Posts tagged with 'jewelry'

Online retailers cash in on Valentine's Day: infographic

Well, it's that day again. Valentine's Day is here yet again to the delight of retailers everywhere. No wonder, when online sales in the US and the UK have continued to rise year-over-year in the run up to Valentine’s Day and retailers have had to learn to scale for seasonal surges.

The folks over at Rakuten, the online marketplace that's quickly catching up to Amazon and eBay, shared a few stats and a lovely infographic (don't say we didn't give you anything for Valentine's!) detailing the global spending trends surrounding this love-sick holiday.

Brick-and-mortar retailers making big gains in the SERPs: report

Brick-and-mortar retailers may face challenges in competing online, but pure-play online retailers that think they've won the ecommerce game shouldn't count out their old-school competitors.

In fact, in some product categories, brick-and-mortar retailers are starting to beat out pure-play retailers.

Q&A: Zales finds diamonds online

diamonds For most cross-channel retailers 2008 was a financial disaster, and surviving to discuss 2009 is an achievement. No different at Zales Jewelers. The mall and outlet center-based retailer closed more than 100 stores and took an 18 percent hit in 2008. But one of the bright spots has been its ecommerce operation. As SVP Steve Larkin says we "do a lot of stuff" online that doesn't get as much publicity as the collapse of the high-end jewelry market. We talked to Larkin after the company announced that its revenues for January and February had stabilized for 2009.

We've heard a lot lately about the saving power of ecommerce as offline retail struggles and the economy starts to crawl back. Zales has certainly had its offline problems, and I'm interested to know your macro view of retailing right now.

Ecommerce is better than traditional retailing. And that comes from advances in just about everything that has to do with online retail. We're constantly improving the customer experience and constantly improving customer service. I also think we provide a lot of value online for the customer. They can comparison shop, they can research products, and they can get best price. We will continue to invest in ecommerce and continue to cross-promote our online store through our offline stores.