Artificial Intelligence in Jewelry Retail: Hype vs. Reality

AI is impacting every aspect of society — from education to entertainment to business. Whether you’re excited about AI or highly skeptical of it, you’ve probably asked yourself, “How will this technology affect my jewelry store?”

There’s pressure not to be left behind if you don't implement it. But rest assured: Embracing AI doesn’t mean changing your entire business. You can start by automating simple tasks. 

In this blog, we’ll highlight practical AI and automation-powered tools you can use at your jewelry store to save time and energy, as well as tips for implementing them in a smooth and non-threatening way for your employees.

Let’s get started.

AI Features for Jewelry Stores

Here’s how automation and AI-powered tools could lighten the load of running your jewelry store.

1. Inventory Demand Forecasting

Optimizing your inventory purchasing strategy is an incremental process that often takes years to perfect. 

The goal is to keep inventory moving steadily — avoiding products that sit on the shelves endlessly or selling out of popular items. To accurately predict how much jewelry you’ll sell, you need to understand your customers’ buying behavior and external factors such as seasonality.

Modern point of sale (POS) systems offer reporting tools, and some include AI-generated forecasts that predict how much jewelry you’re likely to sell. These tools use your existing sales data to make predictions — and the more data you have, the more accurate they are.

Along with these predictions are automated reorder suggestions. The system generates a suggested order size that aligns with expected sales. Of course, you can then choose to order more or less, taking all factors into account.

Related Read: Seasonal Sales Patterns: When Jewelry Stores Actually Make Their Money

2. AI-Assisted Marketing Content

AI can also help you write marketing content, including ad copy, website text, and messages to customers. Nick Gurney, general manager for Jewel360, spoke on the value of AI for marketing:

“AI tools don’t replace expertise, but they do level you up in areas where you’re not an expert. For instance, when you use AI to build a marketing message for your store about choosing between lab-grown and natural diamonds, you can be the expert on the diamonds, and let AI be the expert at writing marketing copy.”

Using AI, you can convey your knowledge of the industry using language that resonates with customers.

Many POS systems offer customer relationship management (CRM). This feature lets you keep records of individual customers, including their contact information, purchase history, and any work orders. With AI, you can use this data to send them catered recommendations based on what they’ve purchased in the past.

If a customer has previously purchased gold rings and earrings, you can send them an email with other gold jewelry items you stock, including new arrivals you’ve added to your inventory. When your recommendations are specifically chosen for a customer, they’ll be more likely to open and read these communications and to return to the store.

3. Automated Customer Communication

Marketing isn’t the only reason you communicate with your customers. You might send them texts or emails with:

• Receipts
• Confirmations
• Customer service information
• Repair updates

While some of these messages may require a personal touch, others are routine and can be automated.

If a customer is having a piece of jewelry repaired, you can use your POS system to update them when a status changes or a piece is ready for pickup, or to send an automated response to a customer service inquiry.

Related Read: Enhancing Customer Service: 7 Tips for Jewelry Stores

4. Product Photo Enhancement

The most successful websites have professional photography and detailed product descriptions. AI can touch up photos so each piece of jewelry looks its best. You can take an image of a diamond ring and ask AI to brighten it or increase the resolution.

You can also use AI to generate detailed product descriptions based on available data about the item. These product bios showcase a piece of jewelry’s best qualities and educate shoppers on its features. When you use relevant SEO terms, they also help your website show up in search results.

5. Customer Service Chatbots

You’ve probably visited a website that had an AI customer service chatbot. While they often can’t answer all of the questions a human can, they can answer simple, common questions about store hours, return policies, and other basic information.

Making a chatbot available reduces the number of calls and emails coming into the store, freeing you and your staff to focus on other tasks.

Integrating AI at Your Jewelry Store

Hopefully, you’re now more familiar with the AI and automation tools available and how they benefit you as a jewelry store owner. But even when you know how AI can help your business, you may still feel some hesitation about integrating these tools. Here are a few tips to keep in mind as you consider investing in AI.

Introducing AI to Your Staff

Perhaps you’re worried about how your staff may react to the introduction of new tools. Many workers are concerned that AI will take over their jobs.

Be open with them and explain that these tools are meant to make running the business easier for everyone, not to replace employees. This is especially important for the older generation, who are less familiar with automation and AI.

Related Read: From Pen and Paper to POS: Training Reluctant Jewelry Store Staff

Incorporating AI Gradually

Some people are overwhelmed by AI. Many are concerned that when businesses rely on it too heavily, the quality of a customer’s experience decreases. Your employees and customers will feel more comfortable if you gradually incorporate AI features. 

You might start by adding a customer service chatbot to your website, then begin using AI to predict customer demand, and later for automated marketing messages. Adding these features slowly over time helps you test their effectiveness and bring your staff up to speed.

Features that make your job easier, increase sales, or provide other benefits can be permanently added to your processes. If other tools don’t have a significant effect, you can always stop using them. Over time, you’ll create an AI strategy that works for your jewelry store.

Implement Artificial Intelligence With Jewel 360

The reality is, most jewelry stores don’t need extensive AI tools. The majority can use basic AI features to simplify tasks like inventory ordering, marketing automation, website setup, and basic customer communication. Some jewelry store owners have already begun using AI through their POS systems.

Jewel360 is a cloud-based POS solution built just for the jewelry industry. Our software is fully equipped with both general retail and jewelry-specific features, and even includes AI capabilities to help make your job easier.

With Jewel360, AI can help with sales forecasts, reorder suggestions, customer communications, and product descriptions. These tools save you time so you can focus on serving your customers.

To see what Jewel360 can do for your store, schedule a demo today!