Best Practices
5 Takeaways From the Biggest Online Retailers OUTSIDE of the Jewelry Industry
Published: Nov 30
We spend a lot of time finger-pointing at jewelry websites because let’s be honest, we are a little biased. However, jewelry only makes up a small fraction of the online retail space. The techniques and strategies that retailers employ outside the retail jewelry world can be just as effective when employed by jewelers.
Let’s take a look at some of the most successful online eCommerce sites and the steps they’ve taken to become lucrative.
1. NIKE
Nike.com - Use of Landing Pages
It’s Nike. They do everything very well and with purpose, but what really jumps out is their use of landing pages that passively funnels a shopper. When a user navigates to an eCommerce website’s homepage, the entire product catalog available is presented. The goal with landing pages is to get the shopper as close as possible to the ideal product in their mind so that when they ARE presented with products, they are comparing apples to apples instead of still trying to decide which product it is they even want.
Nike does this by creating dedicated landing pages for each major demographic they expect to be shopping at their store (Men, Women, Kids) and major brands (AirJordan, Hurley). They do this because the shopper knows the “answer” to these questions and will help to filter out 80% of the product catalog.
The Takeaway: Use landing pages to allow shoppers to filter down to the products they are searching for.
2. AMAZON
Amazon.com - Product Categorization
The King of eCommerce, Amazon, has sucked the air out of the online shopping space for just about everything, except luxury. They own every part of their supply chain, which is one of the reasons their stock-listing has defied gravity for the last ten years.
Their secret sauce for their website is their proprietary algorithm and machine learning that allows products to be in front of you even before you realize THAT is what you wanted (leading to ‘how did they know’ moments). This algorithm partnered with intuitive product categorization that makes products always appear where they need to be.
This categorization works as a funnel, wide at the top [Rings], and narrowing down to the specific [Engagement Rings] and the very granular [Diamond Three Stone Engagement Rings]. By offering the options to filter down, the chances increase of your customers finding exactly what they are liking.
The Takeaway: If a customer’s ideal piece is in a category but on the 7th product page, they’ll never find it. Good categorization helps a customer be served the products that they are looking for in a more seamless way.
3. SEPHORA
Sephora.com - Search Optimization
Sephora utilizes search optimization and paid ads to drive traffic to their website and landing pages. The landing pages that they use are AI-driven, but function in the same way as the SEO pages that are generated for our Digital Marketing clients.
These search specific landing pages act in a different way than a product landing page. Product landing pages function as way-finding, whereas search specific acts as an entryway to your website from a Search Engine (usually Google) and are not navigable through your website. They would only be found as a listing on the search results.
We specifically target search terms coupled with a location so that your store will rank first when somebody is looking for an engagement ring in your city.
The Takeaway: Having a Digital Marketing strategy is massively important and cannot be stressed enough. Even if you aren’t Marketing through Punchmark’s Digital Marketing services, it is a real missed opportunity to not be following some sort of strategy for Search.
93%
Website Traffic That Comes From a Search Engine¹
75%
Users Click a Link Ranked In the Top 3 of Google Results²
4. ALL BIRDS
Allbirds.com -Customer Filtering
Allbirds made it against all odds and has been on an absolute rocket ship of growth due to their environmentally friendly and affordable shoes. Their website’s main goal is to separate shoppers into Men / Women. From there, the brand messaging about comfort and eco-friendly goals are prominent.
Above the fold of their homepage, the only links are product filters in the navigation [Men / Women] and on their banner that links directly to root categories for Men / Women.
The Takeaway: Limiting your customer’s options with filters that they will know the “answer” to right away is an easy way to start the buy-funneling process. Sometime’s simple is better if it means engaging the shopper in a frictionless way.
5. MEUNDIES
Meundies.com - Brand Follow-Through
An underwear store that has grown exponentially every year on the backs of clever brand campaigns and successful marketing in spaces that will reach their targeted demographic. This website does a phenomenal job following through on their brand style and color. Their purple brand color and fun bright accents and excellent photography elevate their product offering to be MORE than just the product that is purchased. Instead, they are offering buying into the brand, and the lifestyle that comes along with owning a pair of MeUndies underwear.
The jewelry market space can be competitive and rewards the brands that stand out and are memorable. Any designer can create a beautiful logo and style guide for your store, but the follow through on the brand needs to extend past just the logo. Everything from the tone of the copy you add to your website, to the photography used, and a store’s social media content all combine to create the true “brand” feel.
The Takeaway: Thoughtfulness and a little planning will go a long way to building customer loyalty and enticing future shoppers to buy-in to your brand.
Think we missed something? Have opinions on this post? Let us know!
¹https://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/40-unbelievable-seo-statistics-need-know.html
²https://backlinko.com/google-ctr-stats