The Hatton and Spencer team are making the most of a bad situation by using the outbreak as a chance to review how we approach things across the business.
From last Monday, the whole office team has been working from home and communicating with video conferencing software for meeting internally and with clients. We are looking at bringing customers new options that add value and hope to reinvent our offering for the ‘new normal’. This could be a massive window of opportunity for businesses to innovate; not just to reduce disruption but to bring in long-term operational improvements.
What We’re Doing
We are currently able to offer our customers fully-branded stock jewellery packaging with minimum order quantities as low as 10 on selected ranges. We hope that the jewellers we work with will be able to take advantage of this to bridge short-term gaps and that they can use it to help manage their cash-flow more tightly during this difficult period.
As well as offering low MOQ options, we also provide a consignment service which allows our customers to reserve packaging and pull-off stock in-line with changes to demand.
What You Can Do
With current response plans centred around self-isolating and social distancing, and customers staying off the high-street and indoors, retailers that can provide strong e-commerce operations are best placed to mitigate the effects of the crisis on their business.
Focusing on your online marketing and e-commerce channels will help you to keep your brand in front of existing customers and reach new ones. Exploring emerging technologies, from virtual services and consultations to digital showrooms, may not only help your business through the crisis but provide long-lasting improvements to your customer experiences. The jewellery sector has historically been slow to pick-up on these trends, so businesses that succeed here could see significant long-term benefits.
While things may seem bleak at the moment, it’s important to remember that at some point the virus will subside and shoppers will eventually return to the high street. In China, just six weeks after the initial outbreak, stores are beginning to open again amidst a sharp fall in new cases. Many retailers – including luxury giant Hermes, and the country’s largest jeweller – are already reporting a ‘bounce-back’ as shoppers return to stores.
Some analysts are even predicting a period of ‘revenge spending’ for China’s luxury sector, fuelled by a drive for luxury clients to begin buying again with cash saved from weeks of cancelled plans. While this is likely still a long way off for the rest of the world – there is a light at the end of the tunnel.