With the recent economic slump every sector has been taking a hit. Online retailers were one of the hardest hit markets, especially the niche markets like clothing and jewelry. Online jewelry and watch sales fell 12% from 2007 – 2008, making it one of the poorest performing categories in a down year for online spending. Even though total U.S. e-commerce spending reached $214.4 billion in 2008, a 7% increase versus the previous year, online jewelry lost ground from the previous year.
Even with that bad news there was a silver lining. There were several trends that made us think this turn-around was possible.
1) As ‘’smartphones’’, including the iPhone, continue to drop in price and new entrants dazzle consumers 2009 is expected to be another record-breaking year for the mobile Internet. Mobile Internet penetration and engagement will continue to soar, making the mobile channel a more viable opportunity for advertisers and marketers.
2) Distributed content (i.e. widgets and applications) continues to become more prevalent and offers publishers ways to reach incremental audiences online.
3) Viewing of TV and movie content online continues to become a more mainstream behavior, offering advertisers a new opportunity to capitalize on this highly engaged – and often difficult to reach – audience.
For those reasons mentioned above, we knew that the online jewelry retailers wouldn’t be held back for too long. For the first time in a long time web site traffic in the silver jewelry and luxury items category experienced double-digit growth in May 2009, according to analysis of U.S. consumer activity at top online properties. The number of visitors to these sites increased 13% to nearly 18 million, thanks in part to Mother’s Day and other seasonal events that prompted many to search for gifts online.
Is this the beginning of the end to the recession, probably not. But it is good news for all those in the e-commerce industry and may be just the good news they have been looking for.
