Glenn, thanks for your interesting comments.
For whatever it's worth, here is my small data point to add to your market research database....
I don't know what kind of jewellry you specialize in selling, but your past comments suggest that it might be the high end.
If I were to choose to buy lower end jewellry, the kind you could buy at a Macy's here in California, then I might consider buying online.
However, if I were buying fine jewellry, then of course I would want to have my wife with me to try it on, talk to the jeweller, make sure that my considerable investment was worth making.
The result is that when I buy (very occasionally....) fine jewellry, I go to either Gumps or Shreve's in SF (I live on the Penninsula). We enjoy checking out the discount jewellry stores in SF Chinatown, but we don't buy there. Even though the prices are usually 1/5 what they are at Shreve's or Gump's for what appears to be the same thing, I am buying the brand at the latter two places. It's not a status thing with me - it is the security that their brands ensure that I am getting top quality, since I do not know enough to evaluate top quality myself. Rob |
