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!
February 2018
5 Technologies Transforming Retail in 2018 - 1/5
From artificial intelligence to blockchain, five important innovations can help fashion businesses make their processes more efficient, enhance user experience and offer an improved overall customer value proposition.
2017 was the worst year on record for brick-and-mortar retail. By December, more than 6,985 stores closed across the US, according to retail think-tank Fung Global Retail & Technology. That’s up more than 200 percent from a year ago, according to the firm’s findings. It also beats the previous all-time high of 6,163 store closings that took place during the 2008 financial crisis, according to estimates by Credit Suisse.
The reality is that many stores are closing for the same reason they’ve always closed — they simply don’t meet the needs and demands of customers. But at a time when consumers are empowered with choice and market conditions are increasingly volatile, new technologies can help brands and retailers drive valuable business efficiencies, and improve the overall customer experience and value proposition.
“The biggest upside to technology in fashion will be the ability to offer consistency, and being able to personalize the customer’s shopping patterns,” said Robert Burke, chief executive of retail consultancy firm Robert Burke Associates. Indeed, fashion companies that effectively deploy the right technologies will be able to enhance their competitive advantage by personalizing products and shopping experiences, and refining logistical processes that nibble away at budgets.
However, fashion has been slow to harness many of these opportunities. “We’re only scratching the surface right now of technologies like virtual reality or artificial intelligence,” said Doug Stephens, a retail industry futurist and author of “Reengineering Retail: The Future of Selling in a Post-Digital World.” “But directionally, we can already envision a point where the margin of error for consumer shopping for clothing — both online and offline — will be almost nil.”
Here in this short series, we spotlight the five important technology innovations that can help brands and retailers boost their businesses.
1/5 Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence has become one of the biggest technological developments in business in recent years, with its ability to help turn large and diverse data sets into enriched information that can help improve speed, cost and flexibility across the value chain.
Rapid advances in machine learning processing have already pushed artificial intelligence (AI) into the mainstream, and by 2020, the market for machine-learning applications is estimated to reach £30 billion ($39.5 billion at current exchange), according to the International Data Corporation. “It is, by far, the most important technology that is already here, growing and will change the fashion industry,” Javier Seara, partner and managing director of the Boston Consulting Group, told BoF.
In fashion, AI has the ability to help brands and retailers with predictive forecasting, capacity planning and merchandising. This means that consumers can enjoy the benefits of better product availability and faster, more accurate deliveries. According to 2017 findings by McKinsey & Company, an AI-based approach could reduce forecasting errors by up to 50 percent, while overall inventory reductions of 20 to 50 percent are feasible.
In addition to supply chain benefits, AI can also help create a smoother browsing experience and improve customer retention through personalization. Online platforms like Amazon, Alibaba, JD.com and Zalando use AI enhancements to help generate precise product search results and display virtual storefronts tailored to individual shoppers, based on their unique characteristics and preferences.
“Retailers can leverage data to provide a more seamless and personal experience for customers, which increases conversion, repeat purchase and loyalty,” said Karen McCormick, chief investment officer at VC firm Beringea, whose portfolio includes personal styling service Thread, which uses AI and machine-learning to help men buy clothes.
