How Unified Commerce Benefits A Business?

There are many benefits present in unified commerce that you don’t get while using multiple solutions. We will let you know and discuss each one separately to provide a detailed view.

How to do Accounting and Finance Management Made Easy?

Finance management is where the use of different applications can lead to disorders. When the data remains on a single platform, the chances of error are minimal. A unified platform seamlessly connects with the sales features and helps an enterprise manage finance and conduct accounting. It even reduces the overall cost as you won’t need to buy additional software for finance management.

how to do Enhanced Inventory Management?

With poor inventory management comes losses, which can be avoided when you use a unified commerce solution. Think about it! One platform for managing the entire lifecycle of a product. Through unified commerce, you can track the addition, movement, and selling of each product. When you use different platforms for tracking different parts of the life cycle, there would be gaps between the platforms. Therefore, real-time tracking won’t be thinkable, but not with a unified commerce solution. As soon as the item gets added to the inventory, it is reflected on the backend and POS of the respective store. As it gets sold through POS, the selling gets reflected on the inventory. Therefore, whenever the product goes down to a certain number, it notifies the manager or even works to automatically reorder the product from the selected vendor. With unified commerce, your inventory management becomes effortless, and at the same time, it becomes more reliable than ever.

Unified Commerce and It’s Benefit to Your Retail Business

‘The new normal’ is the newest trending topic across the world. Businesses as a whole have found the new normal of remote working. Similarly, every industry by itself is finding a redefined way of operating that makes the survival of businesses possible with expectations of growth in the near future.

The jewelry industry is not different from them. It suffered during the uncertain times of the Covid pandemic in 2020 because of lockdowns, closure of stores, and cancellations of jewelry events/tradeshows. Nonetheless, there were some positive signs, some differences from earlier years that may bring the growth that the industry needs. Creativity increased, social media became the new marketing channel, buyers preferred ethical and sustainable production, and customization still rules the demand part.

The first half of 2021 was no different from 2020. However, the situation has improved in many countries and some positive signs are expected across businesses. It was a temporary downward trend for the jewelry industry, after which it will show some encouraging signals and rise further.

Here, in this blog, we will explore the various expectations from the jewelry industry and factors that will contribute to its performance across the world.

Social media becomes the key marketing and shopping medium

The biggest trend in every industry, nowadays, is social media marketing. It has become one of the most effective strategies for retailers to increase their brand awareness, connect with potential customers, provide information, develop relationships with customers, and influence them to buy their products.

Big brands and even small jewelers are building their presence on social media to target a specific audience and capture them. They design and develop advertising campaigns for promotion on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Twitter, and any other channel famous in their region and among their target population.

Social media channels are not only serving as a place for marketing, but customers have made it a shopping center. People are giving preference to their comfort and avoiding the risks of going shopping in offline stores by buying jewelry online. Therefore, it will lead to big and small jewelry stores giving due importance to creating customer experiences, rather than focusing only on the product.

Industry players improving customer experiences to increase sales

Customers trust brands not only for their product quality; the key differentiating factor is what special these brands are doing to make their shopping experience memorable. With online shopping becoming the new norm, the jewelry industry is trying to attract and retain customers by creating enriching online shopping experiences for them.

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The key shopping experience that retailers are targeting is displaying a wide range of unique designs that can highlight the celebration/event for which the customer is buying. They are also focussing on constant communication with customers over the entire duration of their shopping to make them feel important and comfortable. Jewelers may create a new shopping experience for their customers by allowing them to book a time for a representative visit, bringing the shortlisted designs to the customer’s home, and facilitating a final purchase. Jewelers must pay attention to the persuasion skills of their employees so that they can persuade customers to make the final purchase.

Effective post-sales services also fall under customer experiences. Home delivery of selected products, home pick-up of products for repairing, creation of a surprise delivery of the product at a specific event, etc. will become the new standards of differentiation. All such experiences lead to the development of trust in customers’ minds regarding the brand’s care and services towards its customers.

Revenge buying will increase sales

The pandemic led to a decline in demand. There were lockdowns in countries, restrictions on celebrations and get-togethers, and loss in jobs and earnings. People had no reason to celebrate, no reason to wear and buy jewelry. It led to a decline in sales.

With the economies opening and people coming back to normal, the situation will change. There will be more celebrations, more get-togethers, and more events to compensate for the missing celebration in the previous year. Moreover, the repressed demand during the pandemic will lead to a rise in jewelry purchases by the customer post-Covid. People will start celebrating small milestones with jewelry buying to make up for the lost events and time.

Emphasis on ethical and sustainable production and sourcing

We know how the new-age customers are more concerned about whether the processes that go behind manufacturing a product, marketing, or any other related activity are ethical or not. Customers and companies care about the social and environmental impact of any product before committing to procuring or buying it.

Their concerns relate to:

Working conditions where workers mine precious stones
Fair wages to workers involved in searching and sourcing these stones
Any harm to the region from where the gems, materials, and stones are mined

Their main intention is to protect the workers and the environment from any possible harm. Therefore, customers prefer to buy jewelry and precious stones from brands that prove safe, ethical, and sustainable sourcing and production practices. There is a higher demand for products that bear the stamp of ‘ethically sourced’ since it proves a sustainable production and sourcing process.

Such a demand for ethically sourced jewelry will lead to retailers focusing more on procuring products from suppliers that ensure sustainable and ethical business practices. The procurement procedures will change, supply chains will become ethical, and production processes will be traced like never before. Recycling and e-mining (jewelry produced from metals saved from technology and dental waste) will become the ruling trends in the jewelry industry.

Customization still earns the limelight

The shopping mindset of customers has changed over the years. For any piece of jewelry that customers buy, they look for a touch of personalization. Such customization may be specific to a design or getting a name or date engraved, or any particular color. With this personalized touch, customers intend to make a statement and/or show their love for the other person, for whom they buy.

Customization in the jewelry industry is in trend since few years, and it will continue to rule the market. The supply market is actively responding to this trend. Manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers in the gems and stones market, specifically the high-end stores, offline and online, cater to this demand. They give a boutique experience to personalization-seeking clients. They weave storytelling in the sales process to connect customers with their purchases as a symbol of some emotion or feeling, thereby adding value to the shopping experience.

Conclusion

With these trends expected in the year 2021 and the near future, the jewelry industry must be ready to remain ‘in trend’ and ‘not fall behind’. It must improve its social media presence and capability to remain in the eyes of potential customers and influence them for purchases. Players in the market must increase their marketing budgets and use e-commerce to their advantage. Furthermore, the jewelry industry must be fully transparent on its sustainable and ethical business practices to align with customers’ expectations.

Big jewelry houses, niche brands, mid-market jewelers, retailers, and wholesalers – all must make extra efforts to come out of the economic slump that happened thanks to the pandemic. They need to focus on creating a unique selling proposition for their brand such as using creative designs, selling a combination of high-end and affordable jewelry to target different customer needs, or implementing an effective social media strategy for strong customer relationships.

In addition to all these, technology will always remain a differentiating factor that can improve the business processes and give a better shopping experience to your customers. For any technology-specific assistance or consultation required to improve your jewelry business, Web Masters is here for you.

About Web Masters

We are a leading IT company that provides business solutions and services to the retail and jewelry industry. Our spectrum of solutions includes enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, business intelligence, cloud, and productivity solutions. Whether you are a retailer, wholesaler, or manufacturer, we serve you the latest modern technology that can address your business needs.

Our WinGold solutions cater to every need of your business – point of sale, inventory management, ERP, accounting and finance, and management information system. With more than 30 years of experience in the jewelry industry, we have all the insights that you are looking for. Our IT professionals, business consultants, technology advisors, and sales team can help you with understanding the in and out of the jewelry industry.