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25 IN 5 E-commerce Conference Inspires, Informs and Educates Prestige Jewelers | November 09, 2016 (0 comments)
Miami Beach, FL—"You must sell online today." The message was simple, and emphasized by every speaker at the recent 25 In 5 e-commerce conference, attended by more than 80 jewelers in various stages of e-commerce development.
“You Must Sell Online Today,” said the keynote speaker, Alexandra WIlkis Wilson (left), co-founder of Gilt.com and Glamsquad. “Consumers buy fine jewelry online!” she emphasized to attendees.
The message was the founding principal behind the 25 IN 5 Conference. “Helping better jewelry stores reach 25% of sales online and through digital over the next five years to survive and win in the e-commerce explosion is our message,” said Howard Hauben of Centurion and Matthijs Braakman of INSTORE magazine, the two organizations that partnered to bring the day to life.
“We see a continuing, growing movement to online sales,” said Hauben and Braakman. “Our mission is to help our jewelers get online and be competitive.”
Wilson’s session explored getting online, finding customers, and positioning your website for the future. Her experience with both bricks-and-mortar jewelry and e-commerce jewelry was a true inspiration for the audience.
Retailers felt they were in the right place at the right time.
“It was a fact-filled day with amazing information,” said Ronda Daily of Bremer Jewelry with stores in Peoria and Bloomington, IL. “All the presenters were on-point and provided a lot of though-provoking information.”
Bremer’s website currently features product but does not sell online; however, that will be changing. Daily attended the conference to find out how to best implement e-commerce.
Olivia Cornell of Cornell’s Jewelers also felt it was critical to learn more about e-commerce, despite what she described as an insane schedule, and having to take time away from the store.
“It was an incredible day of learning about technologies that have been frightening and obtuse to many of us who are not in the Millennial generation. As always Howard has the insight to put in front of us exactly what we should be focusing on to better our business and grow as people and an industry. If you were not there you missed out!” said Lauren Kulchinsky Levison, of Mayfair Jewelers, with three stores in Woodbury, East Hampton, and Soho, Manhattan, NY.
Shane O'Neill of Fruchtman Marketing (standing) moderates discussion among attendees at the 25 in 5 e-commerce conference in Miami Beach.
While the majority of attendees were retailers, some manufacturer brands attended as well. “I was thrilled to see how many high end independent retailers attended this conference and took it very seriously. Generally, our industry is late in making changes but I do feel the time is finally right and I look forward to be selling actively on all our retailers’ websites! It’s a win-win situation and needs to be addressed immediately, otherwise more and more designers will start selling directly online and bypassing the retail partners,” said Myriam Gumuchian Schreiber, owner/vice president of Gumuchian.
One aspect of the day retailers appreciated most was the chance to ask lots of questions, not just the few minutes’ time allotted to the end of a speaker’s session. They asked about all the issues necessary to get up and running in a digital space, and also took time to network and share stories, as well as speak with sponsors Fruchtman Marketing, Luxury Brand Marketing, and Mi9 Retail.
The speakers gave the jewelers plenty of food for thought. The day began with “Straight Talk” from Neal Kaiser, Mi9 Retail and Jennifer Shaheen from Technology Therapy, exploring what it really takes to run an online store. Following was “Leveraging Your Terrestrial Reputation Online for Better Sales,” a panel discussion moderated by Shane O’Neill, Fruchtman Marketing and including Ritani’s Mark Keeney, Luxury Brand Marketing/Agency 333’s Suereea Mathews, ThinkSpace Technologies’ Tyler Matthews, and Technology Therapy’s Shaheen.
From left: Jennifer Shaheen, Suereea Mathews, Tyler Matthews, and Mark Keeney.
The luncheon keynote was “What It Takes to Build, Run, and Continually Optimize a Successful Jewelry/Luxury Consumer Website,” with Alexandra Wilkis Wilson of Gilt.com and Glamsquad. After lunch three breakout sessions were repeated during three time periods, allowing all attendees to get some small-group time during the sessions. They were “Building Your Digital Traffic Through SEO, SEM, PPC, Social Media and More,” with Fruchtman’s O’Neill; “Sites for Sore Eyes: A Rundown of the Best E-Commerce Sites in the Business and What Makes Them So Good,” with Matthew Perosi of JWAG/Sapphire Collective, and “Yelp Reviews, Google and More: How to Get a Highly Credible Number of Good Reviews and How to Deal with Bad Ones,” featuring Yelp’s Darnell Holloway.
This day was the first step for the 25 IN 5. Future plans include a conference each year in Miami, immediately following the Centurion South Beach Show, and a monthly newsletter exploring in-depth the topics that attendees were exposed to at the first 25 IN 5 E-Commerce Conference. Please email hh@centurionjewelry.com to be added to the newsletter’s mailing list.