IDEX Online Research\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Challenges for 2008: Jewelry Shopping A Dull In-Store Experience
\nIDEX Online, Israel
\n(February 14, ’08, 10:41 Ken Gassman)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Go to any mall in America and see where the crowds are. They are in the Apple Computer store. They are in the Bass Pro store. They are anywhere that retailing is fun, anywhere there is an \u00e2\u20ac\u0153experience\u00e2\u20ac\u009d involved.<\/p>\n
American Baby Boomers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c older, wealthy consumers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c have latched onto the concept of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153experiential retailing,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and now merchants serve it up every chance they get. Little wonder: it turns out that consumers of all ages enjoy the experience of shopping when it is interactive and fun<\/p>\n
Retail futurists tell us that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153experiential retailing\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is the wave of the future. The concept of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153putting the dog food out for the dogs\u00e2\u20ac\u009d won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t entice shoppers any longer. The concept of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153one-size-fits-all\u00e2\u20ac\u009d won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work, either.<\/p>\n
Shopper change. Social norms change. Consumers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 needs change. Unfortunately, far too many merchants resist change.<\/p>\n
Jewelry Store Shopping: Same-Old, Same-Old
\nJewelry merchants haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t updated the way they do business in generations. Each morning, they lay out their merchandise, just as their forefathers have done for hundreds of years. Because retailing has traditionally been product-centric, it made sense.<\/p>\n
Today, this won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work in a market where the shopping experience is interactive, and customer intimacy is important. In the days of mom-and-pop retailing, the local merchant knew all of his customers. Today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s chain retailing has all but eliminated the concept of personalized shopping. And, even though many of today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s jewelers are still mom-and-pop family operations, they have forgotten their roots: they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t offer a personalized shopping experience. Amazon.com is probably the leader in understanding customer intimacy: each time a customer returns to its website, a personalized list of books and other products are recommended to the shopper.<\/p>\n
J. Walter Thompson (JWT), the ad and marketing agency that serves the U.S. diamond and jewelry industry, conducted a Retail Landscape Study which shows that shoppers are unimpressed with the jewelry shopping experience; they say that merchants\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 stores are dull and unexciting. Here are some highlights from the JWT Retail Landscape Study:<\/p>\n
The jewelry shopping experience is rated only \u00e2\u20ac\u0153average\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by consumers. Unfortunately, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not good enough for jewelers, if they hope to take market share from competitors who sell designer handbags, plasma TVs, and home d\u00c3\u00a9cor items.
\nThe jewelry industry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s current success is due to consumers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 love of jewelry, not the shopping experience.
\nConsumers have high expectations. The competition provides more fun, expertise, and excitement than today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s jewelry stores.
\nDiamond jewelry is extremely romantic and emotional, while the shopping experience is anything but. The jewelry store shopping environment fails \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it is not about passion and excitement.
\nHere are specific consumer comments about shopping in the typical jewelry store in America:
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Many jewelry stores are just like other jewelry stores.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Many jewelry stores are like stores of my parents\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 day.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Jewelry merchandise seems too similar from store-to-store.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Traditional jewelry stores are boring.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nPreferred Stores Offer Fun & An Interactive Experience
\nJWT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Retail Landscape research study asked potential jewelry consumers what kind of stores they preferred. Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what the research uncovered:<\/p>\n
Upscale shoppers enjoy the d\u00c3\u00a9cor of their favorite specialty stores.
\nUpscale shoppers seek pampering when they shop.
\nUpscale shoppers seek stores that feel exotic, inspiring, and elegant.
\nShoppers in the study cited three retailers that especially fulfilled their needs and wants:
\nL\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Occitane
\nRestoration Hardware
\nApple Computer
\nJ. Walter Thompson says that other luxury retailers seduce people into browsing and buying. In general, jewelry retailers fail to follow through with this concept. Consumers seeking \u00e2\u20ac\u0153retail therapy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c recreational shopping \u00e2\u20ac\u201c shop for fine clothing, accessories including jewelry, consumer electronics, home d\u00c3\u00a9cor, and gourmet foods. Unfortunately, jewelry is not high enough on that list to capture its fair share of consumer expenditures related to recreational shopping.<\/p>\n
In addition, shoppers want an interactive experience. Apple gives customers a hands-on shopping experience. Sporting goods merchants have climbing walls and casting pools.<\/p>\n
Stores Must Tell A Story
\nPaco Underhill, the guru of the American shopping experience, says that merchants must tell a story over the course of the store. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what distinguishes one store from another. The merchandise alone can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do that, according to Underhill.<\/p>\n
Further, Underhill says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The jewelry store has to create the fantasy that comes with how women adorn themselves, the way Armani or Versace sell to women. Go to these stores and see what the trying-on experience is like. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s aimed at the wearer. It assumes she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the decision maker. A woman tries on an Armani suit or a Versace evening gown and she feels like a movie star. She gets a taste of how the rest of the world is going to see her and respond if she buys that garment. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what a jeweler must now attempt to do.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
A well-planned retail environment romances all five senses, according to JWT research.<\/p>\n
See \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Design, pattern, lighting, displays, layout, fixturing, signage
\nHear \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Music or soundscape that sets a tone, conveys the store\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153energy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nSmell \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Aromatherapy can send subtle unconscious messages that trigger strong responses (scents should be very light) \u00e2\u20ac\u201c from fresh-baked cookies to coffee to expensive perfume to essences that excite or calm like ginger or peppermint, lavender, rose or vanilla
\nTouch \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Tactile \u00e2\u20ac\u0153experience\u00e2\u20ac\u009d not only of merchandise but all surfaces, furniture, fixtures, materials on which merchandise is presented
\nTaste \u00e2\u20ac\u201c The offering of a taste, from cookies to mints, coffee to champagne
\nSolving The Retail Puzzle
\nJ. Walter Thompson says too many jewelers are missing one or more pieces of the retail puzzle. The challenge and opportunity for jewelry merchants is to enhance all marketing factors:
\nProduct
\nPrice
\nPeople
\nPromotions
\nPlace
\nJWT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s research project showed that a frightfully high 30% of all shoppers who visited a jewelry store would never go back to that store again because it did not meet expectations.<\/p>\n
In particular, JWT research emphasizes the importance of employing the proper store personnel. Here are JWT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s key observations:<\/p>\n
Staff attitude can \u00e2\u20ac\u0153make or break\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a consumer shopping experience. It can cause shoppers to reject a store forever.
\nMany consumers don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe that jewelry sales people are diamond experts or have the knowledge of jewelry styles. Further, shoppers don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think that most men, in particular, have the ability to understand their personal style and make a match between the proper jewelry and the shopper\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s style. Paco Underhill says most women dress for other women, not for men.
\nConsumers say jewelry sales people have a snooty attitude. Here are their comments:
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153They look you over, when you enter the store. You have to dress a certain way to go into a jewelry store.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I would never just look at jewelry the way I will when shopping for clothes or bags or other fashion merchandise.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t look at things by yourself; there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always a sales person there. You can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t compare. Jewelry shopping is a frustrating experience.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nPaco Underhill\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Observations
\nPaco Underhill, the retail guru, has made some specific observations about the jewelry industry, both in his lectures and in his books. Here are some of the more relevant comments he has made, regarding jewelry retailers.<\/p>\n
Very high-end jewelers don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to be approachable or seem affordable. He cites both Cartier and Bvlgari. The more precious the goods, the less glass to show it off in the store display windows. He cites Cartier as having a mall store clad in black stone. This store makes a statement in the context of the mall: no other store comes close to creating such a definite distinction between out there and in here. The windows are small squares of light set in those black walls: it feels expensive. Bvlgari doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want good visibility into its stores from the outside. Underhill seems to agree: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be able to see the best diamonds from outside the store; otherwise, where\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the mystery and drama?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nThe store must take care not to undercut the ambience with shoddy materials or workmanship. Attention to detail is imperative. You can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ask shoppers to examine a tiny diamond, but ignore that smudged glass or that gray plastic trash can in the corner.
\nJewelry stores are not keeping up with social change, Underhill asserts. New studies show that there is a huge market for self-purchasing women who jewelers have not tapped. The jewelry store must create the fantasy that comes with how women adorn themselves. That is a challenge.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The entire jewelry store traditionally plays to a certain fantasy \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the one of the guy who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rich and powerful enough to afford something for the woman who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s beautiful and desirable enough, with exquisite taste in adornment, to deserve what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s here. Once women start buying their own baubles, however, the store needs to accommodate a second fantasy. This one is about dress-up, a game most women have been playing in one form or another since childhood. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also about self-reward, and making the leap between who she is and who she wants to be.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Call of the Mall, page 115.
\nJewelry is now closer than ever to fine fashion, especially when women buy it. But it is not sold like fashion.
\nThe display cases in a jewelry store act as a barricade; they tell the customer to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153keep your distance.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nUnderhill describes a jewelry store targeting only women shoppers: The windows are large; the first thing you see is color, a kind of pink, mauve, rose shade which looks girly. Jewelry is nestled among swirls and swaths and swoops of fabric. The female sales people are wearing pastel-colored fuzzy sweaters, and they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t look like the stylish keepers of the crown jewels. Prices are moderate, perfect for the woman buying for herself.
\nUnderhill believes customers should spend time trying on jewelry: allowing shoppers to play with and try on whatever they want will result is strong sales gains and increased word-of-mouth advertising. Mirrors must be plentiful and large, so customers can see themselves trying on the jewelry.
\nHe recommends better integration of jewelry and clothing. A sales person should assemble an outfit, the shoes, the bag, and the jewelry. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What Sephora did for cosmetics is what someone should do for jewelry,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he says. Sephora, a cosmetics superstore, changed makeup sales from a stern uptight salesperson-behind-the-counter experience (much like jewelry) to a fun, experimental, try-it-on-and-play environment.
\nJewelry stores are hard. The casements are hard, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard glass, and the product is hard. But it is sold to the romantic, soft side of a customer. There needs to be some way to soften up the store environment.
\nUnderhill favors visible pricing. That, too, sets the stage for the show that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in the store.
\n***<\/p>\n
This article is the first in a series that expand on the points IDEX Online\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s director of online research, Ken Gassman has raised in his analysis \u00e2\u20ac\u0153State of the Jewelry Industry.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nKen is available to speak to corporate management groups and others about the State of the Jewelry Industry. He has developed a PowerPoint presentation which can be customized to your group. For further information, please email Ken at research [at] idexonline [dot] com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
IDEX Online Research\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Challenges for 2008: Jewelry Shopping A Dull In-Store Experience IDEX Online, Israel (February 14, ’08, 10:41 Ken Gassman) Go to any mall in America and see where the crowds are. They are in the Apple Computer store. They are in the Bass Pro store. They are anywhere that retailing is fun, anywhere […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[411],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n