It’s time for another monthly jewelry chat. This month has definitely been one to keep up with. If you haven’t caught up with the latest news, here they are… all ready for you to digest. Let us know how we did in summing them up or if you’d like us to cover any other sections within the jewelry industry. We are always looking for ways to ease your work.
Jewelry eCommerce News
Amazon FBA sellers will pay an extra 5% for fuel and inflation surcharges. This is on top of the recently raised fulfillment fees.
Jewelry sellers with small sales numbers or low-ticket items will be hit the hardest by this change.To offset that, sellers should be looking at bundles and promotions for the upcoming holidays, such as Mother’s Day.
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The updates for Spring are slim. eBay is expanding their Best Offer automatic payments to include Offers to Buyers and Counteroffers, as well as allow buyers to request bundles for multiple items as a best offer. They are also introducing a new seller report that will show the history of a listing’s traffic for the past two years. Additional Category and Item Specifics changes are coming up in May. On-demand payouts, as well as daily, biweekly, weekly, and monthly payout options will roll out soon too.
One new category that jewelers should pay attention to is the Holiday and Seasonal items. With jewelry being a seasonal product, sellers can benefit from promoting their items under this category.
Based on the recent Inside Australian Online Shopping Report, eCommerce was up by 12.3% in 2021 and almost doubled its numbers from before COVID. eCommerce is now 19.3% of total Australian retail sales, and it’s not looking like it will go down any time soon. The preferred shopping time of the average buyer was between 2:00 PM and 5:00 PM – a shift from the previous predominantly evening sales that Australia had prior to the pandemic. Also, the number of categories they have been shopping from has increased from six to eight, spread across 15 individual retailers on average. All of this happened within only two years.
This goes to show that cross-channel marketing is still relevant for eCommerce. Jewelry sellers should pay attention to this up-and-coming Australian market and expand their products and services there. With 5.4 million new households shopping online in Australia in the past two years, this is not a market that one should ignore.
The GMV of 20 eBay’s competitors combined was about $4 billion smaller than eBay’s, according to the CFO. However, a number of important variables, like market cap and growth, were missed. Those other platforms have grown in number, sellers, options, and bottom line.
While eBay is still a great marketplace for jewelers, especially those with fine jewelry items, other apps and marketplaces are gaining traction as well. Jewelry sellers, particularly those with niche and fashion items, should keep an eye out for the over 100 platforms that have launched in the past few years.
Amazon Prime members can now use Buy with Prime to shop at online stores outside their site. The option will be rolled out by invitation only for FBA merchants. It will be extended to other merchants throughout 2022, including even those not currently selling on Amazon at all.
We constantly talk about the importance of an omnichannel experience, the integration between all online sales channels and this is another step in that direction. This move is a great opportunity for jewelry sellers, as jewelry is a large category on Amazon and their prime membership has been constantly increasing as well.
eBay sellers in the UK and Australia can now better manage their listings under the Promoted Listings Standard campaigns. All campaigns can now be accessed from one page, and the following changes have been implemented:
- Filters for brand and condition
- A filter for subcategory levels
- Improved data visualization
- Link to ads academy
- Inline sorting for the first five columns.
The company has also added the ability for sellers to see when a standard ad rate would apply while they’re negotiating a best offer.
Promotions are still crucial for jewelry sellers, particularly during holidays and special events. So better promotional abilities will help increase sales and improve inventory management.
Given the recent geopolitical situation in Eastern Europe, airspace has been closed over Ukraine and commercial flights have been halted. Many US airlines have been banned from flying over Ukraine, Russia, and other areas in Eastern Europe as well. Because of that, many postal carriers and courier services, including USPS FedEx, UPS, Amazon and eBay have had to adjust to their services in that region. Even with multiple neighboring countries stepping in to provide assistance, sellers should account for delays and cancellations on items sold to those areas.
Jewelry items that have already traveled to Eastern Europe are also likely to be stuck at one of the ports or airports for customer service. Prompt solutions and responsiveness is crucial in addressing these current issues.
A recent study done by Afterpay revealed a number of surprising findings, including:
- Friday mornings are the most popular time frame to shop, partly due to the shift in shorter work weeks that 30% of employers have already implemented
- Department store and brick-and-mortar sales are back – department stores have seen an increase of 261% in sales since last Fall and physical stores have also experienced a 91% growth since August, 2021
- Millennials and Gen Z shoppers are predominantly using their mobile devices to shop and search for deals – their activity has gone up by 46%.
This is good news for jewelry resellers, and it reaffirms what we always said – eCommerce and online stores should be adjacent to a seller’s already existing brick-and-mortar business. The offline and the online feed on each other; they are not separate entities by themselves. An online store is simply an extension of the offline activities taken by jewelry sellers.
Jewelry eCommerce News 📰
New Amazon seller fees starting April 28th
Amazon FBA sellers will pay an extra 5% for fuel and inflation surcharges. This is on top of the recently raised fulfillment fees.
Jewelry sellers with small sales numbers or low-ticket items will be hit the hardest by this change.To offset that, sellers should be looking at bundles and promotions for the upcoming holidays, such as Mother’s Day.
eBay 2022 Spring Seller Update
The updates for Spring are slim. eBay is expanding their Best Offer automatic payments to include Offers to Buyers and Counteroffers, as well as allow buyers to request bundles for multiple items as a best offer. They are also introducing a new seller report that will show the history of a listing’s traffic for the past two years. Additional Category and Item Specifics changes are coming up in May. On-demand payouts, as well as daily, biweekly, weekly, and monthly payout options will roll out soon too.
One new category that jewelers should pay attention to is the Holiday and Seasonal items. With jewelry being a seasonal product, sellers can benefit from promoting their items under this category.
$62.3 billion increase in Australian e-commerce sales
Based on the recent Inside Australian Online Shopping Report, eCommerce was up by 12.3% in 2021 and almost doubled its numbers from before COVID. eCommerce is now 19.3% of total Australian retail sales, and it’s not looking like it will go down any time soon. The preferred shopping time of the average buyer was between 2:00 PM and 5:00 PM – a shift from the previous predominantly evening sales that Australia had prior to the pandemic. Also, the number of categories they have been shopping from has increased from six to eight, spread across 15 individual retailers on average. All of this happened within only two years.
This goes to show that cross-channel marketing is still relevant for eCommerce. Jewelry sellers should pay attention to this up-and-coming Australian market and expand their products and services there. With 5.4 million new households shopping online in Australia in the past two years, this is not a market that one should ignore.
eBay VS competitors – not an easy battle
The GMV of 20 eBay’s competitors combined was about $4 billion smaller than eBay’s, according to the CFO. However, a number of important variables, like market cap and growth, were missed. Those other platforms have grown in number, sellers, options, and bottom line.
While eBay is still a great marketplace for jewelers, especially those with fine jewelry items, other apps and marketplaces are gaining traction as well. Jewelry sellers, particularly those with niche and fashion items, should keep an eye out for the over 100 platforms that have launched in the past few years.
Amazon Prime shopping benefits extended to independent online stores
Amazon Prime members can now use Buy with Prime to shop at online stores outside their site. The option will be rolled out by invitation only for FBA merchants. It will be extended to other merchants throughout 2022, including even those not currently selling on Amazon at all.
We constantly talk about the importance of an omnichannel experience, the integration between all online sales channels and this is another step in that direction. This move is a great opportunity for jewelry sellers, as jewelry is a large category on Amazon and their prime membership has been constantly increasing as well.
eBay UK and Australia release enhanced ad management options
eBay sellers in the UK and Australia can now better manage their listings under the Promoted Listings Standard campaigns. All campaigns can now be accessed from one page, and the following changes have been implemented:
- Filters for brand and condition
- A filter for subcategory levels
- Improved data visualization
- Link to ads academy
- Inline sorting for the first five columns.
The company has also added the ability for sellers to see when a standard ad rate would apply while they’re negotiating a best offer.
Promotions are still crucial for jewelry sellers, particularly during holidays and special events. So better promotional abilities will help increase sales and improve inventory management.
Courier service alerts on shipments to Ukraine, Russia, and surrounding countries
Given the recent geopolitical situation in Eastern Europe, airspace has been closed over Ukraine and commercial flights have been halted. Many US airlines have been banned from flying over Ukraine, Russia, and other areas in Eastern Europe as well. Because of that, many postal carriers and courier services, including USPS FedEx, UPS, Amazon and eBay have had to adjust to their services in that region. Even with multiple neighboring countries stepping in to provide assistance, sellers should account for delays and cancellations on items sold to those areas.
Jewelry items that have already traveled to Eastern Europe are also likely to be stuck at one of the ports or airports for customer service. Prompt solutions and responsiveness is crucial in addressing these current issues.
Future changes in consumer behavior
A recent study done by Afterpay revealed a number of surprising findings, including:
- Friday mornings are the most popular time frame to shop, partly due to the shift in shorter work weeks that 30% of employers have already implemented
- Department store and brick-and-mortar sales are back – department stores have seen an increase of 261% in sales since last Fall and physical stores have also experienced a 91% growth since August, 2021
- Millennials and Gen Z shoppers are predominantly using their mobile devices to shop and search for deals – their activity has gone up by 46%.
This is good news for jewelry resellers, and it reaffirms what we always said – eCommerce and online stores should be adjacent to a seller’s already existing brick-and-mortar business. The offline and the online feed on each other; they are not separate entities by themselves. An online store is simply an extension of the offline activities taken by jewelry sellers.
News from Valigara 👀
We are super glad to announce a new integration with Lightspeed POS – the leading POS systems in the jewelry market! This comes along our integration with the Shopify POS, to continue strengthening the connection between the online and offline world and make the transition from the classical business model to the modern, hybrid business model.
On a different note, we’ve recently grown our advisory board by two extraordinary members: Rami Varon, CEO of Expert Dynamics, and Scott Galit, CEO of Payoneer. We are extremely excited to take Valigara to new horizons with these two powerhouses’ support!
Igor’s Tip of the Month:
Invest in paid advertising
Invest in paid advertising. Besides it bringing the obvious advantage of increasing your sales, it also creates an opportunity of receiving quick feedback from your potential buyers. Get a concentrated portion of your traffic using PPC to analyze and improve your offering.
