“The strengths of our personalised advice are obvious. Utilising them better offers advantages for us and every couple.”
Retailers in city centres repeatedly report on the “retail crisis”. This makes it all the more urgent to come up with new ideas and approaches to make a visit to the local jeweller more attractive again. We have therefore launched our new wedding ring configurator exclusively for 60 jewellers throughout Germany. We spoke to jewellers Chandana Delankage and Hilko Britz from Chemnitz about the advantages of this new tool and why the retail trade cannot really be replaced by online competition.
It’s Saturday morning. There’s still not much going on in Chemnitz city centre. After presenting our new wedding ring configurator in previous newsletters, it’s now time for retailers to try out the configurator.
The Roller jeweller’s workshop is located on Chemnitz market square, behind a beautifully decorated façade. In this time-honoured building, the traditional company, which has been in existence since 1886, displays lovingly selected pieces of jewellery, including wedding rings.
Shortly after entering the shop, you are greeted by sales manager Chandana Delankage. Born in Sri Lanka, the young man developed his fascination for jewellery and especially gemstones at a young age in his home country. He is particularly enthusiastic about the idea that jewellery is traditionally passed down through generations in his home country. “Jewellery always has a very individual character and conveys a personal message or story,” he explains. In his home country, it is often family stories that are passed down from generation to generation through the jewellery and the stones it contains.
Delankage’s colleague, goldsmith Hilko Britz, also sees jewellery as having such an individual and narrative function.
“Jewellery is an expression of personality and people need to feel comfortable with it,” he says, getting to the heart of what is very important to him when talking to customers.
Especially in recent years, when retailers have come under increasing pressure from online competition, it is important to show customers the advantages of local specialist shops more and more clearly, the two agree. The advantages are obvious, Delankage continues. “In retail, we offer expertise, our experience and our partnerships, which ultimately benefit customers first and foremost”.
“Hilko Britz adds that having a local contact person is particularly helpful when it comes to solving individual problems with wedding rings or possible follow-up work on wedding rings.
Giving customers a constant stream of new options for selecting their rings therefore seems a logical consequence. The two retailers clearly notice the advantages of configurators in their discussions about wedding rings. Above all, the direct visualisation of the rings is a great advantage, says Britz.
Uncertainties make customers nervous. By incorporating existing real rings, an even better idea of the configured rings can be created during the consultation. Exhibits are also very helpful with configurators, as are good listening and the experience of the jeweller, reports Chandana Delankage from many of his wedding ring conversations with configurators.
He is also happy to enter the couple’s ideas into the configurator beforehand and saves these designs via his log-in area until the couple’s visit. From then on, he says, it is possible to get closer and closer to the couple’s ideas.
Delankage does not see the configurator as competition. For the retailer, it is rather “a useful addition, especially for details that are not on display”.
Hilko Britz remembers that in the past, it often took four or more appointments to buy a wedding ring. With the configurator, the best case scenario is two, reports the goldsmith.
For jewellers, configurators are therefore primarily a time-saver. The immediate visualisation of the wedding rings means that a finished project can be presented straight away, says Delankage, and the fact that the exact prices are displayed as soon as the configuration is complete increases the completion rate many times over.
Other advantages, as the two report from their everyday work, are the improved comparability of the rings, the ability to better highlight the strengths of the product and therefore much stronger arguments in favour of the corresponding rings.
Nevertheless, the wedding ring conversation always remains something very intimate. Both confirm this and nod in agreement.
Especially due to the ever-increasing use of social media, more and more couples are coming with more precise ideas than before. These can be mapped relatively easily in the configurator. “From this point, we then work our way towards the couple’s ideal vision”.
Because that’s what counts for both jewellers: Making the couple happy and giving them both their very own wedding rings, which will connect them for a lifetime.
One final question. The most memorable experience with a couple?
Hilko Britz ponders for a while, there are so many highlights with couples here in conversation. But then he tells us with a gleam in his eye:
“The couple came with very few ideas. Bit by bit, we worked our way towards the couple’s dream rings using the configurator and real visual pieces. In the end, the rings were 6mm wide, white on the inside and yellow alloy on the outside, very simple. The ladies’ ring had a stone set on the inside. Both were happy with their choice, but they needed some time to think about it and wanted to sleep on their decision for a few nights. Two hours later, they came back and bought the rings.”
A few weeks later, Britz met the bride again at the market, in front of the shop. She proudly showed him the ring on her hand and said to him somewhat provocatively: “Nice ring, isn’t it?”.
Britz says that this moment was very fulfilling for him and to this day remembers the conversation with the couple fondly. These are stories that can only be told through personal contact in retail. Even in the year 2023.
“The strengths of our personalised advice are obvious. Utilising them better offers advantages for us and every couple.”
Retailers in city centres repeatedly report on the “retail crisis”. This makes it all the more urgent to come up with new ideas and approaches to make a visit to the local jeweller more attractive again. We have therefore launched our new wedding ring configurator exclusively for 60 jewellers throughout Germany. We spoke to jewellers Chandana Delankage and Hilko Britz from Chemnitz about the advantages of this new tool and why the retail trade cannot really be replaced by online competition.
It’s Saturday morning. There’s still not much going on in Chemnitz city centre. After presenting our new wedding ring configurator in previous newsletters, it’s now time for retailers to try out the configurator.
The Roller jeweller’s workshop is located on Chemnitz market square, behind a beautifully decorated façade. In this time-honoured building, the traditional company, which has been in existence since 1886, displays lovingly selected pieces of jewellery, including wedding rings.
Shortly after entering the shop, you are greeted by sales manager Chandana Delankage. Born in Sri Lanka, the young man developed his fascination for jewellery and especially gemstones at a young age in his home country. He is particularly enthusiastic about the idea that jewellery is traditionally passed down through generations in his home country. “Jewellery always has a very individual character and conveys a personal message or story,” he explains. In his home country, it is often family stories that are passed down from generation to generation through the jewellery and the stones it contains.
Delankage’s colleague, goldsmith Hilko Britz, also sees jewellery as having such an individual and narrative function.
“Jewellery is an expression of personality and people need to feel comfortable with it,” he says, getting to the heart of what is very important to him when talking to customers.
Especially in recent years, when retailers have come under increasing pressure from online competition, it is important to show customers the advantages of local specialist shops more and more clearly, the two agree. The advantages are obvious, Delankage continues. “In retail, we offer expertise, our experience and our partnerships, which ultimately benefit customers first and foremost”.
“Hilko Britz adds that having a local contact person is particularly helpful when it comes to solving individual problems with wedding rings or possible follow-up work on wedding rings.
Giving customers a constant stream of new options for selecting their rings therefore seems a logical consequence. The two retailers clearly notice the advantages of configurators in their discussions about wedding rings. Above all, the direct visualisation of the rings is a great advantage, says Britz.
Uncertainties make customers nervous. By incorporating existing real rings, an even better idea of the configured rings can be created during the consultation. Exhibits are also very helpful with configurators, as are good listening and the experience of the jeweller, reports Chandana Delankage from many of his wedding ring conversations with configurators.
He is also happy to enter the couple’s ideas into the configurator beforehand and saves these designs via his log-in area until the couple’s visit. From then on, he says, it is possible to get closer and closer to the couple’s ideas.
Delankage does not see the configurator as competition. For the retailer, it is rather “a useful addition, especially for details that are not on display”.
Hilko Britz remembers that in the past, it often took four or more appointments to buy a wedding ring. With the configurator, the best case scenario is two, reports the goldsmith.
For jewellers, configurators are therefore primarily a time-saver. The immediate visualisation of the wedding rings means that a finished project can be presented straight away, says Delankage, and the fact that the exact prices are displayed as soon as the configuration is complete increases the completion rate many times over.
Other advantages, as the two report from their everyday work, are the improved comparability of the rings, the ability to better highlight the strengths of the product and therefore much stronger arguments in favour of the corresponding rings.
Nevertheless, the wedding ring conversation always remains something very intimate. Both confirm this and nod in agreement.
Especially due to the ever-increasing use of social media, more and more couples are coming with more precise ideas than before. These can be mapped relatively easily in the configurator. “From this point, we then work our way towards the couple’s ideal vision”.
Because that’s what counts for both jewellers: Making the couple happy and giving them both their very own wedding rings, which will connect them for a lifetime.
One final question. The most memorable experience with a couple?
Hilko Britz ponders for a while, there are so many highlights with couples here in conversation. But then he tells us with a gleam in his eye:
“The couple came with very few ideas. Bit by bit, we worked our way towards the couple’s dream rings using the configurator and real visual pieces. In the end, the rings were 6mm wide, white on the inside and yellow alloy on the outside, very simple. The ladies’ ring had a stone set on the inside. Both were happy with their choice, but they needed some time to think about it and wanted to sleep on their decision for a few nights. Two hours later, they came back and bought the rings.”
A few weeks later, Britz met the bride again at the market, in front of the shop. She proudly showed him the ring on her hand and said to him somewhat provocatively: “Nice ring, isn’t it?”.
Britz says that this moment was very fulfilling for him and to this day remembers the conversation with the couple fondly. These are stories that can only be told through personal contact in retail. Even in the year 2023.