The jewelry industry tends to be more traditional and slow to accept change, preferring to rely on well-established ways of doing business rather than searching out improvements. Perhaps it is just the nature of the business, dealing as it does in high-value items that require a high degree of trust and security. You don’t want to hop onto any new trend that comes along without seeing it proven elsewhere first. Consumption patterns, however, are changing more rapidly as consumers become more comfortable making large purchases online. Despite its reluctance to change, the jewelry industry should look to technological solutions so that its supply chain can keep pace with changes in the economic landscape and consumer preferences and behavior.

Beyond consumers’ adoption of ecommerce, the other reasons B2B organizations throughout the supply chain should adopt new jewelry industry technology appear so often in this newsletter that they probably don’t bear repeating: pandemics, labor shortages, port congestion, inflation, recession, war, unpredictable demand. You know, the usual. These factors all change so quickly from one week to the next that phone calls, handwritten lists, spreadsheets, and in-person meetings just can’t keep up.

Limitations of the Current Model

Under the traditional model, B2B organizations often present lists of products or catalogs to their customers. Such lists are not personalized for each customer, and they take time to update and republish manually. Traditional organizations also lack options for digital transactions, conducting business by phone, email, or in-person contact at trade shows, and even receiving payment by check.

Benefits of Digitization

These methods might still work for you, but if growth is your goal, they are difficult to scale up. Digitizing the supply chain comes with the following benefits:

Instant payment. Rather than waiting for a check to clear, you can receive payment instantly, which means your customers will get their orders faster. Shorter lead times means happier customers and higher profits.

Customization options. Rather than make customers search through lists for relevant products, you can choose which customers see which products. Improve customer service and satisfaction and build relationships by providing personalized lists to each customer.

Faster inventory updates. Keep your customers up-to-date about what’s available and what’s out of stock. In a world of supply chain disruptions, it’s more important than ever to update this information regularly.

Multiple price lists. You might sell goods at different rates depending on region or size of customer. A digitized supply chain gives you the ability to easily update price lists and segment pricing in any way you like.

Integration. This may be the biggest advantage of all. You might have processes in place to account for all of the above benefits of supply chain digitization, but with the right jewelry industry technology, you’ll have all of this information in one place, changing dynamically as other factors change. All pertinent information will be accessible to employees and customers alike.

Some organizations may not see these changes as a benefit to them. Others might want to upgrade their tech stack, but don’t have the budget or expertise to put together an in-house IT team. If that is the case, seek out a tech partner who can analyze your needs and implement the tech you need to keep up with the pace of business today.

The bottom line is that manual data entry costs time and money. As businesses grow, the possibility of mistakes and oversight increases. Using software to automate parts of the supply chain eliminates mistakes, frees up employees to take on other tasks, gets your whole team on the same page, and makes things easier for your customers.