Starting a Jewellery Business Online: The Second Part

In one of the previous communications, retail and eCommerce consulting enterprise, Your Retail Coach (YRC) highlighted five decisive visions for starting an online jewellery store with an emphasis on the MENA region featuring countries like the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Egypt, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait. In this communiqué, YRC sheds light on the first four critical areas of planning to start an online jewellery business .

Online Jewellery Business Model

Even a validated business idea still lies in the realm of theoretical exploration. The task of validation may offer some broad understanding of how a proposed business idea is likely to fly but now it is time to give it a more specific shape. In business model development, business ideas are sketched and defined as a framework of the key functional elements that will be required to pull off the concept in question. Different businesses may call these key elements differently but the essence is the same:

· ? ? ? ? Value propositions (UVP) to be offered

· ? ? ? ? Key activities of the value chain

· ? ? ? ? Internal and external resource and capability necessities

· ? ? ? ? Customer segments and Customer relationship

· ? ? ? ? Key partners in the value chain

· ? ? ? ? Major costs

· ? ? ? ? Revenue streams

· ? ? ? ? Distribution and channel

Business models provide a distinct and comprehensive picture of how the proposed enterprise is going to create and deliver the envisioned value propositions. Given the state of intense competition in the online jewellery retail space in cities like Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Muscat, Doha, Kuwait City, and Cairo, it is recommended that value propositions are unique and not easily replicable for sustained success. In striving to be unique, it is advisable to be cautious with business-related nomenclature. For example, in exploring jewellery online store name ideas, it is a good idea to understand the meaning and relevance of the selected words or taglines in the local context.

Financial and Commercial Assessments

Financial and commercial assessments are an indispensable component of both offline and online jewellery business planning . Apart from serving as a guide to decision-making, these assessments help keep the enterprise-wide financial management of an entity in a controllable state. Without these assessments, it can be difficult to keep a check on big and small expenses and the utilisation of funds or revenues. This control is necessary to secure both long and short-term financial sustainability. These financial and commercial assessments play a vital role in achieving the milestones of profitability, investments, and the build-up of important funds and reserves.

Some of the key areas of study in the ambit of financial and commercial assessments are CAPEX and OPEX requirements, demand forecasts, purchase planning, pricing and margin analysis, sales forecasts, projected cash and fund flow statements, estimated P/L statements, ROI and break-even analysis, financial ratios, working capital management, and other relevant variables of financial management as applicable.

Operations Planning for Online Jewellery Businesses

As experienced omnichannel consultants, YRC maintains that the operations planning for online businesses are different from their brick-and-mortar counterparts. Each channel comes with its own set of complications and tactics to become perfect at it. Also, the general tendency for customers is to expect online brands to be more efficient and effective with their operations which ultimately shows up in the quality of order fulfilment.

To create a robust operations framework and consistently maintain superior standards of service, startups must keep operations planning under consideration from early on. Early emphasis on operations helps identify more areas to improve it.

Coming to planning for routine operations, SOP consultants of YRC highly recommend online jewellery startups to become process-oriented enterprises right from the word go. Without process orientation and SOPs , it gets extremely challenging for eCommerce businesses to consistently meet the objectives of product quality, service expectations, and operational standards.

Decision on ECommerce Platform

The eCommerce platform is the framework of digital technology infrastructure based on which the two core activities of the trade take place i.e. buying and selling. This decision is important because it determines what online or digital capabilities an eCommerce business will have to facilitate the exchange of goods (and services). It essentially covers the front-end and back-end software and hardware technologies required for eCommerce.

To identify a suitable eCommerce platform for online jewellery business, it is important to first draw the bridge between business and technological requirements. For example, building own infrastructure gives absolute control over customer experience but it is also the most expensive way to do it. In the eCommerce platform selection strategy, businesses can either go for this option (On-Premises) or avail external eCommerce platform services (SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS).

Read: Starting a Jewellery Business Online: The Third Part

About Your Retail Coach:

Your Retail Coach (YRC ) is a boutique retail and eCommerce consulting brand with 10+ years in business in delivering enterprise startup and management solutions. With a scaling international footprint, including in the Middle East, YRC has served more than 500 clients in 25+ verticals. In online jewellery business consulting , YRC offers planning and implementation services and solutions for enterprise setup and growth and expansion endeavours.

Get advise for E-commerce retail business : https://www.yourretailcoach.ae/contact-us/