The Gen Z Will Dominate Soon
注：《钻石观察》已开通海外版，因此我将尝试同时用英文撰写部分文章，以便投放其他渠道。文中少量内容的表述方式与中文版有所不同，敬请理解。
老朱
▲ Source: Internet
"The generation Z is moving into the engagement ring market", it has become one of the most popular discussions in the jewelry retail world.
The generation Z, born between 1995 and 2009 (also said "1997-2012"), represents 32% of the global population, among which the eldest ones are already 26 years old. (sigh..)
"This means, they are about to get engaged."
Eileen McClelland posted an interesting article recently, describing how those "kids" who love to show, stick to mobiles and believe in celebrities are changing the jewelry retail industry.
We should be aware of one fact: although some people think that the marriage rate of gen Z is much lower that that of their past generations (ex. the millennials who were born between 1981 and 1995), there will still be a lot of gen Zs getting engaged. A few years later, when some of them will be 28 years old, this rate may continue to grow.
So, it's already an inevitable strategy for the retailers to think carefully how to meet the characteristics of gen Z in a right way.
Internet, Internet, Internet
"Go to internet", this is one of the biggest characteristics of gen Z. Even when they go to the brick-and-mortar stores, they won't prefer to consume at once. Instead, they are used to referring to the information on their mobiles (especially reading some comments from others). And they will ask some "strange" questions like: "company culture", "ethical source" etc. This is an obvious trend when we look into the world-wide range.
Eye-catching
The "eye-catching" is something that the gen Z really believes. Researchers found out: With an eight-second attention span, members of Gen Z will decide if something is worth their time in the blink of an eye.
"And according to Oracle CrowdTwist, if they use their phones to call a business, they are 60 percent more likely than members of any other generation to hang up if they don’t speak to a person within 45 seconds."
That means, if you can't catch the eyes of gen Z, you are losing their attention.
The situation may be a bit "better" in the diamond (retail) industry, but generally speaking, it doesn't change a lot. We can't expect our little friends of gen Z would listen to the clerks and "surfing" the products one after another as their parents and grandparents used to do, instead we should be ready that they take videos everywhere and post them on web, or judge a product by counting how many "likes" they've got in a few minutes.
They come in groups
Is it interesting reading the sentences above? Many retailers say that, when a gen Z goes to some store, they would always have someone "beside". This is quite related to the young people's attitudes like "love to show", "eager for acknowledgement", and they would often choose to buy something that is "liked by friends" -- surely the "self-satisfaction" is always no.1 to be considered, yet if they can get acknowledgement from friends besides being satisfied themselves, it would be much better.
It must worth buying
The unique experience of gen Z decides their attitudes in consuming. Most of those who experienced the financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic (especially the latter one) understand the "difficulty of life", so they would very possibly choose a product that "worth buying". In many occasions the gen Z would try to gain a lot of information (usually through internet), compare different prices, and finally choose something "beautiful with the right price". Thus, the traditional "selling with high prices" policy may not live a sustainable life.
In the past, retailers might have been able to play some "weird" games in pricing, but now when they are facing the guys of gen Z, they will find everything so "transparent", and very few sellers can profit exageratedly for a long-term (though it's still possible to do so in a short period).
What should we do?
It's a current fact that the brick-and-mortar is still leading the diamond jewelry retail world (maybe it will soon be different in China), but the on-line business is growing so rapidly that some retailers start to feel "not so adapted to the sudden changes".
Yet it still remains a trend when we deal with the gen Zs who "never leave their mobiles" and the growing operation cost in brick-and-mortars. Therefore we should understand the following tips, in order to "make the world a better place":
interaction = being friendly
Jewel's retailers shall give up those "traditional" attitudes that made themselves quite "superior to everyone else", meanwhile the interactive communication with gen Z will become more important, with which people can express their passion and culture, which may "persuade" the gen Z to consume.
Surely, the internet celebrities will be a great "tool" to use -- if you are able to control.
Please let me repeat it again: the retailers must control, instead of being controlled by the internet celebrities, otherwise you are risking your brand.
the in-store experience is always similar
When people visit an on-line shop, their in-store experience inspired by its decoration, culture, characteristics etc. are not so different from that they get when they visit a brick-and-mortar. It's always an important task to feature the brand, grab the attention of gen Z through product decoration, offer something free and some with extremely low prices that the young customers can't refuse.
Anyway, the approaches are always similar.
value is always the first thing to consider
Although someone insists that the gen Z is "impatient", "self-expressive", "trusts the internet celebrities too much", the value-offering would still be the first factor to consider. Yet the value is something quite complicated. It "traditionally" includes rarity, designing attractiveness, strong endorsement, while the gen Z has started to add something new in it: sustainable and ethical.
It's getting more complicated actually, since different players in the industry still have different ideas about "what is sustainable" and "what is ethical"...
Well, I would say that, whether people agree or not, the gen Z likes to see his/her favorite brands'/companies' claim on it, right? So please, let's just call it : an OPPORTUNITY.
The show must go on.
---
In the Chinese version of this article, I made an example with a famous internet celebrity (who sold million-dollar-worthy jewels on "6.18 Festival") exposed recently to have sold "fake jewelry" on his live-show. The name is not so known abroad (quite a "john doe" type), so please permit me to ignore him in the English version (just to avoid misunderstandings).
Anyway, evidence shows that our dear gen Z customers are concious and rational, even much more intelligent than us. They are eager to study and share. They like to show but they are never stupid. They like using internet but they don't follow blindly. Therefore, I suggest every player in the jewelry retailing world study this special group of people carefully, patiently and thoroughly, since they will dominate soon.
Yes, I mean the future belongs to them.
Michael Zhu
May the DiamondSpectator®️ be with you.
Contact: diamond-spectator (Wechat)