Study reveals innovative jewellery trends

27.7 k views | Posted November 26, 2013 | By Emily Mobbs • Former Editor

A new study outlining the latest retail trends and presenting case studies that display how these trends are creating new retail concepts could provide inspiration for jewellery retailers.

The Retail Innovations 9 report, conducted by Ebeltoft Group, demonstrates how retailers are incorporating cross-channel retailing, deep customer involvement, experiential elements and intelligent use of technology to “disrupt” and engage customers.

Retail Doctor Group is the Australian representative member of Ebeltoft and its CEO Brian Walker said the latest results showed that the “great retail disrupters” were taking advantage of opportunities created by shifts in consumer behaviour.

“These trends that are coming through are about consumer involvement more than anything. It’s about bringing a lot more value and nuance back into retailing,” Walker explained.

What can jewellers learn?
The study highlighted nine global innovation trends, three of which Walker believed were particularly useful for jewellery businesses.

Brian Walker, Retail Doctor Group CEO

The first trend was Curated Collections, which involved creating a relevant and precise product offering and while the concept wasn’t necessarily new, what had changed was that consumers were able to access goods from a broader number of providers – placing more pressure on retailers to develop a clear and meaningful “assortment” of products.

“It’s about using different ranges to really build the story and to build the jeweller’s point of difference. The retailer should be very concise and clear in their offering,” Walker explained.

He said another interesting trend was Crowdsourcing, which referred to consumers being active participants in the creation of an offer.

“There are many examples in other categories where consumers are voting on products. Consumers are even starting now to determine how products are made, stocked and priced,” Walker explained, adding, “So it’s really changing the view from ‘I buy,’ ‘I produce,’ ‘I sell’ to ‘I listen,’ ‘I engage,’ ‘I utilise that customer and the customer feedback.’”

He also said that Customisation, whereby consumers were given the ability to create their own product was another trend that should be considered by jewellers.

No excuses
While Walker admitted that jewellery retailers might not have the same resources available to them as those larger companies featured in the study, he said it wasn’t an excuse to not investigate and engage in innovative strategies.

“Retailers don’t necessarily need to spend a lot of money but rather, when looking at these trends think, well what’s my version of this? How am I doing things a bit differently? Am I always doing what I’ve always done?”

He advised retailers to assess how they could create a more engaging store environment for customers, pass on learning, knowledge and information and whether they should be looking outside the box.

“Really progressive and innovative retailers tend to look outside their categories for inspiration. Who’s doing great things in customer database, windows, merchandise and service? What can they learn from that?”

In addition to highlighting retail trends, the 9th edition of the report includes 54 case studies from 23 countries and features retailers such as Italian-based Coop.fi, Chilli Beans in Brazil, Marks & Spencer in the Netherlands and Australian-based Lorna Jane.

“We are pleased to showcase Australian activewear retailer Lorna Jane in this year’s study for their seamless communication of the brand across all channels to market from physical stores, online, mobile and social media all clearly communicating the ‘move, nourish, believe’ brand philosophy,” Walker said.

Founded in 1990, Ebeltoft Group is a global alliance that comprises 21 retail consultancy businesses.

A full copy of the report can be downloaded here.