E-commerce represents a monumental shift in thinking for the jewellery industry, which had long contended that consumers would be reluctant to purchase high-ticket items without physically handling them. However, opinion is changing, in part because online sales have provided some with a business alternative during the period of lockdown, but also because consumers are becoming increasingly comfortable to buy expensive items through the Internet.

But the question still remains whether, over the long term, e-commerce platforms will be able to supply the sense of assurance and intimacy that brick and mortar retailers are able to provide their customers.

Entitled “ The Shift to E-commerce: Strategic choice or business imperative ,” the eighth Jewellery Industry Voices webinar features three experts with special insight into the developing medium – Alan Chan, General Manager of the Group Branding Centre of the Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group, Asia’s largest jewellery retailer; Elle Hill, CEO of Hill & Co., a strategic consultant to the jewellery trade who specialises in omni-channel marketing; and Mithun Sacheti, Founder and Managing Director of CaratLine, India’s largest omni-channel jeweller.

The webinar was co-moderated by Edward Johnson and Steven Benson, and Gaetano Cavalieri, CIBJO President, welcomed the participants.