following process diagram explains the working of a Jewelry eCommerce Store in more detail.
There are various online jewelry marketplaces in the world catering to different geographical regions. Here are some of the most popular ones:
Now that we are familiar with the names of leading online jewelry sellers, let’s have a look at the website features that help them sell online.
It is given that you have to be very careful while designing the experience. But your website needs more than just good design to attract and retain buyers. There are a lot of backend features like inventory tracking and real-time shipping costs that can help save your time and efforts. Here are some features that require special attention:
Design an engaging homepage by focusing on product categories and trusted factors. Your online store should be easy to navigate so that users can find the ornaments they are looking for. Let’s discuss the most noticeable homepage aspects to launch a better store:
Opt for a carousel banner to share USP, special offers, and other important details. The message on images need to be clear and complemented with a prominent call to action. The banner must entice visitors to buy products by sharing discount & collection related information.
The website should focus on providing users with precise information at relevant locations. The top bar must be used to share critical links and details. It must show:
Wishlist helps buyers save products for future reference. It can also emerge as a popup when someone clicks on the wishlist button. This is a great way to let shoppers view recently added products without diverting to another page.
Product discovery is an important part of ecommerce portals. Auto-suggest feature in search can make product discovery easier. Being an essential aspect, it must be placed in the first fold of homepage. Your search feature must also bring filters to make the search process more refined. Also provide a powerful search tool with filters for buyers to best match the product as per the specific needs of the consumers. These include:
Advanced criteria where buyers can further filter down the products can also be used. These can be:
In order to succeed in a highly competitive market, you need to put the spotlight on features that give you an edge over other players. This should be done by showcasing the unique features like:
In order to gain greater customer trust and loyalty, Try At Home feature can be of great benefit.
Major benefit of social share buttons is to enhance the cross channel promotion. The only concern is to place these social sharing buttons judiciously. Give special attention to the social aspect of online retail. For shoppers busy on social media platforms, put in a special section on homepage to share:
Adding a live chat feature on your website helps users interact easily with your brand and find answers to queries. Keep the process of starting a chat simple. Don’t seek too much information to initiate a communication. Integrating a chat functionality means having a dedicated team to answer queries around the clock. So, this is something you should go ahead with caution.
Positive reviews play a great role in motivating first-time buyers make a purchase decision. So adding user reviews can help increase conversion rate. We highly recommend this for your jewelry website.
For consumers who want to customize their ring, earring, or anything else, provide an interactive tool that can be operated with ease. There are various filters based on which customization can be done:
Product pages are critical for every ecommerce store and cannot be compromised in any way. Raise the bar of your product pages by including:
Make the filters in a precise way so that the buyer is able to find relevant product without spending too much time. After selecting the particular category of jewelry, users must be able to filter on the basis of:
Choosing a gift can be a time-consuming process. Simplify the task for jewelry buyers by offering gift search functionality. Or gifts can be categorized on the basis of different occasions like:
All the major industry players like CaratLane and Wolf & Badger offer dedicated gifts section.
Most e-commerce players entice the buyers by giving offers and discounts. Bring initial buyers to your store by deploying some of the following strategies:
Signup and login process should be simplified so that more buyers register with you. Work with the following points:
Registration process needs to be quick and based on details like:
In order to generate maximum signups, the steps involved in signups can be minimized. However, just like the above example of Tiffany & Co. you can keep also additional fields (like birthdays, relationship status) which can be optional for creating an account.
Make ‘add to cart’ button prominent on all the pages. The checkout process must include critical elements like:
Divide the checkout process into small steps rather than displaying a lengthy form to the buyer. This improves conversions and reduces cart abandonment.
To enable your business to have a diverse user base it is important to offer information on your website in a language the user speaks. The multicurrency feature is equally beneficial as it would cut down the hassle of converting the currency units.
In order to monitor the store’s performance and take further actions based on facts and figures, reporting and analytics feature is a must for any online jewelry store. It helps a business to respond to the market demands in a more planned way and make a well-informed decision. The inbuilt analytics helps to keep a check on:
Like any other ecommerce website, user reviews are equally important in case of an online jewelry shopping store. As jewelry is a luxury commodity, customers usually prefer it to buy after reading the customer reviews to make a more informed decision. Hence, the product review management feature helps to solicit and highlight reviews.
Availability of multiple payment options is one of the key reasons why ecommerce shopping has come to the forefront. In order to secure a larger customer base, user-friendly and safe payment options are a must for any online ecommerce store.
According to Statista, eWallet payments have accounted for the maximum percentage i.e is 36% of online transaction volume worldwide. To ensure safe digital transactions, integrate your website with payment gateways. Some of the most popular gateways are listed below:
Order fulfillment is another crucial step for scaling an online business. It involves the complete process of receiving, processing and delivering the products to end customers.
It is imperative to integrate preferred shipping APIs to streamline the process of shipping and fulfillment. Enjoy benefits like managing orders & shipments, creating shipping labels and retrieving the shipping rates.
If you are planning to start an online jewelry store, then you cannot afford to miss out on listed website features. Make your prospects brighter by incorporating the features suggested by FATbit analysts in your online jewelry shopping store.
Discuss your website requirements with UX designers and developers to launch a successful online jewelry store. Or choose a system that includes all the features listed in the above post. Whatever way you choose, settle for nothing but the best for your online jewelry selling venture.
All innovation starts with an idea to solve real-world problems. At FATbit Technologies we are passionate about driving digital transformation to prepare businesses for a digital-first tomorrow. Let’s discuss your BIG idea NOW.
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Comments (6)
prashant gandhi
FATbit Chef Post author
Carpe Omnia Store
FATbit Chef Post author
Smith Jony
Red Cheetah
hello sir i am looking to make diamond jewellery store online like blue nile i dont know how it works and all also i need a brief idea how blue nile works
Hello Prashant,
Thanks for reaching us out. One of our expert will get back to soon.
Cheers
Good evening, spectacular everything that is presented here.
Hello Carpe,
Thank you so much for your appreciation! Please stay tuned for more insights.
Warm Regards,
Team FATbit
How can we create a 360 degree view of a product? Do we need to record a regular video or is there any software to support that? Also, how will 360 view work on the website? Can you please provide us with more info on the module or integration we need to use to support this feature on our website?
Thanks for sharing wonderful post about building an online jewelry website.