Rocks.tv proves a success for Midlands jewellery designer
Mar 22 2009 by Anna Blackaby, Birmingham Post
A Midland jewellery designer and retailer is defying the recession, thanks to its unique combination of traditional TV shopping and internet interactivity.
Coloured Rocks, which employs 35 people in the family-run business in Warwickshire, broadcasts live TV-style auctions of jewellery on its website Rocks.tv, filmed in studios in a Victorian manor house near Studley.
The company, whose website has only been live since last June, is selling 500 to 600 pieces of its in-house designed jewellery a day and anticipates a turnover of £6 million this year.
Coloured Rocks, which was founded by Steve Bennett, his wife Sarah Bennett, who is head designer, and his brother John Bennett, grew out of Steve Bennett’s experience as managing director of TV shopping channel Gems TV.
Mr Bennett said he decided to launch an alternative to a TV shopping channel on the internet, which was where he saw the biggest potential for jewellery retailing.
“We have a live broadcast on our website so it’s like watching the TV on the internet,” he said. “Shopping TV is limited but we have things like chat rooms going on – it’s like telly shopping 2.0. We are the only company on the planet doing that as far as we know.”
Mr Bennett said the interactive nature of the site meant the Rocks.tv concept had a lot of advantages over traditional TV shopping.
“People in the forums talk a lot about jewellery, but their conversations can be about anything – about what they are going to get their husband for tea even.
“The forums help because people are aways sceptical if your price is way lower than the high street.
“The best way to counter that is to put a forum on and somebody new can come in and say ‘what’s this about?’ People can do the selling for us.
“It’s also a way of policing ourselves as customers can talk about us and moan about us.”
The firm encourages a community spirit among its website users and recently staged an open day for its customers, which attracted around 100 people from all over the country to the firm’s manor house.
Mr Bennett said: “The forums are also a way of making our website ‘sticky’ – we are showing 30 to 40 pieces of jewellery an hour but there might be five or six that they are not their cup of tea, but they still stick around.”
Users of the chat forums can even talk to the presenter.
Mr Bennett said he was optimistic for the prospects of the business, despite the economic downturn.
“We are in a recession and people say we must be mad to sell jewellery but it is almost recession-proof if you offer genuine gemstones and hall-marked jewellery,” he said.
“People still want nice jewellery and they will always turn to the lower cost operations – and we have lower costs as we don’t have a chain of stores.”
