Online shopping has been growing rapidly year after year and doesn’t look like it will be slowing down in the years to come.
Once when one would go to buy jewellery they would drive down to their local jewellery store and purchase from the selection available. The competition was scarce and in the worst case scenario the only competition around was maybe another mom and pop jewelry store in the area.
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Now a day the first place one goes to shop for jewellery is the internet. There are numerous popular marketplaces for shopping like Google, eBay, Amazon, Buy.com and others. Consumers can now buy diamond jewellery from the comfort of their own home without having to be annoyed and pressured by salesman trying to make their commissions, without having to drive all the way to the store and without having to do with the inventory and designs that the store has in stock.
The most important factor is price. All physical jewelry stores have a huge overhead of rent in prime locations and paying salaries to a staff of sales people. The most important factor is that jewellery stores are usually third to fourth hand. This means that the jewellery goes through 3-4 suppliers before it gets to the jewellery store and each supplier adds their profit onto the item.
The internet opened up to the consumer the option of purchasing directly from the manufacturer, cutting out all of the middle men, passing the savings on to the consumer. The customer service on most professional jewellery websites is usually top notch and manned by professional diamond and jewellery personnel.
Most vendors offer a 30 day return policy giving the consumer the confidence to make a purchase without actually seeing the item physically or worrying that they won’t like it once tried on.
The average consumer of online jewellery is usually the upper middle class. They have the disposable income available to spend on luxury items, yet the price is a factor and they are usually working within a budget. They want value for their money and are willing to sacrifice seeing the item physically in order to save themselves from paying the inflated prices of brick and mortar jewellery stores.
Most consumers now a day have their preference of marketplace and are usually loyal to that marketplace doing most of their shopping from there. So when they decide to buy they search for the few keywords that interest them and start to browse through the endless items available. Price comparison becomes easy and the selection is endless due to the many vendors selling online now a days.
Once they find the product they are looking for - diamond rings, earrings, pendants, wedding sets etc, the consumer usually does a little price comparisons of similar products. The price range is not the only factor as long as the price is in the same ballpark. The customer then usually looks at how well the vendor’s website communicates trust and professionalism and how easy it is to communicate with the vendor’s customer service. Another important factor is their return policy. Almost all respectable jewellery websites offer a 30 day return policy.
In conclusion, the modern consumer feels completely comfortable with purchasing jewellery online. They are aware that the prices on the internet are much lower than the brick and mortar jewelry stores and they understand how to use the search and comparison capabilities available online to find the best deal out there.
