Twenty Australian jewellery retailers have uploaded more than $1 million worth of stock to a new website that sells their clearance stock through a reverse auction system.
Launched this month, JewelLover.com.au features a ‘Drop till you shop’ reverse auction system which lists each item at its normal retail price and then progressively reduces the price over time until it is sold or reaches the reserve placed on it.
A time clock counts down the cost for prospective buyers, who must then gamble on whether to wait for the price to reduce further and risk someone else snapping up the item, or buy immediately.
JewelLover.com.au is the brainchild of Tony and Leanne Argyle from Gold-Coast based company Jewellery Marketing Solutions who ran their own jewellery store for 12 years.
Argyle said www.JewelLover.com.au helped solve the common industry challenge of clearing old stock.
“It’s a lot of fun for the customer who can save on quality jewellery and it’s great for jewellers too as they get the maximum price for the item rather than just setting a fixed price when it could’ve sold for more.”
Argyle said customers also had the added security of knowing that traditional retail stores were supplying the stock with their addresses displayed prominently on site, and stores actively sharing their JewelLover presence through their local community.
“When you consider statistics show 43 percent of consumers prefer to buy online from a bricks and mortar retailer, having established retailers behind Jewellover.com.au will allay most of those fears,” he said.
“And of course, this site also serves as a promotional tool to encourage foot traffic into the featured retail stores as well.”
Further reading: