[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]To review a year of major retail disruption, Shopify published its first State of Commerce Report based on global sales data, a survey of Shopify merchants, and research on American and Canadian consumers. In this blog post, we explain how some of the findings may relate to your jewelry brand.

If you’re a jewelry retailer, you’ll definitely at least want to at least skim the report, which covers topics like ecommerce brand loyalty, the role of social media in the buying process, and consumer shopping habits across digital platforms.

However, we were most interested in the four different types of North American customers described by the authors of the report: Trend Trackers, Engaged Explorers, Savvy Searchers, and Pragmatic Planners. Not only does each one of these customers have a different buying motivation, but each also has a different attitude toward marketing and personalization.

When creating a marketing strategy, each jewelry brand should also create Customer Personas (we discuss Customer Personas further in this blog post). However, now that we’ve seen Shopify’s archetypes, we think jewelry brands should also consider them in their Customer Persona creation process. Maybe your typical customer only falls into one or two of these categories, or maybe you have customers in every category. Either way, you should know more about these customers and their shopping behaviors.

Trend Trackers

In the report, Shopify defines a Trend Tracker as someone who’s impulsive with his or her purchases and who prefers to buy in-store. This person’s purchase decisions are often driven by trends and the desire for immediate gratification. You should know that these customers – who make up 28% of shoppers – are hesitant to provide their personal information and are indifferent to marketing engagement, since they’re unlikely to follow any one brand for the long term. If you’re an ecommerce jewelry brand that doesn’t necessarily sell “trendy” jewelry and that focuses on building long-lasting relationships with clients, then you won’t be worrying too much about this Trend Tracker customer. However, you should know that this customer exists and that it’s okay to choose not to please him or her.

Engaged Explorers

According to the report, an Engaged Explorer is someone who’s really excited and passionate about the shopping journey. This person is loyal to his or her favorite brands but also likes reading reviews and researching what other customers think about a product before buying it. The Engaged Explorer could also potentially be your biggest cheerleader and influencer marketing asset, since he or she will happily sing your praises to friends and family. This person craves personalization in marketing and really wants to engage with your marketing communications. Only 13% of buyers seem to fall into this category, but you’ll want to do everything you can to enchant them with your marketing efforts, since they’ll give you the best ROI for any marketing that resonates with them.

Savvy Searchers

Making up 28% of shoppers, Savvy Searchers are really intelligent shoppers who like to spend their money wisely. Before they make a purchase, they’ll spend a lot of time researching their options, and they have high expectations for the product they eventually buy. The Savvy Searcher doesn’t necessarily want to engage with marketing and takes great pride in finding the best product. To support the Savvy Searcher, you’ll want to produce excellent content or inbound marketing that provides value and educates the customer. It may be a long time before the Savvy Searcher decides to buy jewelry from you, but you won’t stand a chance with him or her unless you’ve flooded digital platforms with lots of helpful information about your products, including reviews, press clips, care information, material and sourcing information, and more.

Pragmatic Planners

Finally, Pragmatic Planners are people who don’t really enjoy shopping and only stick to brands they already know and trust. They make up 31% of the buying population. While they prefer to buy in-store, they’ll start by doing product research online. Since these people don’t like shopping, they probably don’t spend a lot of time buying luxury items like jewelry, so you won’t be engaging with them very much – and they really don’t want to engage with your marketing. However, sometimes even a Pragmatic Planner needs to buy a gift, and your presence as a trusted jewelry brand could possibly attract their attention.

In our opinion, we think that most jewelry brands will be interacting with Engaged Explorers and Savvy Searchers, with the former group feeling excited to engage with marketing, and the latter group feeling more interested in the hunt. Regardless, marketing is important for attracting both types of customers; it will just require a much different approach for each one. If you can start to understand the types of customers who are eventually finding their way to your jewelry brand and making purchases, then you can adjust your marketing strategy accordingly and continue to reach more of them.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]