Want to succeed? Perhaps you need to listen.
By Ellen Fruchtman, President
The hardest thing for me to do is sit back and listen. It’s truly an art. Part of it I attribute to my A.D.D. Part of it I attribute to boredom – listening to the same old, same old, causes my brain to wander immediately. Part of it has to do with frustration. How can I say the same thing so many times and yet no one out there listens? People want to be heard. Which brings me to ask this question:
How well are you listening?
Because if you are, you’re really not paying attention. Consumers are telling you loud and clear what they want. Trust me, you’re not listening.
Take the Web.
You’ll never be Blue Nile. Nor should you want to be, but you can certainly take a good lesson from successful Web retailers. Here are two things you refuse to hear:
1. People want transparency.
2. Affluent people are very much online, and want to view current products online with pricing.
According to Unity Marketing, 95% of those with an income of $1 million or more made their last luxury purchase online. Granted, this study does not specify the actual product they purchased. However, with an income level of $1 million, I’m sure they are surfing and dragging to their bottomless cart more than a few Prada purses.
In the world of online fine jewelry (with the exception of the Blue Nile strategy) studies have shown the biggest online purchases of fine jewelry fall in the $500 or less category. We know people still want the fine jewelry experience to be just that – a fine jewelry experience. Which is why you have an actual store and why the bricks and clicks model is so important. Over 85% of your customers research online and (according to this Unity Marketing study) 91% of the affluent customers want to see their favorite brands online. Yet, only 24% of the over 100 independent jewelers we surveyed show pricing online, don’t update their site regularly and have photography that is well, shall we say, bush league?
You’re not listening.
Which is why your current business model is starting to fall on deaf ears.
Want to move your business forward? Contact suits@fruchtman.com.
By Fruchtman on March 2, 2010 :: Filed under Think
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