Lucardi gives online jewelry shoppers confidence to buy with Tangiblee’s Virtual Try-On (VTO)

People don’t generally purchase fine jewelry frequently, especially online. It may only be a once-a-year purchase for a special occasion or a gift. To earn repeat customers, jewelry brands have to deliver an e-commerce experience memorable enough to stay in shoppers’ minds for all those months between purchases.

Lucardi is one of the Netherlands' largest jewelry stores with more than 120 retail stores and a 30-year history of making luxury accessible for everyone. The Lucardi team knows shoppers are coming to them during major live events, looking to buy an engagement ring, wedding band, but also to shop for lovely gifts for themselves, friends and family.

As more and more shopping is done online, especially during the lockdowns related to COVID in 2020, balancing a big retail footprint with a great e-commerce experience has become a bigger part of Lucardi’s overall sales strategy.

Challenges: Increasing Buyer Confidence in Online Luxury Jewelry Purchasing 

Lucardi knows that the more informed customers are, the more likely they are to buy and the less likely they are to return that purchase. To hit their annual goals of increasing conversion rates and average order value, the team needs to deliver an immersive and luxury online experience.

As the Lucardi's e-commerce manager in 2021, Elles van Leeuwen knew there were industry challenges that needed to be addressed in order to reach those annual goals.

“Jewelry is an emotional product and sizing is always an issue. Getting customers informed is important. So helping customers find the correct product is always an issue–especially when 50% of the products are gifts for other people.”

Van Leeuwen and the Lucardi team started searching for a digital solution that could address their customers' confidence concerns without compromising the company's overall growth trajectory. “We are an ambitious company, so growth is an important KPI. To grow year after year, you have to do new things,” says Van Leeuwen.

“We are always looking for on-site optimizations because it’s a more affordable way to maximize our profits and marketing spend.”

This search for new ways to provide an immersive shopping experience led Lucardi to start discussions with Tangiblee in March of 2021. Tangiblee’s Virtual Try-On (VTO) feature could show shoppers how rings, earrings, bracelets, watches and necklaces look on their own hand, ear, neck or wrist, giving Lucardi’s shoppers an experience similar to what they would have in-person.

Enter Tangiblee: Providing Confidence with VTO Solution

Tangiblee’s VTO was created to give e-commerce customers the experience of test driving a product. So it only made sense that Tangiblee would give Lucardi an easy way to test the tool before buying it, too. A/B testing Tangiblee on a selection of Lucardi jewelry would give them all the data they needed — without any of the startup costs.

“Onboarding was quite easy. What was very nice for me was Tangiblee’s plan of approach. In the beginning, I received documents ‘This is what you should do, when you should do it and here are the things we need from you and when we will do them,’” says Van Leeuwen.

“It was very helpful to know what to expect and what to do. I thought the communication was quite good. Most of the work was for Tangiblee to do. All we could do was assist.” 

The quick onboarding gave Lucardi’s customers confidence to purchase a luxury piece of jewelry quickly. As soon as the Tangiblee solution was put into use, Lucardi saw a positive impact on revenue.

Results: Huge Boost in ROI 

The initial tests delivered a staggering result: for every $1 invested into Tangiblee, Lucardi saw a return of $6.50. That's a 550%+ ROI. 

“When you see numbers like that, it is a no-brainer,” says Van Leeuwen. 

Once the A/B test had proven its value, Lucardi was ready to roll the Tangiblee VTO  out across the more than 20,000 SKUs it has online. While the tool itself is easy to use precisely because it uses AR to let clients see an item on their own hand. Lucardi and Tangiblee are also taking the collaboration a step forward with custom model shoots to capture the right angles for key pieces of jewelry on real people. 

The Tangiblee solution has done great things for Lucardi’s KPI’s and will grow with the business as it expands.

What’s Next: Growing International Retail Alongside E-commerce

As Lucardi expands its physical presence across the EU, it’s also creating new e-commerce experiences for each new country. The Tangiblee solution is a big part of that expansion strategy.

Van Leeuwen explained, “People don’t really know us in Belgium and Germany. In the Netherlands, customers know that if an item doesn’t fit, they can go to a store and return it. In newer markets, a tool which helps you make the correct choice the first time gives customers more certainty about us as a brand, and helps them finish their orders. If Tangiblee wasn’t on the website, customers would have more hesitation and might leave the site before purchasing.”

Tangiblee gives Lucardi customers everywhere the confidence to buy jewelry for the most important moments in their lives. 

Since the close of the initial A/B test conducted in May and June 2021, Tangiblee has garnered even better results and continues to prove its value to Lucardi’s team.

When reviewing Tangiblee’s overall impact from the start of its partnership in May 2021 through April 2022, for every $1 invested in Tangiblee, Lucardi sees a return of $12.44. As of April 2022, Lucardi’s conversion rate lift is 3.11% and has an RPV lift of 3.52%.

In total, that’s a 999% ROI and a 1,144% increase from the initial results in mid-2021, respectively.