Curations: Diamonds go digital as Chow Tai Fook’s innovations lead jewellery industry into the future
- Jeweller transforms into an omni-channel retailer with a slate of online-to-offline shopping services, and adopts technologies including artificial intelligence and blockchain
- The D-ONE consumer-to-manufactory platform enables customers to create their own jewellery to be ready for delivery within 24 hours
In recent years, Chow Tai Fook has taken notice of the growing popularity of e-commerce and began integrating digital technology into the jewellery shopping experience. The 91-year-old business, long known for its network of stores across mainland China, has since evolved into an industry-leading omni-channel jewellery retailer that seamlessly combines online-to-offline (O2O) services.
When the Covid-19 pandemic began to change consumer habits dramatically, Chow Tai Fook’s focus on digital growth paid off as more people stayed at home and made purchases online. Around this time, the jeweller further strengthened its virtual presence by launching CloudSales 365, a WeChat-based mini-program that allows customers to shop anytime and anyplace while communicating with staff for assistance and advice.
That is just one of several innovations by Chow Tai Fook that are revolutionising the jewellery industry. The company aims to be a tech-savvy jewellery company and also to create a distinctive and seamless customer experience, striking the ideal balance between hi-tech enhancements and a personal touch.
In addition, the jeweller has been reaching out to people through live-streaming events and short videos posted to online marketplaces. Earlier this year, it teamed up with Austin Li, a Chinese online beauty influencer known as the “Lipstick King”, for a charity live-stream. The response was overwhelming, resulting in the sale of 5,000 jewellery products within just 30 seconds. Chow Tai Fook has also engaged consumers in person through Instagrammable experiences such as themed pop-up stores in mainland China.
O2O services are key to the retail operations, giving customers the ability to order products online to be collected in person at a Chow Tai Fook store. This is supported by the Cloud Kiosk, which links online orders at physical stores to the e-commerce platform to provide a wider product selection with shorter transaction times. Self-service Cloud Kiosks can be found at more than 1,000 Chow Tai Fook store locations, primarily in mainland China.
In 2019, the jeweller took its tech-enhanced services another step further by introducing a consumer-to-manufactory (C2M) experience centre in Shenzhen, which enables interaction with shoppers and enhances the customer experience using D-ONE, a C2M platform for personalised products and exclusive experiences. D-ONE lets customers realise the entire production process of a jewellery piece – starting with product selection and design, then to applying the custom product details and through to delivery – which can be ready within 24 hours thanks to the application of automated equipment.
Chow Tai Fook stores are also equipped with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tracking technology, in Smart Trays used for displaying jewellery to customers. By reading RFID tags attached to each product, the trays allow the jeweller to learn about customer behaviours and preferences in order to adjust product selections, as well as make it easier for each store to monitor inventory with the use of big-data analytics.