What are your e-commerce campaigns for the holidays?

Two jewelers have inventive ways to maximize traffic on their websites.

By Phyllis Schiller

GEORGE FRITZ
OWNER, MILLS JEWELRY
LOCKPORT, NEW YORK
We have started an e-commerce campaign this year, for the first time ever. Basically, what we did was send a direct-mail piece to all of our customers who have moved out of the area, with an incentive for them to go onto our website. The idea was to encourage them to still use the hometown jeweler they’ve known and loved, even though they’ve moved away, and still shop with us. As an incentive, they get a code they can put in at checkout that will give them 20% off their purchase.

“Last year, we did have e-commerce set up, but we really didn’t sell a lot off of it. Anyone who does buy off our website is from out of state. The more local customers will go to the website, but then they’ll come into the store so they can touch and feel the product before they purchase it.

“Everything that we send out by email, all our literature and receipts, has our website on it, as does our Facebook page and Instagram account. We always have links to [our website page for] the item that we’re promoting on those accounts.... We also send out emails and direct-mail pieces to anyone having a birthday or anniversary. This year, we’re adding an online code that they can use to get a discount. It’s still very rare that we get a sale on our website. But we’re hoping that it might change this year with this campaign and add a little bit of extra income.

JOHN HENNE
OWNER, HENNE JEWELERS
PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA
We launched an e-commerce website about a year ago. And we are investing more significantly in digital marketing. Personally, I was not in favor of AdWords, but we have actually been doing that.

“For the holidays, we started a campaign/contest in early November, where people filled out an online wish list in order to be eligible for a prize of $1,000 toward buying anything on their wish list. And it had a really good early response. We marketed the contest via an e-blast and on our website, as well as in-store.

“We decided to run the contest in advance of the holiday, all through November.... We’re hoping that it will generate an interest in people to prepare a wish list for the holidays. Then their loved ones or significant others can check our website and find out what they want for the holidays.

“We had an outside marketing firm set it up, and we have an internal marketing person who helped organize it. Frankly, we need some training still to be able to operate it effectively. Our goal eventually will be that if someone contacts us and says, ‘My wife has a wish list,’ we can call it up.

“Right now, we have an internal wish list within our own [point-of-sale] system, but it’s separate from the online wish list because that is on our website, and they’re not integrated. I wish they were. It’s something that eventually we want to be able to run smoothly from the store. We do imagine people coming in the store and asking about their spouses’ wish lists that are online.

Image: George Fritz, Mills Jewelry / John Henne, Henne Jewelers

Article from the Rapaport Magazine - December 2018. To subscribe click here.

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