Launched in 1999, Ice.com is one of the world’s largest and most respected online jewellery stores. Committed to providing customers with the best value, quality, service and selection of diamond, pearl and gemstone jewelry in the world and the company strives not only to ensure they are offering the latest in jewelry from around the world, but provide a cutting-edge engaged experience for its million plus customer base.
Dave Haber, Ice.com’s Director of Marketing, Communications & Social Media, gives us some insights around the success of Ice.com, in bringing a product that is very typically personal and requires a large financial investment online.
1. What differentiates Ice.com from other jewellery stores?
Ice was founded on and continues to breed a culture of innovation, meaning that we are constantly exploring new ways to improve the online shopping experience for our customers and implementing new technologies that make shopping with us easier, more secure, more social and more fun!
Unlike other traditional jewelers, Ice.com provides a shopping experience and community that is geared towards a modern woman that is looking for chic styles and the latest trends in jewelry. She’s not going to wait for Valentine’s Day for her boyfriend or husband to buy her jewelry. We believe that this consumer is underserved in the current marketplace, and as a brand we are evolving to respond to her needs.
2. Purchasing jewellery sometimes requires a major investment, how do you ensure customers convert and purchase from Ice.com?
We ensure that the user can have confidence in their purchase by providing pre-purchase information like product close-ups, product video, customer reviews, and even live online chat with our jewelry experts.
We constantly urge our customers on Facebook, Twitter and throughout the web to provide product feedback and advice to other customers. There is nothing more valuable than input from another customer that has bought the same product when it comes to making a purchasing decision.
3. The Ice.com site has recently celebrated 100,000 Facebook fans, what various tactics have you implemented and found successful in order to gain this following?
Migration of Existing Base: First, we invited our most loyal and engaged customers to connect with us on Facebook, via email, on site, on our blog, and in just about every communication touch point we had with them.
Media and Promotion: We also executed campaigns within Facebook using their targeted ad products to connect with women that were already passionate about fashion, jewelry and shopping online.
Organic: By providing valuable, engaging and shareable content within Facebook and nurturing an already passionate community, we’ve benefitted from word of mouth within the social network as one Fan tells their entire network of friends about the fun stuff and exclusive offers available on our page.
4. What emerging trends and technologies within online retail are of most interest to you?
The adoption of mobile commerce will surely be an important part of our growth in the next two years. Providing a rich shopping experience on smartphones and tablets, plus providing functionality related to comparison-shopping, research and education, are key.
User generated content and peer feedback will continue to play an important role in the purchase decision. We’ll continue to invest in technologies and initiatives that respond to our customers need for reviews, opinions and ideas from other shoppers that they know and/or trust.
It will always be important to be present wherever customers or potential customers are discussing and engaging with ideas around your product and online shopping. This means expanding your presence on social media outposts like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Polyvore, YouTube, within the blogosphere, etc. to be sure that you are listening to customer questions, comments, concerns and when it makes sense, connecting their needs and wants with your products.
5. What advice do you have for other jewelkers yet to go online?
Not my words, but wise words nonetheless:
Your people are your greatest asset.
Build your marketing team from experienced pros that understand the online space and have a proven track record of driving e-commerce success and/or building online communities. People will be the secret to your success – find good ones and hold on to them.
Don’t re-invent the wheel.
While innovation is key to taking a leadership position, look at your competitors that are having success online. What are the things that they are doing in common? Learn from the trial and error that they’ve invested in the past and emulate the pieces of their business that seem to be driving success. Then, on that foundation, innovate and differentiate.
Walk before you run.
There are so many different ways to market and sell your business and products online. Start small with a one-page brand website, or a Facebook Page, or a Twitter account, or a Foursquare account. Perhaps test eBay or Amazon Marketplace as a way to transact online before investing in a full-fledged ecommerce platform.
Fail fast and often.
Particularly in the social media space, where building a Facebook Page can take five minutes with very little technical knowhow. Try new things. Measure the results. Go with what works and move on from what doesn’t.
If you build it, they might not come.
Promoting an online property requires a lot of time, money and effort. I’ve met countless business owners that invested heavily in an online store or website, only to have a really attractive, highly functional ‘ghost town’ because the traffic to the site was paltry. When planning and budgeting, don’t forget to account for the need to create brand awareness and generate visitors that will convert to buyers.
Dave will be presenting at the Online Retailer Conference & E-Commerce Expo. For more information visit www.onlineretailer.net