Have you heard of the mobile web? If you have a jewelry website, you should know about this hot trend in e-commerce appropriately titled, m-commerce!  Perhaps you know all about the mobile web, but didn’t even realize it.  As defined in Wikipedia, the mobile web is used when people access the Internet via mobile devices, such as a Smartphone or tablet PC.  Since 2007, mobile web services have been expanding, thanks in part to the increased number of Smartphones and decreased cost of mobile web service.  In 2008 mobile web access actually surpassed computer based internet access, and today, most everyone has Internet access via his or her mobile phones.

Recently, National Jeweler released an article titled, “Study: More Consumers Checking email by Phone,” where they discuss the increased use of the mobile web.  According to their report, a new study from comScore (an internet marketing research company that tracks all internet data on its surveyed computers in order to study online behavior), while web-based email is declining (6 percent down in 2010), the number of people checking their email via a Smartphone or tablet PC has skyrocketed by 36%.

ComScore Senior VP Mark Donovan reported, “From PCs to mobile devices, whether its email, social media, IM or texting, consumers have many ways to communicate and can do so at any time and in any place. The decline in Web-based email is a byproduct of these shifting dynamics and the increasing availability of on-demand communication options.”

Why does Websites for Jewelers care about the mobile web?  In addition to more and more users accessing their email with mobile devices, studies also show that more and more consumers also are shopping via this way.  Many big name jewelry websites have created mobile web sites that function better than a standard website would on a Smartphone or iPad.  In addition, big retailers are also releasing apps that help shoppers easily browse through their products while using Apple’s iPhone or iPad.

Last year eBay anticipated $1.5 billion in mobile sales, according to a report by the ecommerce information site, InternetRetailer.  In fact, eBay launched three new apps in order to facilitate their expected sales and to coordinate with the release of Apple’s iPad last spring.

You don’t need to be as big as eBay to take advantage of the hot m-commerce trend.  If you have a jewelry website, an app or mobile platform may be your next step, but there are a couple things that can be done to your existing site in order to maximize your mobile web sales right away.  First, make sure that your pages are simple and clean, and don’t require too much data transmission, this way your pages will load quickly on your client’s mobile device.  Second, make payment options simple and secure, so that clients don’t have to fiddle with too many screens to make a purchase.  Lastly, while your pages should be clean and simple, offer innovative features that mobile device users will find appealing.

Follow these simple steps and your jewelry website will be m-commerce friendly.

Related articles

• Mobile Email Use Jumps 40% Thanks To Smartphones (informationweek.com)
• Email access trending away from web, toward mobile (creativedepartment.com)
• Augmented reality? Mobile’s next big thing (canada.com)
• Like Everything Else, Email is Going Mobile (marketingpilgrim.com)

Everyone in the Jewelry Industry has been hearing about Facebook for the last 2+ years. Some retailers have actively started to use Facebook to promote their companies. And even though most retailers and designers recognize that adding a Facebook link to their website is a good idea, many wholesale jewelers are not sure whether Facebook can and should be used in conjunction with their business.

In a recent meeting with a wholesale jewelry company, I was asked whether it made sense to use Facebook in their business. The President of this well known company questioned the value of Facebook and how it could possibly be used for his type of business.

My advice was that he should in fact use Facebook for his business. Here are the reasons why wholesale jewelers should use Facebook for their business:

1. One of the top priorities for a wholesale jeweler is to always look for new customers. Retailers can use Facebook to find new vendors.  Facebook can be used just like Google. Type in a term such as “wedding rings” and you will find retailers who may be potential new customers.
2. Search for big name designers such as Tacori and Scott Kay and you will find that these designers have many of their retailers listed on their Facebook pages. This is a great opportunity to obtain retailer names that you can potentially sell to.
3. Facebook is a very large community of people. People become “friends” of others by seeing relationships between other Facebook pages. Someone who visits your Facebook page and likes what they see will tell others about you. As applied to the retail end of the jewelry business, one retailer may tell a few of his friends about your business after finding you on Facebook and all of the sudden, you have new customers because of referrals via Facebook.

Whether you’re a fan of Facebook or not, Facebook is a great website to advertise your wholesale business and obtain new customers.

Related articles

• Why it’s important to set up a Facebook store (thenextweb.com)

When most companies hire a web design firm, they take it for granted that the design firm will give them a website with all aspects of the site built to correct standards. Unfortunately, many design firms either neglect to take care of certain items in the creation of their websites or these items simply get overlooked.

Here is a list of items you should check in your website.

Q: Can you get to your website by typing into your browser’s address bar “www.your-website-name.com” as well as “your-website-name.com (omit the www.)”?

A: Believe it or not, many websites cannot be reached unless you type the “www.” before the domain name. If you cannot get to your website by simply typing “your-website-name.com (omit the www.)”, there is a very good chance that you are losing potential customers.

Q: Does each page in your website have a “unique page title”?

A: Each and every page in your website needs to have a unique page title to differentiate each page in the search engines. How do you check this? When you go to your website, as you click and go to the different pages, look at the very top of your browser’s page. In Internet Explorer, for example, there is a blue frame at the very top of it and if you look in the upper left corner, you will see some text. This text is the page title.

Q: Does each page in your website have a “unique Meta description”?

A: Meta descriptions are used by Google and the other search engines to provide a description in search results. Search results are made up of a page title and either a Meta description or the first bit of text that the search engine can read. To check this, in Internet Explorer, go to any page in your website. There are two ways to check this. Look for the text at the top of Internet Explorer that reads “View”. Click this and then click “Source”. You can also look for the text which should appear in the upper right corner that reads “Page”. Click this and then click “View Source”. In either case, in the window that appears, look at the top of the page and look for the words “meta name=”description”. You should find a unique sentence or two there. If you do not, it is possible that your pages are not showing proper descriptions in the search engines. Without proper descriptions, how can someone know what is in your website?

Q: Does each URL (web page address) in your site have a short and concise address?

A: Google loves short and concise URLs. A URL such as www.your –domain-name.com/gold-engagement-rings.html is much preferred over www.your–domain-name.com/ jewelry.aspx?dep=1&cat=26&prod=9999.

If you find that any of these items have not been addressed by either your current website design firm, or they were never taken care of by the design firm that created your site, please contact Websites for Jewelers and we will be happy to immediately take care of these.