The sixth annual Digital IQ Index: Watches & Jewellery report, published by research company L2, presented an analysis of the digital strengths and weaknesses of 82 watch and jewellery brands.
Each brand was assigned a score based on the effectiveness of its website and ecommerce technology, digital marketing, social media presence and mobile compatibility. This score then determined the company’s rank across five categories ranging from “genius” to “feeble”.
Four brands attained “genius” status: David Yurman, Tiffany & Co, Alex and Ani and Swarovski. Meanwhile, Van Cleef & Arpels, Mont Blanc, Chopard and Cartier were the highest-ranking jewellery businesses in the second best category, “gifted”.
The report concluded that the digital integration of local bricks-and-mortar stores was becoming more sophisticated, with a third of the brands allowing consumers to email service representatives from their websites, 17 per cent allowing them to reference the last item viewed in exchanges with customer service, and 12 per cent permitting consumers to request a call back or to arrange an appointment with their local store.
The click-and-collect function – which allows a customer to make a purchase online before picking it up in store – had not been widely adopted, however, with only 10 per cent of brands found to be offering the service.
Quality over quantity
In terms of social media, the report presented a case study of Alex and Ani, pointing out that the US brand had been able to improve its consumer engagement by increasing the quality of its Facebook posts while decreasing the quantity. The report also noted that the business had created opportunities to generate purchases from Facebook content by providing daily offers across all of its social media platforms.
Rolex was another brand that opted for quality over quantity in its social media activities. By limiting the frequency of promotional posts to once a week, the watch company was able to increase the level of engagement by 210 per cent.
Rolex was another brand that opted for quality over quantity in its social media activities. By limiting the frequency of promotional posts to once a week, the watch company was able to increase the level of engagement by 210 per cent.
Pricing transparency
Another finding was that watch and jewellery brands were becoming increasingly transparent about pricing through their websites, even if higher priced items were not available for online purchase.
This was said to be important as consumers often conduct research online prior to entering a store to make their purchase.
Tiffany & Co and Chopard were praised as being “among the best at arming consumers with pricing information”, with Tiffany listing the prices of items up to $150,000 in value and Chopard listing prices for items valued at more than $25,000.
Going mobile
The digital presence of watch and jewellery brands is no longer limited to the desktop computer, and the study acknowledged this by looking at the increasing level of mobile optimisation. According to the report, 11 brands launched a mobile site in 2014, meaning that two thirds of the companies profiled now offer mobile-optimised properties.
“Nearly 40 per cent of these properties support m-commerce, and 57 per cent use the phone’s location to determine nearby stores,” the report stated.
It did indicate, however, that the largest weakness of these mobile sites was the lack of video content compared to their desktop equivalents.
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