Jewelry ECOMM Tech
How to Sell Jewelry to Self-Purchasing Women August 21, 2020 (0 comments)
As Ariana Grande says it, ‘I see it, I like it, I want it, I got it.’
This is exciting, right? When a woman buys her own jewelry, it could reduce the rate of product returns and exchanges or alterations because she chooses it by herself and for herself. She knows her size if she’s buying a ring and she knows her style and personality. She knows very well which design would satisfy her taste. But hold that excitement for a bit, jewelers. Selling jewelry to self-purchasing women is nothing like selling to your traditional target – men. Self-purchasing women are difficult to persuade. Dealing with them doesn’t result in overnight bling sales
So, what do you have to do? How do you sell jewelry to self-purchasing women?
Retooling your long-standing practice, especially your marketing, to include this group of shoppers begin right before they become an actual foot or online traffic.
Let’s get to know them!
Who are self-purchasing women?
Women are the future of jewelry and self-purchasing women, as DeBeers identified, are a consumer segment that carriers the most growth opportunities in diamond jewelry. In the U.S alone, self-purchasing women account for one-third of the diamond sales, which reveals a lot about women’s spending power.
The most prominent female self-purchasers are millennials and Gen X or those aged between 25-40 with a household income of $50K or higher. There are many value drivers for these luxury self-purchasers, and it may vary from country to country; however, in the USA, rewarding themselves and self-love (23% appeared to be the top value driver. See the result below based on the Luxury Self Purchasing Female (SPF) Study Report 2020 by MVI Marketing.
Based on the same data from MVI Marketing, 14% of the polled high-income SPFs spend more than $6K on jewelry items or watches, which is way higher than the average spending of other polled SPFs across all incomes. Meanwhile, 13% of the SPFs are found to be purchasing rings for themselves.
When talking about SPFs, it’s important to clarify that SPFs are not necessarily single women but could also include women in committed relationships. DeBeers, in The Diamond Insight Report 2019, revealed that there was an increasing number of women who were buying their own engagement or wedding jewelry, and actually spending more than their partners in this aspect.
Now that we know who they are, how do we make them buy? Read on!
How to sell jewelry to self-purchasing women?
1. Satisfy their emotional needs
Emotion does not only drive purchasing behaviors; it is also at the core of every decision making and it’s especially true for women. Unlike men who make buying decisions visually, women decide emotionally. For example, car and alcohol advertisements featuring sexy, beautiful women appeal to men because visual imagery is powerful in arousing attention and reaction among men.
Women, on the other hand, are not easily seduced by visual images, which is why a product image of the product alone, while important, will not suffice. Women have emotional needs that jewelers should aim to satisfy when presenting your products. For example, an additional product image featuring a woman wearing your jewelry while spending some quality time with her loved ones would easily snatch her attention. As Brian Tracy, a motivational public speaker and author, put it in his book Advanced Selling Strategies, ‘men have sight but women have insight’.
Further, men focus more on the performance of the product – its details, facts, and figures while women focus on its emotional value – how it would make them feel and how well the brand resonates with them. Hence, when selling jewelry to SPW, inject stories. Use narratives that not only engage them but also extend this positive emotional state to the product or brand. Make them look past the price. Translate those stories into sales.
2. Make shopping a unique experience
Women enjoy the hunt…in shopping, that is.
According to the 2018 Millennial Consumer Research Self Purchasing Females: Luxury Growth Demographic of Opportunity by MVI Marketing, 90.2% of polled respondents research products or brands before purchasing. This figure indicates that while men know their goal and get out to get it, women enjoy the hunt may it be online or in-store.
Such finding validates the concept that for women, shopping is more than just means that satisfy a need. It is an experience in itself – an activity, which process they enjoy.
As such, jewelers should think of different ways to stimulate and sustain women’s desire to hunt by creating a unique shopping experience that will deepen the customer-brand relationship. For instance, jewelers can use social media to interact and engage with their female shoppers, offer fun activities and promotional games, and leverage the power of visual imagery to make them want to leave their house and go to your jewelry store.
3. Explore different ways of presenting your jewelry products
Connecting with self-purchasing women requires identifying their wants and needs. Today’s SPFW are looking for stylish, unique, and creatively designed jewelry pieces that are wearable and easy to match with their outfits.
This being said, some women might be taken aback by big, colorful jewelry items and statement pieces and might withhold purchases even though it is a design they would wear. This reaction normally occurs when they are unsure of how to wear it. The solution here is to explore different ways of presenting your jewelry products. For example, a lookbook is a strategic way of presenting your jewelry collection but instead of just presenting the product alone, you give shoppers ideas about different ways to wear your jewelry piece and which type of clothing would actually go well with such style.
Lookbooks are powerful because they play with your shoppers’ imagination and senses and inspire them while establishing a strong emotional connection with them. Thus, lookbooks serve two purposes. It presents your product while providing a rich visual experience and makes an emotional appeal, which influences their buying behavior and buying decisions.
A lookbook is just one of the many ways you can adopt. If this is not a terrain you’re familiar with, you can experiment with other ways such as creating an interactive jewelry catalog. Think out of the box and match it with the persona of the SPW.
4. Support their need for subjective and objective product information
Unlike men, who are objective beings usually satisfied with objective product information, women need more subjective product information. These subjective requirements are not at all times controlled by jewelers, but you can support and encourage it.
Part of this subjective requirement is the need for social feedback. A Crowdtap study found that 75% of shoppers use Facebook to look for pre-purchase recommendations and seek advice from friends and family. While jewelers cannot take control of this peer-to-peer sharing, you can acknowledge this need by ensuring that you have an impressive social media presence.
If you’re an offline-only jeweler, you might encounter some SPW who are unable to decide or shopping alone. When this happens, positively intervene by offering to take a picture of them wearing the jewelry or encourage them to take a photo of the jewelry item they like and show it to their friends to solicit feedback or opinion. While this might not lead to sales all the time, your shopper will surely remember your friendliness and helpfulness. This pleasurable shopping experience increases your goodwill points.
5. Enhance their jewelry store experience
Attract self-purchasing women by using your spaces. If you’re a jeweler targeting SPW, abandon traditional jewelry spaces for a more creative, artistic, and lively jewelry store experience. Store atmosphere, layout, and design matter more than you think, especially in this day and age of Instagram with Instagram-obsessed target shoppers.
Redesign your space to ensure that it not only caters to men’s sensibilities but most importantly addresses women’s. Remember, women consider shopping as a fun and creative activity so, linearity, sequences, and compartments, which all appeal to men, may not work with women.
Overall…
In summary, women are empowered shoppers with continuously growing spending power. They don’t need a man to buy them a piece of jewelry. If they want it, they can get it for themselves. Jewelers must acknowledge this trend or lose such a huge sales opportunity.
Now is the time to overhaul your traditional marketing practices and start including women in your category of primary purchasers.
Do you have other tips on how to sell jewelry to self-purchasing women? Let us know in the comment section!