More Choice In Jewelry Buying
It used to be that walking into a jewelry store made you feel totally intimidated and at a disadvantage. After all, the jeweler had all the facts and figures about the real value of the expensive pieces of jewelry on display – and you the customer should feel privileged that they would spend time sharing some of that information with you. In other words, without their expert knowledge you didn’t have the necessary facts to make an informed decision on your purchase.
Not only did the jeweler own the keys to the knowledge that enabled a value for money judgment to be made, he was also the sole source of the supply of jewelry. Obviously there was at least the element of competition between jewelry stores, but this competition was focused more on the ambience in the store and the uniqueness of the products made available rather than competition on the basis of price alone. Profit margins in excess of 50% of the retail price were not uncommon ” some reaching as high as 75%. Achieving any sort of price reduction was virtually impossible for the regular customer to negotiate.
All this was before the advent of the Internet which changed the way the consumer shopped – not just for jewelry but for lots of other items as well. It did not take long for competition to increase. Because Internet businesses had lower costs they could afford to offer their products at a lower price. Not only that but the customer was now able to do thorough research before committing to buying anything without being subjected to any high pressure selling.
Customers no longer felt at a disadvantage when visiting a jewelry store. Through careful research they knew about details such as carat weights, the purity of gold, diamond colors and independent appraisals. They were prepared to negotiate lower prices and shorter delivery times as they could now make comparisons of these with other Mall stores and on the Internet to ensure they got the best deal available.
This represented an enormous change for the traditional jeweler. He wanted to operate his business just as it had always been ” buy the products that were highly profitable and display them to the maximum effect in the store, greet the customer when he or she came through the door and provide some encouraging words to point him or her to the best product.
A new breed of jewelers, and especially online stores, turned this on its head. They became far more customer focused ” they were prepared to match the products they supplied to the requirements of their customers and they were also happy to provide as much information as the customer wanted before reaching a decision. They were prepared to do this as a strategy to attract customers to this new way of doing business. They were also prepared to compete on prices, which they could afford to do precisely because of their lower overheads.
The customer now has more choice on where to buy his jewelry thanks to market competition brought about through the technological development of the Internet. Not only that, he is much more knowledgeable on the subject and more able to command the best deal because this new way of doing business has educated him.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment