For years, many considered the jewelry industry to be one of the best suited retail sectors to resist a major disruption from e-commerce trends. After all, who wants to buy one of their biggest discretionary purchases without seeing or touching it in person?
Watch industry giants such as Rolex, Patek Philippe, and Audemars Piguet were able to benefit from this bias for in-person sales especially, and have remained on top for decades, even despite the recent COVID-19 pandemic.
That said, over the past few years, even before the pandemic, up-start watch companies who knew they would unable to win the window-space war flocked to the internet and embraced digital-first customer experiences.
For example, Thomas Baillod's company BA111OD launched their first watch in October 2019 for about $400 USD, with the large majority of their sales coming from Baillod's personal LinkedIn page. Recognizing that digital experiences would allow new ways to directly market to his customers and provide transparency on the sales process, he began his own take on a influencer program called the "Afluendor" program, where anyone who buys a watch can become an Afluendor, though they are not obligated, and are given up to six "rights to purchase" watches which they can pass on to their network.
Though BA111OD is not coming for Rolex any time soon, Bailod's simple digital marketing and Afluendor program demonstrate that network effects remain incredibly powerful in the fashion and jewelry space.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/18/fashion/watches-independent-brands-online.html?smid=url-share
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