The Q4 2024 benchmarking report for UK jewellery and watch brands has just been published. Learn how the top 10 UK jewellery and watch brands perform across the digital space.
The latest Q4 2024 benchmarking report for UK jewellery and watch brands has just been published. It covers the largest 10 national jewellery and watch brands, including Watches of Switzerland, Fraser Hart, T H Baker, Ernest Jones, Beaverbrooks, H Samuel, Bucherer, Goldsmiths, F Hinds, and Warren James.
The research gives an inside track on who is winning the biggest share of voice online, and quantifies the gaps, risks and missed opportunities for other jewellery and watch brands to win brand exposure, drive online views, and generate purchases. The report highlights quick wins that will improve enquiries from your online strategy and identifies the barriers that may be reducing your site’s ability to optimise digital performance.
To see a preview and contents page of the Q4 report, click here. To get a copy of the full report and the key takeaways, please complete the enquiry form or schedule a call.
For a glance into just 6 of the metrics we evaluated these top 10 jewellery and watch brands on, check out our quick-look table below;
Continue reading for further detail on this quarter's top and poorest-performing jewellery and watch brands, or request a copy of the report for the full review.
The 70+ pages of research benchmarks each site based on 50+ metrics and indicators of successful digital strategy, including organic visibility, domain authority, paid media ads, conversion performance, technical performance, site speed, universal search, content, social ads, accessibility, and mobile performance.
Some of the leading players in the space are high spenders on paid media channels such as Google, Bing & Facebook - but have a poor or sub-optimal conversion improvement strategy. Without an optimised, sophisticated conversion strategy that maximises the conversion rate, the return on investment is unsustainable or will underperform. Scaling spend on paid media is not achievable unless the conversion rate delivers optimal performance in the sector. Some in the space have paid media spend levels from 30k+ per month but dedicate minimal resources and budgets to conversion testing. Given the cost per clicks on ad networks will continue to rise, we recommend spending at least 10% of your paid media budget on ongoing conversion optimisation testing schedules to ensure your paid media ROI maintains long-term viability, competitive advantage, and sustainability.
Savvy digital marketers know that having a technically sound website is an essential component of a successful fully integrated digital strategy - plus a site capable of maximising conversion performance. E-commerce websites managing large volumes of ever-changing stock are often at risk to high volumes of 4xx errors, so jewellery and watch brands will need to ensure they maintain a firm process of adding redirects and removing dead links when stock is taken down.
F Hinds reported the highest 4xx errors of all brands (90), and it should assess its links to ensure it’s not directing consumers to broken links, which could cause them to become frustrated and potentially mistrust the brand.
When 62% of consumers are less likely to convert if they have a negative mobile site experience, ensuring that your site is quick and easy to load makes a significant improvement on your overall conversion rates. Jewellery and watch brands will want to ensure users are getting a luxury experience at every touchpoint, something a quick, well-performing site will convey.
In our last report, Fraser Hart flagged the lowest mobile site speed (6). This quarter, Fraser Hart has made improvements to reach a mobile site speed score of 10 — though it’s’ still the brand with the lowest score. After examining its website on a mobile, this brand should adopt lazy loading to help with web performance and increase download speeds.
Domain authority is an essential metric for measuring the effectiveness of SEO performance, and helps create a reliable overall gauge of how effective your site is at achieving organic traffic, i.e. ‘free’ traffic that isn’t gained through sponsored ads. Jewellery and watch brands can engage with a digital PR specialist to identify link building opportunities among fashion, lifestyle, and luxury bloggers and publications.
A ‘good’ DA really comes down to how your competitors are performing, however it’s generally considered average between 40 and 50, good between 50 and 60, and excellent above 60. The DA rating for this quarter ranged between 67 and 42, with Fraser Hart reporting the lowest DA. This UK jewellery and watch brand received the second to lowest backlinks and should adopt a PR strategy, reaching out to websites with a similar target audience to help improve its DA rating.
A strong organic performance is strategically important as it ensures your site ranks above competitors for key, transactional keywords. When 93% of your customers won’t go past the first page of Google, your absence or lack of targeting for essential keywords will cost you conversions. Jewellery and watch brands are likely seeing the impact of changing consumer habits, as we're finding fewer consumers are indulging in treats or expendable items.
H Samuel and Ernest Jones saw a decline in organic traffic on desktop, while 5 brands reported a decline in organic traffic on mobile. With this data in mind, all brands should ensure that their website is easy to navigate for consumers using a mobile to help increase organic traffic on mobile.
Google Universal Search Results is an evolving opportunity to make your pages visible on a SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Universal results often appear before traditional listings and are eye-catching for users. Universal search results refer to rankings on a SERP that are not the traditional ‘blue line’ Google link, and a site can appear for universal search results without being strong in standard rankings. 'Image pack' and 'reviews' results are great options for jewellery and watch brands, who can showcase their products and generate consumer trust directly from the SERP.
Goldsmiths has taken the lead for the most Universal Search appearances overall (53,895), with the majority of these coming from ‘reviews’ and ‘images’. Other brands can learn something from Goldsmiths by encouraging past customers to leave an online review and ensuring all images are optimised.
Longtail keywords are often considered high intent and potentially more likely to convert as a searcher is being more specific. Optimising for longtail keywords also puts your content strategy in a strong position to rank for brand new search terms as they enter Google’s index. Jewellery and watch brands will want to ensure they are ranking well for high-purchase intent phrases, which may include details of watch or ring size, colour, gems, or price.
Beaverbrooks has taken the top spot for the most longtail keyword appearances for position 3 (3,956), while H Samuel remains at the top of the leaderboard for positions 4–10 (14,447). Receiving impressions in positions 4–10 is an effective and quick way for brands to improve their ranking in online search engines.
With the number of Facebook users in the United Kingdom (UK) hitting over 44 million users in 2023, it is not surprising that companies have jumped at the opportunity to advertise on the social media platform. Facebook’s UK digital advertising revenue has been estimated to have breached 2.6b GB pounds in 2019. For UK jewellery and watch brands, Facebook ads are an opportunity to reach more customers and share updates to their facilities.
We’ve included 3 examples of Warren James’ sponsored Facebook posts. This UK jewellery and watch brand included bullet points in its post, making the content easy to read for social media users as they’re scrolling.
When it comes to social media and on-site content strategies, it is important to release content that has a longer shelf life. An article is considered 'Evergreen' if it has maintained its relevancy to an audience for longer. It's great for your brand engagement, but great for Google too, who will recognise content which achieves traffic over a long period of time. Jewellery brands can turn to beautiful product images as an easy way to create shareable content, but can also consider infographics or information about ring sizes, types of gem settings, or watch features, among any other piece of information users might want to know about jewellery and watches!
Warren James has the largest Facebook page (634,700 Likes), while Bucherer has the largest Instagram account (170,000). It’s important that brands use social media channels that their target audience uses and creates content centred about their needs.
20% of people in the UK have a disability – 2 million of which are people living with sight loss. In addition, 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women have some degree of colour vision deficiency. When websites are not designed to meet these needs, brands lose customer interest as they turn elsewhere. Jewellery and watch brands will want to ensure all visitors get a luxury experience with their brand, regardless of ability.
In our previous audit, F Hinds received the most accessibility alerts (626), which it’s increased to 667 this quarter. The majority of these alerts are due to redundant title text and redundant links, which are easy fixes and will help to improve consumers’ readability if they’re using a screen reader.
To get a copy of the full report, please complete the enquiry form. If you want to talk to us about accelerating your digital performance, please call us on 01543 410014 or schedule a call with Mike Movassaghi.
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