Still not great, but heading in the right direction. That is the message sent by a recent report into the digital presence of 47 of the world’s major jewellery and watch brands.
The annual L2 Digital IQ Index: Watches and Jewelry report described the current digital landscape in the luxury watch and jewellery industry as “a perfect storm of e-commerce”.
It predicted that the combination of weak distribution channels coupled with robust industry growth and an acceptance of the internet as a legitimate retail platform by premium brands and their consumers could lead to a tectonic shift in the industry in the near future.
Traditionally, the major jewellery and watch companies have shunned the internet, feeling that being associated with it devalued their brand. The latest report, however, indicates the likes of Tiffany, Swarovski, Cartier and Pandora have realised the value of embracing the digital world.
The report looked at a brand’s presence and efforts in social media, digital marketing, mobile compatibility and its own website. From there, brands were awarded a digital IQ score and an overall rating of either feeble (<70), challenged (70-89) average (90-109), gifted (110-139) or genius (>140).
Tiffany was the highest rated brand according to the report, scoring a digital IQ of 157, the only brand to break into the genius ranking, while the rest of the top 10 ranked in the gifted rating.
According to the report, 47 per cent of the brands in this year’s index were e-commerce enabled, a rise of 16 per cent on last year’s figures, while brands with e-commerce registered nearly 50 per cent greater year-on-year traffic growth and 150 per cent more monthly Google searches than brands who had yet to sell online.
Research showed more luxury brands were presenting mobile-optimised sites, jumping from 23 per cent to 43 per cent in a year, while all social media platforms, including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr, experienced growth across the luxury watch and jewellery market.
The report concluded there was still some way to go. The average brand in the study owned just 25 per cent of search results for brand terms on the first page of Google and only 16 per cent on the first page of YouTube - the two largest web search engines.
The figures were even worse when looking at paid search real estate, where discounters owned the lion’s share with 28 per cent and price comparison sites own 12 per cent. On average, the brands themselves owned just five per cent in this category, however, watch and jewellery specialty retailers and department stores owned an encouraging 27 per cent between them.
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