Jewelry Industry Must Improve Online Marketing, Google Exec Says

The jewelry industry must improve its online marketing to compete in the new world, Sarah Nanasi, Google’s manager for advertiser technical solutions, told attendees at a Sept. 6 meeting of the American Gem Society’s New York/New Jersey Guild. 

Nanasi, whose family owns NEI Group, gave a presentation at the search giant’s New York City headquarters. 

“When I worked in my family business, we’d hear people say, ‘No one is going to buy jewelry online,’” she said. “Well, people are buying cars online, without testing them. And they are buying jewelry.”

The good news, though, is that there are plenty of tools for jewelers to use, she told them.

“You don’t have to be doing anything super-innovative,” Nanasi said. “The tools are there for you.”

For instance, Google’s Analytics tool gives website owners information about how web surfers interact with their sites. Other tools allow greater targeting of consumers.

Nanasi noted that mobile is a greater factor in e-commerce, adding that, according to statistics, 79 percent of smartphone owners are smartphone shoppers.

“You don’t need an app,” she said, “but you need to optimize your mobile site. It needs to look good on mobile devices. Mobile marketing is no longer [optional].”

She also urge companies to “be social,” and open themselves to things like customer reviews.

“You are probably going to get mostly positive reviews,” she said. “And if you get a bad review, you want to address it.”

Nanasi ended with a case study of e-tailer Blue Nile’s success at Internet marketing. 

“When I go to industry speeches, everyone talks about Blue Nile like they are impossible to compete with,” she said. “Blue Nile is simply using the tools available, and they are available to everyone. They are just going where the consumer is. There is a learning curve to use these tools but it is an imperative.”

Follow JCK on Instagram: @jckmagazine
Follow JCK on Twitter: @jckmagazine
Follow JCK on Facebook: @jckmagazine

JCK News Director

Log Out

Are you sure you want to log out?

CancelLog out