Online Luxury Goods Market Doing Well
November 20, 2008 by Admin · Leave a Comment
Premium Pearl, a luxury online retailer, is doing well despite the recent economic downturn causing an average loss of 10-20 percent in sales in the sector. The value of Premium Pearl’s products and services has generated a strong customer retention rate online at www.premiumpearl.com, and this has sustained the company.
Premium Pearl anticipates the return of 30-40 percent of its customers during the upcoming holiday season, and sales are expected to match that of last year.
The retailer offers quality pearl jewelry at an affordable range of prices, compared to Macy’s or Tiffany’s. Most customers are drawn to the site through various online advertising campaigns at Google, Yahoo!, and MSN.
Company founder and manufacturing director, Yan Berry, is aware of the challenge that selling a luxury product such as a pearl jewelry online can be, and makes every effort to ensure quality manufacturing. The challenge that online retailers face include consumers being used to touching and feeling the goods that they plan to buy for someone they care about. They are also more leery about getting a good value and whether or not the online store is trusting.
Yan comments, “When I put the order together, I am treating it like my own order, I am thinking the extra effort I put in making the jewelry-whether it is $30 or $5,000 order, will make someone so happy, and it is very rewarding.”
Co-owner of Premium Pearl, and graduate of GIA Pearl, John Berry, personally consults customers on the phone, and says that the experience of talking to customers is valuable, and it helps him to improve services and make wiser business decisions. Yan, who also believes that listening to customers is key, states, “Their feedback is so insightful, it helps to improve our service, our Web site, and merchandising.”
Feedback forms are sent out via email to customers several times throughout the year, so that they can offer input regarding quality, price, delivery, and service. The company believes that seeing five-star feedback is great, but they are also interested in those that aren’t. “We always carefully learn from the problems pointed by customers, and try our best to fix it,” Yan said.
This year, while media report business closing or employee laid off every so often, Premium Pearl is making good sales from not only new customers, but more importantly, from many old customers. According to Yan, “Old customers really know our quality and services, they often came back for very big purchases.”
Yan expressed that having a web site with useful resources and easy navigation boosts buyer confidence. The Web site contains detailed pearl guide that help customers make good buying decisions. Quality pictures also play a role in the company’s increased buyer assurance.
With Christmas holiday coming up, Premium Pearl predicts 30-40 percent of old customers will end up coming back to make purchases again this year. They also predict that Christmas sales will be similar to last year.
About Premium Pearl:
Premium Pearl (Web site www.PremiumPearl.com) is an online fine pearl jewelry retailer. Located in San Francisco, the company designs and manufactures pearl jewelry with its high standards of quality and style. It is also a leader in trendsetting pearls. Everyone from musical sensation Fergie to actress Tamara Braun has been spotted wearing the company’s unique designs.
Sacked bankers need help finding work, says minister
November 15, 2008 by Admin · Leave a Comment
Job centres are under strain to help £75,000 per year bankers find work as Britain was hit by 20,000 job losses in the finance sector in one week, a Government minister said yesterday.
Tony McNulty, the employment minister, decided to speak out after Citigroup and Royal Bank of Scotland joined a string of financial firms making thousands of job cuts as the economic downturn takes its toll on the City.
Unemployment is expected to reach 2 Million by Christmas, and Mr McNulty explained that “We do need to make sure Jobcentre Plus is geared up for your £75,000 a year banker as well as other people and we do need that with fleetness of foot and flexibility.”
Unlike the previous recessions, such as the one in the 1980’s when manufacturing was the worst sector affected, this economic downturn is hitting financial workers hard.
Citigroup said it had already cut 12,900 jobs in the past year and had identified a further 9,100 to go in the coming months. RBS, which is in line for a £20 Billion bail-out from tax payers, is expected to offlay 3,000 jobs.
Online consumers plan to spend more online this year
November 15, 2008 by Admin · Leave a Comment
The Conference Board and TNS in New York’s latest report shows that consumer spend online will increase again this year.
Even though online shoppers plan to spend less in stores this holiday season, planned spending online is up slightly, compared to the same quarter last year. Online households planning to spend more than $500 in stores declined to 16 percent from 21 percent last year. Those planning to spend more than $500 online rose to 5 percent from 4 percent last season.
Those planning to spend between $100 and $499 in stores declined to 57 percent from 61 percent last year, while those planning to spend that amount online edged up to 36 percent from 35 percent last year.
Online households planning to spend less than $100 in stores increased to 22 percent from 16 percent last year. Those planning to spend that amount online rose to 32 percent from 29 percent.
“Despite slowing retail sales in many channels this holiday season, online shopping is likely to be one of the few bright spots this holiday season,” reports Mary Brett Whitfield, Director of the Retail Forward Intelligence System(TM) of TNS Retail Forward. Online sales across retail channels are forecast to grow 9 percent this holiday season, compared with a total retail sales forecast of just 1.5 percent growth this year in the key holiday shopping retail sectors. TNS Retail Forward forecasts online sales to reach $42.5 billion in the fourth quarter, up $3.5 billion from last year. “The convenience of shopping online still resonates with many holiday shoppers, even in a slow economy,” adds Whitfield.
Five thousand jobs cut in a day
November 14, 2008 by Admin · Leave a Comment
Vicky Redwood
Yesterday more than 5,000 job losses were announced as an economist warned that unemployment would hit record levels in the worst downturn for 25 years.
According to Vicky Redwood of Capital Economics, the number claiming unemployment benefit would jump by 40,000 when official figures were announced today, taking levels close to the million mark. She went on to say that it is merely the tip of the iceberg and that overall unemployment figures would reach 3.3 million by 2010, more than the previous high of 3.278 million recorded in 1984.
She also said that there is usually a lag of about six months before the labour market reacts to this kind of change in the economy: “We have not seen the full effect of the recent slowdown in the economy, let alone the full force of the recession.”
Small firms show growth with online marketing
November 13, 2008 by Admin · Leave a Comment
A survey published today by the Federation of Small Businesses(FSB), shows that 43 per cent of its members improved turnover by at least 20 per cent after a concerted effort to improve their web presence.
The group said its findings showed the ever-increasing importance of the web to business growth. In a separate finding, around 70 per cent of its 8,700 members have there own website, up a quarter on the previous survey in 2006.
Dr Gary Packham at the University of Glamorgan, where the report was compiled, said: “These figures show the very clear link between new technologies and business growth.
“If the country’’s 4.7m small businesses are to take advantage of the internet to grow their businesses and the economy, they will need good quality services to be in place, as well as good information and education about how to use them.”
FSB national policy chairman John Walker added: “The number of small businesses who have their own website has grown over the past two years, which indicates that small firms are becoming increasingly internet-savvy.
“Despite the onset of an economic downturn, all small firms should look to the internet to maximise their sales and increase efficiency.”
Online commerce sector shows gains in the gloom
November 10, 2008 by Admin · Leave a Comment
It is not normally prudent for Governments to pick winners when backing business development, but the Isle of Man’s focus on e-business as an industrial sector appears to be paying off in a big way.
E-business has been identified as one of the sectors with the most growth potential over the next decade. It has even been tipped to be the next largest, after banking, by 2014.
The island has an enviable collection of resources for online commerce, partly because of its location midway between England, Scotland and Northern Ireland which puts it on two self-healing fibre optic rings – in addition to the one-way link to the UK. Manx Telecom has invested more than £50m over the past five years to provide state-of-the-art cable and wireless networks, while £30m has been invested in the four data hosting centres since 2006.
It is also self-sufficient in power, offers e-businesses the same attractive tax environment as other sectors and boasts more than 1,000 years of political stability. These are important factors for companies looking for a stable jurisdiction to locate a data recovery centre, says Andy Swearman, managing director of Domicilium, one of the four online hosting businesses on the island.
When it comes to online business, The Isle of Man is leading the way.
Business leaders welcome change
November 7, 2008 by Admin · Leave a Comment
A cautious welcome was felt among business leaders yesterday following the Moneytary Policy Committee’s 1.5 percentage point cut in interest rates. However, they echoed the Government’s view that the savings must be passed on to the consumer.
Andy Bond, CEO of ASDA, the UK’s second largest supermarket, said that the cut should go “some way” towards restoring consumer confidence in the run-up to Christmas. He said it was “essential” that banks and building societies do not keep the saving for themselves but pass it on to their customers.
Property companies also welcomed the move.
