In-person shopping is, for what feels like the first year, very much back. The sights of windows dressed for the holidays will surely awaken the spirit of the season, and, in turn, get consumers ready to spend some money while they fulfill their checklists for gifting.

The National Retail Federation expects holiday sales to grow 6%–8% over last year’s banner numbers, particularly with the “steady” spending seen among middle- to high-income shoppers.

That’s certainly welcome news for jewelers, and those with brick-and-mortar locations should be prepping their displays for their holiday-hungry shoppers.

But storefronts aren’t the only places in need of some holiday setup, with digital sales accounting for a significant portion of the pie. The latest Diamond Inside Report from De Beers showed that online sales of diamond jewelry represented 25% of U.S. sales by value and 31% by volume in 2021.

So, first things first: If your store isn’t phygital, it should be. (And if you don’t know what it means to be phygital, here’s your handy explainer).

Amp up your social presence, including your e-commerce capabilities. While a good social media account might help drive sales to your website, an Instagram store means you don’t even need to do that—purchases can be made right in the app. Instagram’s recent blog post has some tips for readying your digital storefront, with highlights shared below. You can read the full article here.

Update your product catalog. If your brand has a lot to offer, not everything will be available for sale via your Instagram storefront. Ensure that any special holiday items, as well as what you believe will be the most in-demand styles this season, are among the items available for purchase. Include as much detail as possible, along with high quality images, video, and relevant keywords to aid in shopper discovery.

Make your content shoppable. While retailers have a digital storefront available to visit, all of the content they share on Instagram can be made shoppable, driving further opportunities to be discovered by new and potential customers. Adding product tags to all of your content—Reels, feed posts, and Stories—can up those chances, and make it easy for shoppers to buy what they like.

Give it a Boost. Content that performs well with your followers can be Boosted and turned into ads, opening it up to a new audience that can pave the way to finding new audiences and perhaps even customers. Instagram has a tutorial for that in video form on its blog.

Photo: Getty Images

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