It’s time.
Jewelry eCommerce News
eBay will be rolling out new changes to their Seller Center throughout the second week of May. These include both design and UX/UI (user experience) upgrades to facilitate access to information and frequently used tools. They are also making it easier to access the Seller Center from any device and sell on the go.
New jewelry sellers on eBay may find this useful as they are learning the ropes of the eBay marketplace. A more intuitive interface and design should help new sellers stay on top of their listings with less effort and time.
After the approval of the Digital Markets Act last month, the European Commission finally approved the Digital Services Act as well. This is directed at online service intermediaries and platforms, including eCommerce marketplaces. The DSA will increase transparency and prevent intentional or unintentional misinformation. It will be enforceable in 15 months or from January 1st, 2024, whichever comes later. For large marketplaces, like eBay and Amazon, they will be applicable in four months.
Jewelry sellers operating in the European Union will need to pay close attention to content accuracy around features and claims for both advertisements and listings. Small jewelry stores need to be particularly careful with this, as legal compliance cases can be extremely expensive to settle and may lead to large profit losses.
Amazon is launching the Industrial Innovation Fund, a program to support companies working on technology meant to increase delivery speed and better the experience of logistics and warehousing employees. No specific companies or timeframe have been revealed. However, Amazon mentioned that these companies have the option to grow on their own or collaborate with Amazon in doing so.
As their Vice President of Corporate Development said in a recent blog post, convenience and time savings are the most important criteria for online shoppers. This is obvious from the increased demand in Q-Commerce (quick commerce, or immediate deliveries). Particularly for small items like jewelry, buyers expect quick shipping and handling times with less hassle and simple returns.
Pacvue, a leading marketplace for advertisements, is scaling their operations to include eCommerce advertising in the growing European market. They are making it possible for online sellers to automatically create and manage advertising campaigns. This move will be done through a strategic partnership with bol.com, an eCommerce platform based in the Netherlands.
Jewelry is one of the largest product categories sold on bold.com since 2011. Pacvue has already been working with large retailers in North America, including Amazon, Walmart, Target, Instacart, and more. Now, jewelry sellers in the UK will also benefit from their AI-based innovative marketing automation and insight software.
As announced in February, ad fees for Standard Promoted Listings will be calculated taking into account both the final selling price of an item and the fees associated with it, like taxes and shipping. The changes will apply to the US and Canadian platforms, and will look at the cheapest domestic shipping option offered when calculating the ad fees.
Jewelry sellers that ship internationally will be most affected by these changes. International buyers already have to contend with high shipping costs. Good strategies to offset this include upselling, bundles, and free shipping options.
Upcoming eCommerce disruptions for most industries include:
- Increased competition in D2C (direct to consumer) marketing
- Exponentially-increasing digital advertising costs
- Tough customer retention and acquisition
- A focus shift to branding and customer experience to tackle all the above.
These can be seen as opportunities instead of challenges. For example, social media platforms have been rapidly evolving and adding new advertising and engagement features. This can, in turn, create unique consumer experiences. Other helpful strategies include community engagement, word of mouth marketing, sustainability, and influencers.
With jewelry being a visually and emotionally-driven purchase, it can easily fall within most of these marketing strategies. Given the large competition in the industry, both offline and online, adopting these strategies can mean the difference between staying relevant and quickly becoming obsolete.
This amount will be for improving both physical and digital stores, as well as their equipment, inventory, technology, hiring, and training. It includes both cash and the value of educational opportunities. Recipients would benefit from access to eBay Academy, their e-learning platform, and from direct coaching with expert sellers. This is part of their Up and Running Grant program, which is running for the third year in a row.
New eBay jewelry sellers, as well as small eBay jewelry stores, should take advantage of this opportunity. Businesses may be nominated or apply online by Friday, June 10th, 2022.
A study by Cowen, for its 5th annual eCommerce Disruption Report, pointed out that US eCommerce sales have been consistently rising at around 11-12% year after year. This trend is expected to continue until 2027. The report also showed that consumers have been adopting more eCommerce services even as they returned to offline shopping. Lastly, same-day delivery or Q-commerce seems to be the newest hottest trend for both pure play e-commerce businesses (aka purely online stores) and brick-and-mortar stores with online offerings (aka hybrid businesses).
The most successful jewelry stores have already adopted a hybrid model for business operations. This report goes to show that the online and offline are still highly integrated and will continue to be so, at least for the upcoming five years.
Following in the footsteps of the eBay US sellers, Canadian sellers now have to pay sales taxes based on a new law related to eCommerce businesses. This law has placed the burden of tax collection on marketplaces instead of individual sellers, regardless of what is sold (used items or new items).
The changes apply to both Canadian sellers and products shipped to Canadian buyers. Therefore, all eBay jewelry sellers need to consider these taxes when pricing their products, if doing business within or from Canada and meet the standard provincial threshold for these taxes. The changes will also mean that Canadian eBay sellers will now need to pay transaction fees and ad fees on taxes as well.
Based on a collaborative study by PYMNTS and Riskified, more than 59% of eCommerce shoppers would lose trust following an unsatisfactory experience with an online retailer. Therefore, transaction security, fraud mitigation, and overall customer service are extremely important when doing business online. Additionally, 48% of those who highly trust online retailers would stick with them for over a year.
This shows the importance of post-sale follow up, particularly for high-priced, emotionally-driven purchases like jewelry. Investing in cybersecurity software and staff training are some of the best ways to build trust with customers.
UK’s Royal Mail announced new plans to begin deliveries on Sundays, to compete with Amazon and DPD. Until now, postal workers could volunteer to work on Sundays if large shipments from large retailers were on hold. However, the postal service would now like to include deliveries for small businesses and from individual shoppers. In spite of proposed pay raises to mitigate these changes, the Communications Workers Union is still strongly opposed to this idea.
If a strike goes through, jewelry sellers shipping to or operating in the UK may face delays and increased delivery costs. This could happen as early as next month. So it would be a good idea to prepare in advance for this possibility.
According to a study by Grand View Research, the global jewelry market size will reach $518.9 billion in less than a decade. Luxury jewelry is still leading the industry sales, in spite of recent economic challenges. Other report highlights include:
- rings were the most popular and most bought product in 2021
- gold to see the fastest growth rate by 2030, as the jewelry industry accounts for more than a third of global gold demand
- largest consumer of gold and the largest revenue of gold jewelry was seen in the Asian Pacific continent, primarily in China and India
- the costume jewelry market, precious metal market, and diamond market are also expected to grow significantly in the next five to eight years.
Jewelry eCommerce News 📰
eBay Seller Center changes
eBay will be rolling out new changes to their Seller Center throughout the second week of May. These include both design and UX/UI (user experience) upgrades to facilitate access to information and frequently used tools. They are also making it easier to access the Seller Center from any device and sell on the go.
New jewelry sellers on eBay may find this useful as they are learning the ropes of the eBay marketplace. A more intuitive interface and design should help new sellers stay on top of their listings with less effort and time.
EU’s Digital Services Act finally approved
After the approval of the Digital Markets Act last month, the European Commission finally approved the Digital Services Act as well. This is directed at online service intermediaries and platforms, including eCommerce marketplaces. The DSA will increase transparency and prevent intentional or unintentional misinformation. It will be enforceable in 15 months or from January 1st, 2024, whichever comes later. For large marketplaces, like eBay and Amazon, they will be applicable in four months.
Jewelry sellers operating in the European Union will need to pay close attention to content accuracy around features and claims for both advertisements and listings. Small jewelry stores need to be particularly careful with this, as legal compliance cases can be extremely expensive to settle and may lead to large profit losses.
Amazon to invest $1 billion in logistics and robotics
Amazon is launching the Industrial Innovation Fund, a program to support companies working on technology meant to increase delivery speed and better the experience of logistics and warehousing employees. No specific companies or timeframe have been revealed. However, Amazon mentioned that these companies have the option to grow on their own or collaborate with Amazon in doing so.
As their Vice President of Corporate Development said in a recent blog post, convenience and time savings are the most important criteria for online shoppers. This is obvious from the increased demand in Q-Commerce (quick commerce, or immediate deliveries). Particularly for small items like jewelry, buyers expect quick shipping and handling times with less hassle and simple returns.
Pacvue to expand eCommerce advertising solutions in Europe
Pacvue, a leading marketplace for advertisements, is scaling their operations to include eCommerce advertising in the growing European market. They are making it possible for online sellers to automatically create and manage advertising campaigns. This move will be done through a strategic partnership with bol.com, an eCommerce platform based in the Netherlands.
Jewelry is one of the largest product categories sold on bold.com since 2011. Pacvue has already been working with large retailers in North America, including Amazon, Walmart, Target, Instacart, and more. Now, jewelry sellers in the UK will also benefit from their AI-based innovative marketing automation and insight software.
New 2022 eCommerce trends
Upcoming eCommerce disruptions for most industries include:
- Increased competition in D2C (direct to consumer) marketing
- Exponentially-increasing digital advertising costs
- Tough customer retention and acquisition
- A focus shift to branding and customer experience to tackle all the above.
These can be seen as opportunities instead of challenges. For example, social media platforms have been rapidly evolving and adding new advertising and engagement features. This can, in turn, create unique consumer experiences. Other helpful strategies include community engagement, word of mouth marketing, sustainability, and influencers.
With jewelry being a visually and emotionally-driven purchase, it can easily fall within most of these marketing strategies. Given the large competition in the industry, both offline and online, adopting these strategies can mean the difference between staying relevant and quickly becoming obsolete.
eBay to provide 50 grants of $10,000 each to small US retailers
This amount will be for improving both physical and digital stores, as well as their equipment, inventory, technology, hiring, and training. It includes both cash and the value of educational opportunities. Recipients would benefit from access to eBay Academy, their e-learning platform, and from direct coaching with expert sellers. This is part of their Up and Running Grant program, which is running for the third year in a row.
New eBay jewelry sellers, as well as small eBay jewelry stores, should take advantage of this opportunity. Businesses may be nominated or apply online by Friday, June 10th, 2022.
2022 eCommerce predictions and insights
A study by Cowen, for its 5th annual eCommerce Disruption Report, pointed out that US eCommerce sales have been consistently rising at around 11-12% year after year. This trend is expected to continue until 2027. The report also showed that consumers have been adopting more eCommerce services even as they returned to offline shopping. Lastly, same-day delivery or Q-commerce seems to be the newest hottest trend for both pure play e-commerce businesses (aka purely online stores) and brick-and-mortar stores with online offerings (aka hybrid businesses).
The most successful jewelry stores have already adopted a hybrid model for business operations. This report goes to show that the online and offline are still highly integrated and will continue to be so, at least for the upcoming five years.
eBay Canada to charge sales taxes starting July 1st
Following in the footsteps of the eBay US sellers, Canadian sellers now have to pay sales taxes based on a new law related to eCommerce businesses. This law has placed the burden of tax collection on marketplaces instead of individual sellers, regardless of what is sold (used items or new items).
The changes apply to both Canadian sellers and products shipped to Canadian buyers. Therefore, all eBay jewelry sellers need to consider these taxes when pricing their products, if doing business within or from Canada and meet the standard provincial threshold for these taxes. The changes will also mean that Canadian eBay sellers will now need to pay transaction fees and ad fees on taxes as well.
Trust: a critical component of eCommerce
Based on a collaborative study by PYMNTS and Riskified, more than 59% of eCommerce shoppers would lose trust following an unsatisfactory experience with an online retailer. Therefore, transaction security, fraud mitigation, and overall customer service are extremely important when doing business online. Additionally, 48% of those who highly trust online retailers would stick with them for over a year.
This shows the importance of post-sale follow up, particularly for high-priced, emotionally-driven purchases like jewelry. Investing in cybersecurity software and staff training are some of the best ways to build trust with customers.
Royal Mail Postal Services employees threaten to strike
UK’s Royal Mail announced new plans to begin deliveries on Sundays, to compete with Amazon and DPD. Until now, postal workers could volunteer to work on Sundays if large shipments from large retailers were on hold. However, the postal service would now like to include deliveries for small businesses and from individual shoppers. In spite of proposed pay raises to mitigate these changes, the Communications Workers Union is still strongly opposed to this idea.
If a strike goes through, jewelry sellers shipping to or operating in the UK may face delays and increased delivery costs. This could happen as early as next month. So it would be a good idea to prepare in advance for this possibility.
Jewelry market worth to reach $518.9 billion by 2030
According to a study by Grand View Research, the global jewelry market size will reach $518.9 billion in less than a decade. Luxury jewelry is still leading the industry sales, in spite of recent economic challenges. Other report highlights include:
- rings were the most popular and most bought product in 2021
- gold to see the fastest growth rate by 2030, as the jewelry industry accounts for more than a third of global gold demand
- largest consumer of gold and the largest revenue of gold jewelry was seen in the Asian Pacific continent, primarily in China and India
- the costume jewelry market, precious metal market, and diamond market are also expected to grow significantly in the next five to eight years.
News from Valigara 👀
Our team will take part in the Israeli Diamond Exhibition, in the trading hall called Blue and White on June 1st. We will introduce participants to the technological world of the diamond industry.
We are also proud to announce we have passed the PII security assessment handled by Deloitte for Amazon, granting us the highest level of access to Personal Identifying Information, available for Amazon development partners.
The process was not easy at all, and required us to take our company security to new levels. With that, we are happy and proud to have gained this approval for our development and data protection standards, by one of the industry leaders.
Igor’s Tip of the Month:
Building your team for eCommerce operations
Managing your online presence requires a wide set of skills. This starts with handling product information, correctly building an online jewelry catalog, digitizing your data, and organizing product images. Continue to manage your online assets as you move along. Those include your website, marketplaces, and other sales channels. Online marketing is a keystone, including email, social media, PPC campaigns, and much more. Customer service includes both presale and post-sale handling of clients. Orders management is organized around dispatching, logistics, and fulfillment. More advanced tasks include policies regarding handling returns, carriers, providers, and fulfillment organization, as well as other administrative tasks.
