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Internationale eFulfillment van omnichannel juweliers

Luxemerken zijn nog steeds passief met eCommerce, maar de statische houding kan deze merken duur te komen te staan. Veel mensen vragen zich af of er daadwerkelijk horloges en sieraden online gekocht worden en dus verkocht worden door etailers. Maar wat veel mensen niet weten is dat Amazon bijna net zo veel horloges en sieraden verkopen als de grootste pure player Bluenile.com die jaarlijks ruim 400 miljoen dollar omzetten.

Ondanks dat luxemerken nog steeds passief zijn met hun eCommerce strategie, zijn sinds het begin van deze eeuw horloges en juwelen met bedragen van ruim 5.000 altijd online te koop geweest. En, deze markt groeit heel rap. Tot 2008, het jaar dat AceJewelers.com live ging als eBoutique, verboden de luxemerken hun officiële dealers online te verkopen. Dit geldt nog steeds voor alle dealers van de luxemerken buiten de EU. De uitzondering is geldig voor officiële dealers van deze luxemerken in de EU, dankzij een uitspraak van de Europese Commissie onder leiding van Neelie Kroes.

 

Heritage 1881 Hong Kong Shopping Mall

 

To eCommerce, Or Not To eCommerce
De reden dat luxemerken, zoals Chanel, Fendi en Rolex, zo fel gekant zijn tegen ecommerce is omdat ze vinden dat de exclusiviteit van hun merken aangetast wordt en dat het namaak in de hand werkt. De creatieve directeur van Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld, heeft in 2009 aangegeven: “The Internet does not convey the unique feel and sophistication of luxury materials, refined tailoring and extraordinary attention to detail found in luxury fashion. Shopping for high fashion required a ‘multi-sensory environment’.”
Maar visies en opinies veranderen rap en zelfs Lagerfeld is overstag. Tijdens LeWeb 2011 [VIDEO] heeft Lagerfeld aangekondigd zijn eigen merk Karl Lagerfeld online verkocht ging worden via pure player Net-a-porter.com. De laatste twee jaar zijn veel merken overstag gegaan en keuren goed dat officiële (brick and mortar) retailers hun merken online mogen verkopen. Uiteraard zijn de merken ook gestart met het zelf verkopen via hun eigen websites. Tegenwoordig is het mogelijk een: Cartier juweel, Louis Vuitton tas, TAG Heuer horloge en Gucci outfit online te bestellen bij de merken zelf. Wel is frappant dat buiten de EU de luxemerken de retailers geen goedkeuring geven om online te mogen verkopen en het zelf wel doen.

 

Karl Lagerfeld sold online at net-a-porter.com

 

eFullfilment
Het is niet meer de vraag of luxemerken online moeten verkopen. En, het is ook niet meer de vraag of consumenten online luxe goederen willen aanschaffen. Nu is de vraag geworden: wat is de meest efficiënte manier om online luxe goederen te verkopen? Veel merken hebben geen of slechts gemiddeld tien jaar ervaring met retail (via eigen mon-brand winkels) en hebben amper ervaring met eCommerce. Richemont, moedermaatschappij van onder andere: Cartier, Montblanc, IWC, Panerai en nog veertien luxemerken, heeft eerder genoemde pure player Net-a-porter.com gekocht. Waarschijnlijk vanwege de know how van deze eBoutique, die als eerste premium modemerken online verkocht. Dus veel merken en retailers zou nog zoekende naar de beste modus. Er is in de luxe branche nog steeds sprake van een kanaalconflict, die in sommige branches wel al is uitgevochten en/of uitgekristalliseerd is. Daarbij worstelen luxemerken met geografische distributiemodellen, waar eCommerce liever natuurlijk geen rekening mee houdt. Dan komen er nog belangrijke zaken bij zoals: vreemde valuta, nationale BTW tarieven, importheffingen, vervoerders die geen hoge waardes aannemen, verzekeringen, retouren, persoonlijke contact centra, after sales service en omnichannel integratie. Kortom, het hele traject vanaf het moment dat de consument op de koopknop heeft gedrukt in een eBoutique tot aan de aflevering. Dit kan men samenvatten als eFulfilment.

 

Screen shot AceJewelers.com

 

Omnichannel juweliers
De Ace Luxury Group is zo een retailer die zich getransformeerd heeft van een ‘old school’ retailer met uitsluitend brick-and-mortar winkels naar een ‘new school’ omnichannel retailer die naast de fysieke winkels ook webshops opereert. Plus daarnaast een apart platform voor mCommerce opereert, actief is op social media en tot slot ook een boek (luxe catalogus) uitgeeft, dus voldoet aan de zogenaamde: bricks, clicks, ticks, smicks en flicks. Ace & Spyer Juweliers, opgericht in 1729, is de oudste juwelier van Amsterdam en was de eerste juwelier in Nederland die in 2008 een eBoutique starte voor luxe goederen. De horloges en sieraden werden meteen in twee talen gepresenteerd en wereldwijd verkocht. Vandaag bestaat de Ace Luxury Group uit drie fysieke winkels in Amsterdam (Ace & Dik Juweliers, Ace & Spyer Juweliers en Ace Trends) en drie eBoutiques (AceJewelers.com, AceTrends.com en AceEyewear.com), met bijbehorende mobile en social media strategieën. De websites houden rekening met Euro’s, Amerikaanse Dollars en Britse Ponden en maken onderscheid in prijs tussen een EU-consument (prijzen met BTW) en een niet-EU consument (BTW vrij winkelen).

 

Alon Ben Joseph

 

Alon Ben Joseph is een ondernemer met grote passie voor horloges, sieraden, diamanten en internet. Als eigenaar en directeur van de Ace Luxury Group was hij de eerste luxe juwelier in Nederland die een eBoutique lanceerde die officieel van de luxemerken online mocht verkopen in 2008. Deze passie worden vaak gedeeld tijdens vakgerelateerde evenementen, voor zowel juweliers, retailers als internet vakidioten.

Nodig Alon Ben Joseph uit om te komen spreken tijdens een evenement.

 

Speaking during "Vakdag Logistiek & eCommerce 2013"

Nex month I will be speaking at the Dutch eCommerce event: Vakdag Logistiek en E-commerce. The event will take place in Hotel Houten in Utrecht (The Netherlands) on June 11th, 2013. The title of my presentation is: “Internationale eFulfillment van omnichannel juweliers.” (Translation: “International eFulfillment of omnichannel jewellers.”)

Screen shot LogistiekenEcommerce.nl May 2013

Please come and join the discussion on June 11, 2013 in Hotel Houten in Utrecht.
Get your tickets via: http://www.logistiekenecommerce.nl and join the buzz via: @E_Logistiek and #eLogistiek.

I hope to see you during my session. It's going to be a fun and interesting day.

 

An Interesting View on Extremists

I received a 'letter' by email, titled "A Holocaust Survivor's View on Islam" and found it very interesting. The email claims that the author  is Dr. Emanuel Tanay, a Holocaust survivor and respected psychiatrist. When one does an online search about this article it can be doubted that this is a recent article, that it is the original title or even that it has been written by Tanay. Nonetheless, I do think it is an interesting view and therefore share the message as I received it:

 

"A Holocaust Survivor's View on Islam

A man, whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War II, owned a number of large industries and estates. When asked how many German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide our attitude toward fanaticism. 'Very few people were true Nazis,' he said, 'but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world had come. My family lost everything. I ended up in a concentration camp and the Allies destroyed my factories.'

 

We are told again and again by 'experts' and 'talking heads' that Islam is the religion of peace and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace. Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the specter of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam.

 

The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history. It is the fanatics who march... It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honor-kill. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. It is the fanatics who teach their young to kill and to become suicide bombers.

 

The hard, quantifiable fact is that the peaceful majority, the 'silent majority,' is cowed and extraneous.

 

Communist Russia was comprised of Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of about 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant. China's huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people.

 

The average Japanese individual prior to World War II was not a warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword, shovel, and bayonet.

 

And who can forget Rwanda, which collapsed into butchery. Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were 'peace loving'?

 

History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason, we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points:

 

Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence.

 

Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don't speak up, because like my friend from Germany, they will awaken one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun.

 

Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs, Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late. As for us who watch it all unfold, we must pay attention to the only group that counts -- the fanatics who threaten our way of life.

 

Lastly, anyone who doubts that the issue is serious and just deletes this email without sending it on is contributing to the passiveness that allows the problems to expand. So, extend yourself a bit and send this on and on and on! Let us hope that thousands, world-wide, read this and think about it, and send it on - before it's too late.

 

Emanuel Tanay, M.D. 2980 Provincial St. Ann Arbor , MI 48104

 

Dr. Emanuel Tanay MD; is a well-known forensic psychiatrist who has been an expert witness in many famous cases. He has served as an officer or committee member on the Michigan Psychiatric Society, the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, the American Psychiatric Association (APA), and others. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and of the American Board of Forensic Psychiatry and a distinguished fellow of the APA and the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFC).

 

A Holocaust survivor himself, Dr Tanay coauthored a book about the survivors of the Holocaust and was asked by the German governmen t to consult on just compensation for the Holocaust survivors. Dr. Tanay has served on several journal editorial boards, authored many publications, and presented countless times on forensic medicine. His efforts have also produced many awards and commendations from groups such as the Michigan State Medical Society, APA, the Detroit Institute of Technology, and AAFC, among others.

 

I hope this letter gets read by millions of people all across the USA, Canada and the rest of the civilised world."

 

Do you also find this an interesting view?

 

The Ace List: More Than A Book

On May 11th, 2012 I already published a post about the launch of a new book we were working on at Ace Jewelers. I am proud to announce that we presented the physical book at the beginning of this month: "The Ace List - Volume I" with an unique ISBN number: 9789081922807.

This is the press release we sent out today:

Amsterdam, September 12th, 2012 – Amsterdam based Ace Jewelers Group has presented a completely new concept in customer information. It consists of an impressive book, The Ace List, plus a dedicated website, www.TheAceList.com. Together, both media represent a new standard in communication about watches and jewels. The coffee table book is offering a kaleidoscopic view on the world of watches, jewelry and luxury living; the website – among others - offers clients the possibility to create their own lists of favorites.

It’s not the first time Ace Jewelers Group introduces new ways of information and marketing. The company is a pioneer of cross-channel retailing and operates classic jewelry boutiques next to digital e-boutiques. Ace was the first jeweler being authorized by the best brands to sell products online. Ace combines an innovative spirit with a dedication to quality. For this reason the group co-operated with MotoMax Media (a pioneer of combining traditional printed media with a strong online presence) to create a stunning book and accompanying website. All content was created specifically for this project.

The Ace List (Volume 1) is a hard cover publication of 100 large size pages. It presents important watches and jewels in a selection of Top Five Lists, but adds playful articles about the five best vintage watches, Hollywood brands, milestones in watch history, places to long for, marriage proposals, honeymoon destinations, planes and more! This combination of product oriented and lifestyle based subjects turns The Ace List into a most inspiring read.

The Ace List (ISBN 9789081922807) is for sale for € 20,- (USD 25, GBP 15) via www.amazon.com, www.AceJewelers.com, www.bol.com, and www.0024.nl.

 

Speaking at Thuiswinkel Update 2012

I have been asked to speak for the second time at the leading eCommerce event in The Netherlands: Thuiswinkel Update. This time I am one of the CEO's participating as a panel member during the so-called: CEO Debat. The event will take place in DeFabrique in Utrecht (The Netherlands) on September 27th, 2012.

Please come and join the discussion on September 27th, 2012 in DeFabrique in Utrecht. Get your tickets via: http://www.thuiswinkelupdate.nl and join the buzz via: @T_W_update and #TWU12.

I hope to see you all there :)