Tiffany & Co. is heating up the online retailing market for jewelry in Canada. In August, Tiffany launched a new Canadian web store that carries about 3,000 products, including diamonds and other fine jewelry items.
The debut of Tiffany.ca is the second move by a U.S. web jewelry retailer into the Canadian market. In January, Blue Nile Co. opened an online jewelry story with chapters.indigo.ca, the online arm of Indigo Books & Music Inc., Canada's largest retailer of books, music, movies, gifts and other merchandise.
Tiffany, like competitors such as Blue Nile, is targeting the Canadian market because the high-end of the online retail market has a growing base of affluent shoppers and affluent wannabes who like spending money on luxury brands, particularly in Canada where the online jewelry segment is still developing. “The upper end of the market, specifically the market for luxury goods, is doing very well in North America,” says Jim Okamura, senior partner with retail consultants J.C. Williams Group. “It makes sense for companies with an established brand such as Tiffany to take advantage of foreign opportunities and they are. Canada can be a good e-commerce market for them.”
Tiffany, No. 128 in the Internet Retailer Top 400 Guide to Retail Web Sites, isn’t saying much about the launch of its Canadian store. But Tiffany.ca is a near replica of the retailer’s other e-commerce sites in the U.S. and the United Kingdom.
The new site carries five major merchandising categories that include diamonds, jewelry, watches, table settings, gifts and accessories. Customers can shop by jewelry selection or by brand.
Tiffany is using e-commerce as a significant channel to grow its international share of the fine jewelry and diamond retail market. In 2004, international sales accounted for almost 40%, $857 million, of the company’s total sales of $2.2 billion. In comparison, e-commerce accounted for an estimated 2%, $42.8 million, of total sales in 2004, according to the Top 400 Guide.
Compared to the United States, Canada is a fragmented business-to-consumer e-commerce market, but also one that offers opportunity for online retailers that can build up a critical mass, says research firm eMarketer. Online shoppers in Canada will generate estimated web sales of $4.6 billion in 2005 in a market that is growing annually between 20% and 25% per year, eMarketer says.
Back...
