Recognizing rapidly shifting consumer buying trends has prompted Gabriel & Co. to accelerate developing strategies and technologies to stay relevant in today’s marketplace. Its steadfast mantra of “Responding to the Present and Building for the Future™” is especially significant when it comes to integrating its massive catalog of jewelry product and online channels that drive omnichannel growth.
All industries are experiencing major shifts caused by the growth of the digital landscape, which is causing a transformation with regard to how the jewelry industry will do business in the future. Given the competitive climate for customer loyalty, all retailers and brands need to embrace innovative technology and not be afraid of it.
Jack Gabriel, CEO of Gabriel & Co. states: “I have always believed that people should embrace technology, specifically artificial intelligence (AI). Since studying automatic control design during my undergrad years, I have always been able to see that technology improves life.”
“There seems to be a fear of AI because people are afraid they will become obsolete. Really, the opposite is true—AI, robotics, and automation are enhancements to our lives and are designed to serve humanity,” says Jack. “Jobs that are mundane tasks or dangerous are not appealing to today’s workers and very few want to do those jobs, so automation and robotics are key to getting this necessary work done. People would then naturally steer toward learning how to run and build these complex systems. People would adapt as they did during the Industrial Revolution, when there was a fear of simple engines, telephones, and automobiles.”
Jack adds: “In the past, information doubled every 20 years, now it’s happening at a pace of every two years. So as part of Gabriel’s natural evolution, we’ve been able to adapt to what the marketplace calls for. Six years ago, we developed our eShopNShop® embed (virtual franchise model). Three years ago, we developed Gabriel Magic™ virtual reality (VR) app, which evolved into an augmented reality (AR) app for personalization and special orders. Then, 14 months ago we developed our first working AI model and have been perfecting it.”
The latest technological accomplishment that the company is releasing is the Gabriel Personal Shopper (GPS)™ visual search tool, which will lead consumers to find that perfect piece of jewelry quickly, making shopping online effortless. Gabriel offers collections for different lifestyles and a wealth of styles that consumers can select from. Gabriel has streamlined personalization with just a few clicks, using its new AI proprietary algorithm, which is built into its website, so consumers can curate their own signature collections. The company aims to minimize the pain of the online jewelry shopping experience—searching, selecting, purchasing, and shipping seamlessly—all on behalf of the retailer. Gabriel will drop-ship purchases to the consumer and apply full payout directly to the retailer.
The second exciting feature that will add to the novel Gabriel Personal Shopper experience will be presented at Gabriel & Co.’s booth (S10405) at JCK Las Vegas. What the company can share for the moment is that typing text into search fields to interact with websites and mobile apps for online shopping will be a thing of the past. The future of searching online will go through rapid changes, whereby deep learning and benchmarking human behavior through image recognition will be commonplace.
By embracing the power of artificial intelligence and applying deep learning technology, Gabriel & Co.’s proprietary software harnesses the power of image recognition and efficiently merges online search and shopping. Welcome to the future!