Offering personalized jewelry to your shoppers is the right choice for your shop. You have understood that personalized jewelry offers many benefits for both you, and your shoppers. Now you must choose the right personalization producer. This is of course a vital task, which will impact your customers’ experience and satisfaction.
The right jewelry producer will be dedicated to personalization, but should also have a structural incentive and the ability to invest in the best personalization tools and processes. A good producer must also have extensive experience with the entire logistic chain of the personalization process: from the web plugin to casting, 3D printing, engraving, etc.
§1. High-quality jewelry = happy customers
Customer satisfaction depends on the quality of the final physical product. The entire customer journey is important in keeping your shoppers happy, but they won’t be truly satisfied unless the final product meets their standards.
In order to provide high-quality jewelry, your personalization producer must have extensive experience and full control over the entire production process. The right producer will have proven industry experience.
The team at Jewelutions has been active in the jewelry industry for over 10 years. This has involved both the design and the production of personalized jewelry. We have put processes in place that allow us full control over each production step. The result is always a flawless piece of jewelry.
§2. Personalization-focused business models
When it comes to the jewelry personalization industry, there is a substantial difference between the entry-level vs veteran producer.
This is a core distinction, which is based on a company’s experience in the field and on how focused a company is on personalization.
§2.1 The entry-level producer
Some producers that traditionally offer “mass-produced” items have also ventured into the personalization market. While this is not their main focus, a small part of their services (and revenue) is dedicated to this type of production.
These producers are more used to producing in the “traditional” way and therefore tend to focus less on the digital implications of designing and producing personalized jewelry. As they make most of their revenue from “mass-produced” items, they are less likely to have their incentives aligned with the personalization market.
If a producer is not focused on the digital side of its business, it will probably upgrade its technology less often and will not focus on using high-quality code.
Your shop will likely be impacted by this, as this means that your customers will not have the best personalization experience. Your shoppers might even receive physical products that are not fully aligned with what they see “on the screen”.
In the case of entry-level producers, their operations and investment strategy are not fully committed to personalization. Their pricing model will reflect these inefficiencies and this will result in lower retail margins for your shop.
Would you like to find out more about how personalized jewelry can help your online shop?
§2.2 The veteran producer
A veteran producer is fully focused on the personalization market. This means that this kind of producer is more committed to the digital investments required to offer a reliable and accurate solution. It is also more likely to keep up with the latest technical innovations.
As all their revenue comes from the personalization market, veteran producers have their incentives fully aligned with the success of personalized production.
Your shop will benefit from this commitment, as veteran producers will offer a better digital product. They will also be more receptive to adapt fast to the new trends of the personalization market.
As their operations and investment strategies are fully focused on personalization, these producers will run a very effective operation, focused on the personalization market. This also translates to better pricing, allowing your shop to have a higher retail margin.
At Jewelutions, we are veterans. We have worked in the jewelry personalization market for over 10 years and our revenue is based exclusively on jewelry personalization. With Jewelutions, your shop has full freedom to set its retail margins.
§3. How to choose the right personalization producer
We have already discussed why it is important to choose the right personalization producer for your jewelry business. But how do you choose one?! In addition to having a look at the producer’s experience and dedication to the personalization industry, you should also take into consideration production times, delivery times, and delivery costs.
§3.1 Production time
Depending on the operational and the investment strategy of each personalization producer, there are various end-to-end production times for personalized jewelry. Two factors define the end-to-end production time:
When it comes to total production times, some producers can take weeks, while the most efficient ones only take days. This has an impact on the overall order fulfillment time and on the overall delivery time, as perceived by your shopper.
Jewelutions offer a short end-to-end production time. Our software checks automatically for new orders from your e-commerce platform several times per hour. Once we receive the order, we produce the items and ship them by the end of the next business day.
§3.2 Delivery times
Delivery times can greatly vary according to your producer’s location. In the case of mass-produced items, this is not an issue, as the producer usually delivers weekly batches directly to the store. A delay of a few days will make little difference.
Oftentimes, mass producers are located in places that are not connected enough to offer fast shipment. This usually happens because they try to optimize for low rent and low labor costs.
This makes a lot of sense for their business model - as they deliver in batches, it makes little difference if they deliver weekly or even monthly.
In the personalization market, however, the producer’s delivery times are much more important. In this case, each retail order must be delivered as fast as possible so that the overall delivery time can be kept as low as possible. This is important both for warehouse and dropshipping delivery.
The best location for a personalization producer is an international trading hub that has plenty of daily global airline traffic. These places are more expensive in rent and labor costs but an experienced personalized producer knows that the extra investment is well worth it.
Jewelutions’s delivery units are located in major international trading hubs. We have fully optimized our logistics to offer the best delivery times possible.
§3.3 Delivery costs
A traditional producer which is focused on mass production is not particularly concerned with delivery costs. In most cases, delivery is made in large batches and on a weekly or even monthly basis.
Delivery costs are much more important in the case of personalized jewelry. Batch deliveries are rarely an option and most retail orders must be delivered individually (or in tiny batches), either to the store or directly to the retail customer. This means that each retail order might have a separate delivery cost.
Keeping delivery costs under control is essential. A personalization producer must have a high-volume (a large discount) contract with a global logistics company (DHL, UPS, FedEx, etc.) to keep delivery costs low.
Jewelutions has taken measures to keep delivery costs low. We have high-volume delivery contracts with global delivery companies, allowing us to offer delivery at very reasonable costs.
Would you like to find out more about how personalized jewelry can help your online shop?