Jewelry Industry and Retail News
We permanently get informed by our friends and partners from around the Web - about news, trends and/or best practice advice, loosely related to the jewelry retail business. Therefore, we present you here the most interesting or most useful of this information every month - from the following 3 top categories:
| Trends | Sales | Tech |
|---|---|---|
| Hot new/continued jewelry trends as presented to your customers from around the Web. See what they see when they scour the Web and think about your inventory. | Marketing news and related info that you could use in your daily operations. How to get your name out there, wherever you can and get people to know about your business. |
Tools and Trends (mostly tech related) that can make your business life easier. These are tools or trends that can help your business grow, get more organized, save more money, and/or streamline operations. |
Hopefully, you will get some tips/suggestions for your own business activities from this!
March 2016
How to Compete with Bigger online Retailers
It may seem as though large retailers dominate the ecommerce market, but smaller can be smarter when competing for online sales. Life isn't easy as a small online retailer. The major retail chains seem to roam unchallenged across the online retail landscape, relentlessly extending their product range to embrace everything from camping equipment to finance. It's hard to compete. However, small brands selling online can make their mark and even steal a march on bigger rivals. Here are three tips for beating them.
1. Niche not General
The major way to compete with the big guys is to become a specialist at one thing, and beat them at that game. The great thing about developing such a niche ecommerce business is that it automatically incorporates a good marketing strategy. One of the biggest mistakes you can make in business is trying to be all things to all people. You can avoid this when you "go niche."
Focus brings many advantages. Your brand may not be widely recognized, but it's much quicker and cheaper to become known within a specialist area. There are generally a small set of publications, online forums and bloggers. It costs less to reach and influence them than to establish a reputation in a broad sector.
Within your niche, you can quickly develop real expertise, so don't diversify unless you are sure about what you are doing. Use customer endorsements, the logos of related trade bodies you belong to and sponsor key events in your market. Plus enable your internal specialists to talk to customers and prospects using social networks. The non-specialist retail giants are unlikely to be interested in doing such things and their experts won't want to stay in one silo, because they're looking for broader opportunities.
2. Focus on Search
Experiment with search phrases on Google Ad Words on your ecommerce website. Try longer and more specific phrases like 'Carp Fishing Rods' rather than generic ones such as 'Fishing Rods'. The latter are more expensive and produce proportionally fewer sales. And then optimize relevant pages for the free search listings once you know which search phrases generate the most business. Also exchange links with as many relevant, good quality sites as possible that offer complementary products.
3. Get Personal
Look for every opportunity to show real people behind your business. Personalize the site with photos of your staff and give their email addresses on your website. And if there's a good story about how your business came into being, tell it on the 'About Us' web page. This puts you ahead of the faceless giants and reassures customers should they have any queries. Social networks such as Facebook or Twitter are also a great way to interact with customers more personally.
