Do You Know What Consumers Want?

When I ask this to fellow members of the jewelry industry, the answer I most frequently receive is, “Prices! Consumers want low prices.” But that’s not how a lot of recent research describes what consumers want. According to a slew of recent headlines, what consumers want is:

• To save time and have more leisure time
• Easy shopping
• Meaningful experiences

I just read a study this week headlined “Money won’t make you happy. But these things will.” What things, you ask? Laundry service, maid service, and food deliveries – all things that save people time.

How to Deliver What Consumers Want

So naturally, I wonder what we can do to make people’s consumer’s lives easier, to save them time, and to contribute more meaning. In my blog post from a few weeks ago, I mentioned that consumers reported that they shop earlier and want more tools to help them plan for holiday gift-giving. So turning on wish lists and other website shopping tools could deliver some of what consumers want.

How can we make jewelry shopping more meaningful? Consumers aren’t responding well to the whole 3-months-salary-a-diamond-is-forever spiel like the used to. But they do appreciate you teaching them about gemstones, learning where materials came from, and how jewelry is made. Consumers are interested in enrichment, and retailers who enrich their lives can benefit.

How can we make shopping easier, and in the process, save consumers time? What consumers want in this regard has to do with omni-channel. They don’t want to worry about whether they are using your website, app, or walking into the store – they want to be recognized and served seamlessly from channel to channel. Not only does this make their lives easier, it also saves them time!

Why is “What Consumers Want” Such a Big Question Now?

As I read recently in a post on Linked In, “Technology hasn’t just change the way we shop; it’s changed the way we think, learn, write, communicate, and socialize.” As a result, what consumers want changed a lot too. You may think that deciding what to sell and taking care of customers is the work of a retailer. But right now, figuring out how to be a better retailer is the work. The place to start with that is to figure out how to deliver what consumers want.