JWA 2021 Jewellery Industry Best Practices

78 | Jewellery World Awards 2021 Picup Media CATEGORY: In the same way that it has helped thousands of companies and individual jewellers save on advertising costs through its state-of-the-art products, image retouching services and subscription- based cloud images, Picup Media also came to their aid to overcome the many challenges brought about by COVID-19. “The pandemic has been both a major obstacle and an opportunity for us. While it did slow down business in traditional channels, it also accelerated the digital transformation of many businesses, including those in the jewellery industry,” says William Chu, Founder of Picup Media. CREATING VALUE Aside from introducing upgraded versions of its previous products such as GemLightbox Macro, which can now be used for taking images of loose diamonds, the company also wasted no time in developing technologies that could help turn the tide in favour of jewellers. “Our team of innovators have been engaged since day one of the pandemic. They have played significant roles in many businesses’ recovery journeys by being the driving force behind the new innovations that we launched recently,” shares Chu. Through research, the company identified two major pain points. First, customers needed help in knowing how the pieces would look on them prior to making a purchase, which was challenging since many stores were temporarily closed down for safety reasons. “Right off the bat, we knew that an artificial intelligence (AI) Industry Innovation of the Year COUNTRY / REGION: HONG KONG 1 2