Shine Like a Diamond

Best Practices for Jewelry Brands

An Anglicized version of an old Latin word, “Lucida” refers to the

brightest star in a constellation. For brides to be, Lucida might also

refer to its namesake, the diamond cut patented by Tiffany & Co.

It has 50 different facets, meaning it can look dozens of kinds of

beautiful, depending on where the light hits the stone. And let’s be

honest: It doesn’t look quite the same online.

Following that logic, many jewelry brands underinvest in digital…

and it shows. Most jewelry purchases do happen in-store, but the

customer journey is longer and more complicated than ever, with

many digital touchpoints along the way. When it comes to delivering

a modern, omnichannel shopping experience, jewelry brands

perform poorly relative to other categories, according to our Retail

Personalization Index evaluations.

What can they do better? It all begins with data. Just like a poker

game requires an upfront payment to play, explicit and implicit data

collection is your buy in to provide the most relevant, personalized

shopping experiences, to engage in online purchasing, and to

cement the relationship in-store.

Given jewelry brands’ unique challenges — attracting repeat customers, for one, given how many pieces are expensive, one-time purchases — we’ve taken it a step further. We’ve identified six strategies to help the Jareds, Blue Niles and Pandoras of the world really shine bright like a diamond.

1It’s important to understand a customer’s

regular purchase patterns, which sounds like

a no brainer. But in the jewelry vertical, we

recommend segmenting specifically based on

where she buys as much as what she buys.

Does she typically buy in-store or online?

If someone historically makes purchases at

a physical retail location, use your digital

channels to drive them back there. Jewelry can

be difficult to contextualize online. If you see a

picture of a necklace on a white background,

you may not be able to tell how exactly how

big it or how high it sits on someone’s neck.

Consider inviting a regular shopper into the

store to try on a new item you think she’dvv

like through a clienteling strategy. For those

who purchase online, offer live chat and

user-generated content so that she can ask

questions and see her potential purchase.

One jewelry brand already doing this is

Tiffany & Co., which uses their digital

channels to invite you to come into the

store and experience the white glove service

for which they’re known. Many product

pages feature not only digital (add to cart)

but physical (make appointment) calls to

action. Another nice touch is the “Drop A

Hint” feature, which emails product pages

to consumers’ loved ones. You know, just in

case they were thinking of buying a gift.

CONSIDER THE CHANNEL

Customer data helps you provide the best customer experience to turn a browser into a buyer. It also works afterward, during the post-purchase period. This ultimately increases sales and engenders loyalty, resulting in even more sales. And loyalty is key, especially as Amazon is now selling their own jewelry (because of course they are).

Let the data you have around a

transaction fuel the way you nurture

customers post-purchase. If you sell

fashion jewelry, create content around

how to wear it. You can go either way

with this one, taking the opportunity

to cross-sell with complementary items

or simply adding value. “What does

turquoise go with?” brings up more than

700 million hits on Google, so there’s

certainly a demand for that guidance

and by offering it up to your customers

you’ll create much-needed loyalty.

If your brand is centered on more expensive pieces, consider content that focuses on education and care (how do you clean glittering earrings?), celebrity endorsement, or cocktail party soundbites (the inspiration behind the

specific piece purchased).

LONG-TAIL NURTURE

2

When someone buys shoes, they probably just

needed (or OK, wanted) a new pair of shoes.

For jewelry customers, those purchases are

just as likely to be for someone else. Jewelry

is a popular present. Each of the traditional

anniversary gifts — paper on the first one,

cotton on the second, you get the idea — has

an accompanying gemstone. Jewelry was also

the most-searched Mother’s Day gift in nine

states, according to Google data. (Connecticut

wasn’t one of them; in the Nutmeg State, it’s

apparently customary to give your mom a

garden animal statue.)

If the customer is a gifter, they may not want

to hear from you as often as the person buying

herself a necklace. Think of the occasion. Is

it a birthday or anniversary present? That’s

key information for remarketing when that

milestone comes back around, which is also an

opportune time to send a gift guide.

Gift guides are common for retailers and Alex and Ani takes that to the next level with different versions depending on the occasion, who the recipient is, and even her personality. The “art enthusiast” and “modern minimalist” aren’t likely to have overlapping tastes, which Alex and Ani takes into consideration. Additionally, the brand knows whether a customer is a gifter and retargets appropriately.

SEGMENT GIFT GIVERS

3

It goes without saying that income determines jewelry purchases. According to research from the International Diamond Exchange, the average household with a $25,000 annual income spends about $188 per year on jewelry. When a household earns more than $150,000, the average jewelry spend jumps up to $2,403. Given that chasm, jewelry purchases aren’t necessarily impulse buys, which means the typical retargeting tactics require some tweaking.

Most online shopping carts are filled and

forgotten. Retailers send abandoned cart

messages quickly, often with a discount as

an extra push toward purchase. Diamonds

inherently entail a longer customer journey

than denim, so don’t mistake inactivity

for indifference and start firing off special

offers on the third day. Being too promo-

happy can cost retailers, both in the near

and distant future. There’s the incremental

revenue loss from this purchase that

someone may have made anyway and

cheapening brand value overall.

We recommend jewelry brands use predicted average order value to determine their discount strategies. Think longer term and consider when — and how much — someone is predicted to purchase. Some larger purchases have financing options. As a customer nears the end of that period, drop a discount to

incentivize their next purchase.

PREDICTIVELY PRICE DROP

4

From names in subject lines to responding on

social media, there are countless ways to deploy

the most basic personalization. We recommend

taking it further and personalizing based on

inbound terms. Given the frequency of gift-

giving, there’s a lot of variation within the jewelry

vertical. Few things give you a better sense of

who your customer is than the search terms that

brought them to your website in the first place.

Identify your highest-value search terms and use

them to dynamically personalize your website

content. If someone finds you by searching for

engagement rings, make sure he or she sees

them on the landing page. And if you score their

email address, continue that and show more

engagement ring-related content. Likewise, if

someone finds you via gold bracelet searches,

ensure you’re suppressing engagement rings from

your recommendations. Good welcome streams

take acquisition source in mind. Great ones factor

the rest of your customer data, ensuring the most

relevant communications possible.

JustFab is one of the best personalizers

around, starting with a style quiz used to learn

shoppers’ tastes. That’s a good strategy for

jewelry brands, too, since knowing a customer’s

style is imperative in order to personalize

product recommendations. Of course, that’s

just the beginning of JustFab’s personalization.

The brand delivers a different experience for

every customer, based on a combination of

factors, including browsing and email history.

PERSONALIZE LIKE A PRO

5

Speaking of relevant communications, don’t sleep on email. In a way, it ties the five previous recommendations together. Your customer profiles should dictate the aforementioned personalized welcome series you use to make a good first impression. From there, email should be your go-to channel for cross-message coordinating, recommending the most relevant possible product and content recommendations.

Your cadence should reflect each

consumer’s own buying habits and

predicted likelihood to purchase. It’s not

uncommon for retailers to email their lists

on a daily (or even several-times-daily)

basis. Fashion jewelers have more wiggle

room there than the luxury players, whose

messaging should be dialed back a bit.

Marketers frequently talk about

Facebook’s massive global reach, but

email is even bigger. As of last year,

there were 3.7 billion email users, a

number that represents nearly half the

planet’s population. Time and time again,

email has been proven to be the most

consistently lucrative marketing channel.

Many jewelry retailers’ websites don’t

even include email acquisition, which

shows that these brands don’t always

recognize email’s inherent value. But

they should.

EMBRACE EMAIL

6

Sailthru can help you execute on all these strategies and more with our powerful technology and expert in-house retail strategists. Ready to level-up your marketing?

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