Suntech brings in new solutions to grab a customer’s eyeballs in the digital space

A change in times means a change in strategy. Suntech Business Solution listed out all its new offerings at the Retail Jeweller World Dubai Forum, promising a better technological support to the gem and jewellery industry

The Retail Jeweller World Dubai Forum 2021 saw a few invigorating presentations by the partners, who proved themselves to be very apt pillars of support for the transformation of the gems and jewellery industry.

Rishikesh Trivedi, digital transformation advisor of Suntech Business Solutions took the stage and underlined the importance of new-age digital solutions to transform the predominantly traditional industry. At an age where most business are going digital; it is very important to have winning technological support to drive conversions from a jeweller’s online retail space.

“Suntech Business Solutions is a leader in providing technological support to the gems and jewellery industry. We help innovate,” Trivedi opened his presentations on point.

Disruptions are always very sudden and uncharted. There is no predicting them. They happen very fast, at the blink of an eye. “When we take a jog down the memory lane, it was not very long. Only 15 months back, we were all sitting in this same room. Only, the discussions pertaining to the future were very different. We were talking about trends, the elements driving our industry and how players were getting corporatized. We discussed how brands were becoming more international. We spoke of how consumer trends were going to be like in the future and how jewellery was going from being an asset class to a fashion class. We brainstormed on how, at a consumer level, there was a movement from an information poor to an attention deficit environment. At the blink of an eye, all that changed in March,” he said.

Today, according to Trivedi, the same trends apply because industries don’t change overnight. “However, a lot more elements have come into the mix. The most important of new emergences is screen life. People are spending 7-10 times more time on screen. How does this impact the industry? Will they buy online?” he said.

Online sales will probably not be a lot, but a decent amount. Trivedi quoted a research that says an average cost of $1050 per piece is selling online, not more. But that is not where the role of the online customer ends today. Now, people are evaluating jewellery online. “E-commerce is growing at a rate of 30%-40% when compared to pre-Covid times, when it was growing at 10%-12%. The peak of globalisation is here and has shown its impact on trade, capital, and movement across people. Post-Covid, the flow of information has doubled. The wealth chasm, on the other hand, has increased. The rich have become richer, which is good for the gem and jewellery industry, which has predominantly been a luxury space,” he said.

Suntech has always believed in driving change. In the last 15 years, the company has grown from end to end because of innovative steps and directions that they have traversed. “Unless you do that, you fall behind. We set up an innovation laboratory, as we realised that the industry is going through significant changes. Will have to start innovating and enable better customer experience. Companies need to figure out how they want to change their product and reconfigure their businesses. If the pandemic has taught us one thing, it is that there is a need to reconfigure and adapt to omnichannel, which is inevitable,” he said.

What Suntech has done as part of innovation laboratory is put a clear focus on how to keep companies flexible but stable. They have built an innovative solution around e-commerce and analytics. They tied up with start-ups which act as accelerators for the diamond business. They have partnered with complementing solutions and invested in technology companies as well.

“There are four pillars that help in innovation. First, the organisation, which always needs to innovate to stay relevant. Second is the customer, because we need to have success stories. Third, the users, because they are the biggest barrier to implement technology and change. Most companies think twice before implementing any new change because they are unsure about how the new users adapt. The fourth is technology, which can make the entire process smooth,” he said.

Suntech has brought in a new mobile app to help companies better their customer experience with social media integrating. They have dabbled with augmented reality and are powering business insights.

Trivedi ended his presentation stressing on the need for data, which ultimately helps in discerning change and enabling companies with ideas on where they need to improve and how they should strategize in driving sales and improving their presence online, catering to customers with exactly what they want and need.

Courtesy: Retail Jeweller World News