Jewelry Television plans more on-air promotion of online business

Web and broadcast jewelry retailer Jewelry Television plans to extend promotions across its two media channels. The promotions will highlight web-based shopping deals and include specials to show TV channel viewers how to negotiate JTV.com.

“Shoppers are going to see a lot more coordination of the web site on our broadcasts,” says James “JT” Thome Jr., senior vice president, e-commerce and strategic business development. “We’ll feature top-of-the-hour specials that put the web site on live and show viewers how to negotiate it.”

About half of Jewelry Television’s web traffic come from its broadcasts and the rest from online marketing via social networking sites like YouTube.com and MySpace.com, natural and paid search, and e-mail marketing, Thome tells Internet Retailer. Measurement gets tricky, however, depending on how soon a web sale comes on the heels of a product-specific broadcast. For example, if a web shopper types in “JTV.com” they are probably familiar with a broadcast, Thome says. “But if they come from a paid search engine, they are not.” Jewelry Television is No. 141 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide.

Other e-commerce plans for 2008 include a channel-finder feature so web shoppers can locate a TV channel broadcasting the on-air shows in their area.

These initiatives build on e-commerce improvements in late 2007 that included ratings and reviews, which now number about 70,000. Shoppers quickly began recognizing – and following – recommendations by their favorite reviewers, Thome says. 2007 also saw additional product videos posted on the site, bringing the active video total to about 18,000, he adds.

The company also launched a redesigned web site in November that included a new home page, new sections for jewelry, gemstones, product clearance and auctions, along with a new checkout page. Customer feedback led to increasing the size of product images by about 30%, Thome says. The redesign and product videos were done in-house, the latter by a staff of 65. Customer reviews are managed by Bazaarvoice Inc.

Results are closely guarded, but the redesign was done in time to “meet or exceed our holiday plan,” Thome says. “We had a better conversion percentage, and customers were more qualified when they came to a better-designed site. We were very pleased with November and December, and January and February are usually as strong.”