As we reflect on another year, there’s always value in pausing to take stock of what we have built, what we’ve learned, and where we are headed next. Each Year in Review is an opportunity not only to reflect on new features and milestones, but also to understand how those efforts fit into the larger story of Punchmark and the industry we serve.
2025 was a year of maturity for the platform. Rather than chasing novelty, our focus was on depth and building the tools you’ll be using for years to come. We invested heavily in making Punchmark smarter, more capable of handling real-world jewelry workflows, and better prepared for the changing realities of accessibility, search, and AI-driven discovery. Many of the tools released this year may appear incremental on the surface, but together they represent a meaningful step forward in how jewelry websites are built, managed, and experienced in the future.
Let’s take a closer look at what 2025 brought to Punchmark.
Key 2025 Developments
Page Builder 3
Page Builder has long been a cornerstone of how Punchmark clients manage and build their websites. In 2025, we released Page Builder 3, and adoption was immediate. This release introduced a more flexible and performant foundation while also bringing helpful AI-powered tools directly into the page building experience.
Page Builder 3 was designed to support more complex layouts, new widget types, and future AI-assisted workflows without adding friction for users. Built directly into the system is an AI-powered Alt Tag Generator to improve accessibility and SEO, along with Paige, our AI writing and building assistant that helps retailers draft page copy and build pages quickly. While much of the work behind Page Builder 3 is structural, the impact is easy to see. Retailers can now build pages faster, maintain visual and messaging consistency, and tell their business’s story with greater clarity and confidence.
ADA Compliance Focus
Accessibility and compliance were elevated from a checklist item to a core focus in 2025 for Punchmark. As regulations continue to evolve and expectations rise, we believe accessibility should be built into the foundation of every site. Our goal was simple: be the MOST accessible website platform, period.
A major part of this effort was the improvement of Education Pages. These updates strengthened the way educational content is structured, presented, and indexed, benefiting both shoppers and search engines. Clearer content hierarchy, improved readability, and better “schema” support helps customers find answers quickly while positioning stores more effectively in search results.
Punchmark AI
As witnessed by anyone who attended our 2025 Client Workshop, Punchmark doubled down on AI in 2025, completing the core of an AI engine that will change the way customers shop for jewelry. Punchmark AI will result in many exciting features throughout 2026 starting as early as January. Look for AI-powered product search, AI Image Search, AI Image and Video Generation as well as updates to Paige: Punchmark's AI page-creating chatbot. We can't wait to show you what we've had brewing.
Better Tools for Selling
Selling jewelry online requires nuance, flexibility, and attention to detail. Many of our most impactful releases in 2025 focused on giving retailers better tools to represent their products accurately and sell them more effectively.
The Ashi Product Integration was rebuilt to be more powerful and reliable, giving stores deeper control and better performance across large catalogs. New Item Variations added flexibility to product detail pages, allowing jewelers to represent options such as metal types, styles, and configurations more clearly.
The Benchmark Ring Lab collaboration brought interactive ring design directly onto Punchmark websites, turning browsing into a hands-on experience that mirrors how custom jewelry is sold in-store. Item Tagging in The EDGE allowed product tags to flow directly from the POS to the website, reducing duplicate work and making seasonal and promotional collections easier to manage.
Custom Form Experience Improvements refined how forms look, behave, and convert, while Wish Granted Emails continued to prove that small, well-timed interactions can have an outsized impact on sales. Together, these features helped stores present products with greater clarity and engage customers more effectively throughout the buying journey.
In-Store Meets Online
True omnichannel experiences are built on practical connections between physical stores and digital platforms. In 2025, the introduction of the Shop This Case in-store QR code system strengthened that bridge.
This system allows customers to move seamlessly from a physical display case to rich digital product information, reinforcing the idea that the website is an extension of the showroom. Rather than competing with the in-store experience, these tools enhance it, giving customers more ways to explore, learn, and engage on their own terms.
Platform Infrastructure and Future Proofing
Not every important improvement is visible to shoppers, but many of the most critical updates in 2025 happened behind the scenes.
We rolled out the ability to accept any currency and expanded global flexibility for retailers who look to sell outside of the USA or Canada.
Phase I of EDGE and Premium Vendor image matching laid the groundwork for more consistent and accurate product imagery across systems, so you can have beautiful Vendor-provided product images right inside your Point of Sale system.
These updates may not grab headlines, but they ensure the platform remains fast, reliable, and adaptable as client needs continue to grow.
Marketing
Search behavior continues to change rapidly. In 2025, we began shifting focus toward Answer Engine Optimization, recognizing that shoppers increasingly rely on AI-powered assistants and direct answers rather than traditional search results.
By structuring content more clearly, improving schema usage, and aligning AI-generated content with real store context, Punchmark is helping clients prepare for this shift. The goal is not just to rank, but to be the answer when customers ask questions about jewelry, services, and expertise.
Just recently our FAQ Page Schema enhancements strengthened data accuracy and search visibility, a key adjustment targeting the future of AEO.
A Big Year for E-Commerce
E-commerce continued to be a critical growth channel for many Punchmark clients in 2025. With improved product representation, better performance, and smarter content tools, online sales became more integrated with in-store operations rather than existing as a separate channel.
The tools released this year were designed to support that maturity, helping jewelers sell with confidence across every touchpoint. The result was more jewelers making SOME sales, more jewelers making MANY sales, and Average Order Value (AoV) increasing over $100 y/y.
If you want to listen to a comprehensive podcast episode about the Punchmark Platform’s 2025 E-Commerce performance, check out this episode of In the Loupe.
Looking Inward
As much as 2025 was about platform growth, it was also about scaling our infrastructure and redefining roles.
Looking ahead, our focus is on proactive account management, a complete ADA compliance overhaul, and improved handling of large media through CDN video streaming. We are developing a new universal form system for easier management, expanding the Image Library and FileManager, and introducing AI-powered image search. But that’s not where the AI compatibility ends, we are also working on a complete image and video generation system that will make creating compelling images easier than ever before.
Major user experience overhauls are planned for Product Grids, Product Details, Diamond Search, and Ring Building tools. Premium Vendor exclusions, interfaces and expanded Page Meta AI assistance will further support Answer Engine Optimization through global schema and FAQ injections. And, most excitingly, an overhauled Checkout flow which includes compatibility with long awaited payment methods, such as Apple Pay!
These initiatives build directly on the foundation laid in 2025, and we are excited about where they will take us next.
As always, we are grateful for the trust our clients place in Punchmark. Every improvement we make is guided by the goal of helping independent jewelers succeed in an increasingly digital world. Thank you for being part of the journey.
With sincere gratitude,
The Punchmark Team
Ross, Dan, Bryan, Jason, Michael, Tommy, Lorenzo, Hope, CJ, Diana, Junior, Kristine, Mana, Gary, Tom, Toni, Savannah, Andy, Eduardo, Bernadette