Charles & ColvardFreeing Up Valuable Time with Self-Service Plus

Company Overview

Charles & Colvard is the original creator of moissanite—a unique, man-made gemstone derived from silicon carbide crystals that are cut and polished to stunning brilliance. For more than 20 years, the company has remained steadfast in its devotion to corporate citizenship, with a focus on crafting luxurious socially responsible and eco-friendly jewelry that lasts a lifetime. Charles & Colvard are as style-minded as they are socially conscious. With inspiration taken from the runway, architecture, design and nature, each design mixes style and ethics in equal parts to highlight the brilliance and integrity of moissanite.

The Situation

Are you devoting a lot of time to e-commerce activities you’d rather automate? Do you ever wonder if you’re maximising your potential on marketplaces, or feel that important projects are being neglected because there just isn’t enough time?

Charles & Colvard felt your pain. Like many niche online retailers, the maker of moissanite jewelry offers products that will appeal to countless e-commerce consumers— just as soon as they’re all connected to the brand through all the right channels. But growing a marketplace presence requires a lot of careful planning, fail-proof integrating and, most of all, industry expertise. Charles & Colvard had all of this and more once the company turned to ChannelAdvisor’s Self-Service Plus program.

After experiencing success on third-party marketplaces including Amazon, eBay and Walmart, Charles & Colvard knew untapped opportunities for marketplace expansion still remained. The online retailer also knew that expanding profitably would require assistance from marketplace specialists as the team continued to leverage ChannelAdvisor’s ever-evolving suite of features and functionalities. When an opportunity arose to be among the first to try ChannelAdvisor’s new Self-Service Plus offering, Sarah Grady, marketplace analyst at Charles & Colvard, jumped at the chance to gain strategic guidance.

 

The Solution

The ChannelAdvisor platform offers a robust suite of solutions for successful growth on marketplaces ranging from Amazon to Walmart—and Self-Service Plus helps ensure online retailers are maximising each and every one based on the unique needs and goals of the brand. Any time an update or change involving the ChannelAdvisor Marketplace platform leads to questions, users can seek out personalized assistance on matters ranging from business rules and lookup lists to data optimisation and requirements.

At Charles & Colvard, the use of Self-Service Plus meant accelerated email access to specialised account managers and operations specialists. Grady not only was able to seek out advice on best practices and opportunities for marketplace growth, but could also take advantage of optional one-hour monthly calls and five hours of consultative services.

The mix of personalised email and phone support gave Charles & Colvard the strategic technical assistance it needed to free up staff to focus on other important initiatives for growth—all while developing higher levels of software proficiency in the process.

The Results

Grady says she’d highly recommend Self-Service Plus to other sellers, rating the benefits at a level of “10” on a 10-point scale.

“Being able to pick up a phone or email someone and know they will get back to you with the answers you are looking for makes a world of difference. It is reassuring to speak directly to ChannelAdvisor employees instead of searching through help pages and knowledge bases. Additionally, their ability to quickly resolve a wide range of issues provides great value to our business because it allows our team to continue to focus on our goals.

Having access to a single tech support contact ensured her team could address critical issues and get answers to important questions quickly—an asset that Grady feels will be invaluable as Charles & Colvard expands into more marketplaces.

“Additionally, their ability to quickly resolve a wide range of issues is very valuable to our business because it allows our team to continue to focus on our goals,” Grady said.

The Self-Service Plus program includes six hours of consultation and guidance. For Grady that meant a helpful one-hour phone call with ChannelAdvisor. Then after the call the ChannelAdvisor team followed up with five hours of work towards items discussed on the call.

“One of our recent projects was to launch on two emerging marketplaces. We were able to execute a successful launch thanks to the consultation and the work put in by the ChannelAdvisor team. Before Self-Service Plus it would have been a daunting task, but ChannelAdvisor offered both the time and resources to assist, saving me and my team close to 20 hours over a 90-day period,” Grady said.