Jeremy Shepherd of PearlParadise.com On The Top 5 E-commerce Trends Shaping the Future of Online Shopping
An Interview With Rachel Kline
Social Commerce — The integration of social media and ecommerce has become increasingly popular. Social commerce allows buyers to browse, shop, and purchase directly within social media platforms. It offers a seamless and convenient shopping experience, leveraging the social networks’ large user base and targeting capabilities.
As e-commerce continues to grow exponentially, businesses must stay up-to-date with the latest trends and innovations to remain competitive in the ever-evolving online shopping landscape. In this interview series, about “Top 5 Ecommerce Trends Shaping the Future of Online Shopping” we are talking to e-commerce experts, industry professionals, and thought leaders with in-depth knowledge and experience in online shopping trends. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Jeremy Shepherd of PearlParadise.com, Inc.
Jeremy Shepherd is a leader, innovator, and a disruptor. From an early age he struck out on his own to satisfy his fierce independence, need for adventure, and a more satisfying way of life. As a teenager, he traveled to Japan alone and stayed to attend high school. He is self-taught and fluent in Japanese, Spanish and Micronesian.
In a sector dominated by generations-old family businesses, Jeremy endeavored to become a first generation, self-taught pearl importer, dealer, and internet entrepreneur. Over the past 20 years, he has traveled to pearl producing areas all over the world creating relationships with pearl producers, exporters, and people dedicated to supporting the pearl industry.
Thank you so much for your time! I know that you’re super busy. Before diving in, our readers would like to get to know you. Can you tell us a bit about your backstory and how you grew up?
I was born in Germany at a military hospital and spent most of my early years living in a small town in Washington State. I attended the local public school until 5th grade, before transferring to a small private school a few towns over.
While attending the private school, I met students from Central America and Japan, and fell in love with foreign languages. I studied Spanish and developed a network of friends who only spoke with me in Spanish and began studying Japanese for 3–4 hours per day. I had dreams of traveling the world and living overseas.
After two years of Japanese study, my parents had me evaluated by a Japanese professor, who determined I had completed the equivalent of four years of college-level Japanese. A year later, I was living in Tokyo attending high school.
I returned to the USA for college, where I majored in business with an emphasis on foreign languages: Japanese, Spanish, German, French, Mandarin Chinese and Chuuk, Micronesian.
What led you to this specific career path?
After college, I still had the urge to travel and see the world, so I took a job as a flight attendant with Northwest Airlines. For several years I worked approximately two weeks on and two weeks off. While working, I traveled the US and the world. During my time off, I traveled around the world visiting nearly every continent.
In addition to the travel bug, I also had an entrepreneurial itch. During college I started my own small shuttle business, and after becoming a flight attendant I started another business selling re-chargeable calling cards — a business that started out strong but ended nearly overnight when mobile phones came out with flat-rate nationwide plans.
The second business I started as a flight attendant was very successful, and it’s a company I still own and manage nearly 25 years later — PearlParadise.com, Inc.
While on a layover in Beijing, China, I visited a popular market that was famous for its pearl vendors. Knowing nothing about pearls or pearl jewelry, I was only there to buy a strand of pearls for a woman in my life.
I purchased a single strand of pearls and gave them to her when I returned. She was impressed, but I had only spent about 25 dollars for the strand. When she had the pearls appraised, light bulbs started going off in my head. They appraised for more than 600 dollars.
Two weeks later, I cashed my paycheck, took a cash advance from my credit card, and boarded a flight back to Beijing, China. I went back to the same pearl dealer at the same market, and purchased as many strands of pearls as I could afford.
Not knowing where or to whom to sell, I decided to try selling online — something quite new in the late 1990s. I sold on Amazon Auctions and Z-shops and on eBay. Within a month, my online pearl business revenue dwarfed my airline salary, and soon I left the airline to focus exclusively on pearls.
Can you share the most exciting story that has happened to you since you began at your company?
The most exciting experience was being invited to participate in a segment on The Today Show on NBC. Our company story was featured, and we sold $2.3 million of pearl jewelry in 24 hours.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?
We have invested in state-of-the-art video equipment and have created a virtual experience that comes as close as possible to mimicking a live in-store shopping experience. We found that during the pandemic, consumers became much more accustomed to face-to-face video chats.
We launched this service in Q4 last year and are continuing to optimize the experience as the service grows.
You’re a successful business leader. What are three traits about yourself that you feel helped fuel your success? Can you share a story or example for each?
My thought process is very abstract. I can always see the big picture and execute on a vision.
While on a vacation in French Polynesia, I came up with the idea to build an online pearl certification course and promote it via the Cultured Pearl Association of America. On the flight back to Los Angeles, I created an outline and pitch, which I delivered to the CPAA two weeks later.
The idea was accepted and I spearheaded the project. I wrote the course myself and engaged pearl producers around the world to contribute content and financing to make it a reality.
This was in 2016. Today, the course is available in 10 languages and is the most taken pearls course in the world with more than 90,000 students globally.
I am a serial innovator and believe there is a creative solution to every problem.
While at a large jewelry tradeshow in Hong Kong it was announced that a typhoon was going to hit the city on the last day of the show. There were tens of thousands of visitors in Hong Kong as the show is the largest in the world. People scrambled to find their way home but all the flights were booked.
Knowing if we did not get out early, we would be stuck in Hong Kong, I decided to book travel in the opposite direction — to Mainland China. From there we were able to book flights to Tokyo and then back to the US. We got out the day before the storm. The last day of the show was cancelled, and all our friends and colleagues were stuck in their Hong Kong hotels for nearly a week.
I am a lifelong learner.
I don’t own or watch TV. I spend my personal downtime either reading books or listening to educational podcasts. I focus on subjects that either hold a personal interest, or that enhance my working expertise and my way of being.
Excellent, thanks so much for sharing that. I want to shift gears and talk about ecommerce. What was the original vision for your ecommerce business? What pain point(s) were you trying to solve for your customers?
My original vision for Pearl Paradise remains the same as it is today: Making the beauty of fine pearls available and affordable for everyone.
Jewelry tends to be quite expensive, but it doesn’t have to be. When I learned about the multitude of different hands that pearls exchanged before they made it to the end consumer, I saw I had found a way to cut every one of those additional steps, saving shoppers a significant amount of money. The original stated guarantee on the first version of our website was that “every pearl we sell will appraise for at least 5 times our price.” This is still almost always the case.
How do you see the ecommerce industry evolving in the coming years?
Over the past 2+ decades the industry has evolved tremendously. What worked in the year 2000 no longer works today. Embracing this continuous evolution is a prerequisite for long-term sustainability.
One of the biggest shifts is literally around the corner — AI. In ecommerce, it’s all about being found. A site’s ranking on Google is a massive factor in success. AI search makes these rankings irrelevant. The next frontier is going to be “how to design for AI.”
How do you balance the need for innovation and experimentation with maintaining a stable, reliable ecommerce infrastructure?
One of my favorite sayings is, “innovate or disintegrate.” Innovation and experimentation are constant necessities. At the same time, chasing the next shiny object at every turn will end up wasting tremendous time and resources. We carefully consider every new initiative and test, test, and test.
Ok super. Here is the central question of our interview. What five emerging trends do you believe will have the biggest impact on the future of online shopping? Please explain each in detail.
1 . Face to Face ecommerce
During the pandemic, we saw a seismic shift in the way our clients shopped with us. Pre-pandemic, we communicated with our customers via email, phone, and chat. Over the past three years, video calls have become ubiquitous. We now meet with clients over Zoom every day. It has gone from being a novelty to an expectation.
This shift is especially apparent in our business — luxury, non-commodified goods. Over the next few years, I expect face-to-face virtual shopping to become the norm for many industries.
2 . Social Commerce
The integration of social media and ecommerce has become increasingly popular. Social commerce allows buyers to browse, shop, and purchase directly within social media platforms. It offers a seamless and convenient shopping experience, leveraging the social networks’ large user base and targeting capabilities.
3 . Augmented and Virtual Reality
These technologies provide immersive and interactive experiences, allowing customers to visualize products in their own environments or even try them on virtually. Similar to virtual face-to-face ecommerce, it bridges the gap between online and in-store shopping experiences.
4 . AI-driven Recommendations and Personalization
AI algorithms analyze customer data and behavior in real time, enabling sites to offer personally relevant product and service suggestions. When implemented properly, these enhance the customer experience and increase conversion rates.
5 . Voice Commerce
This is still somewhat in its infancy, but the components are in place. More than a quarter of all US households have an Alexa. Think about it! A quarter of the US population has put a device in their home from the world’s biggest (and most aggressive) retailer. Amazon is expecting to dominate the voice shopping market as this trend grows.
Is there a past trend that’s now common practice in ecommerce that you would have spent 50% more time focusing on? Which one and why?
Influencer marketing. We have been involved in influencer marketing for years and the opportunity is faded in that it is a struggle to generate positive ROI. This wasn’t the case 15 years ago when we started working with influencers. If I were able to do it over again, we would have spent a lot more time developing these relationships while the trend was still in its infancy.
Looking ahead, what are the biggest opportunities and challenges facing the ecommerce industry, and how do you plan to address them in the coming years?
I think the biggest challenge is also the biggest opportunity — AI. I am currently in the learning phase. I am using AI every day and getting to know it well. I’ve also been researching the capabilities and joining numerous webinars. Like the internet in the 1990s, people who understand and are comfortable with this new technology will find the best ways to integrate it.
You are a person of significant influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
Morning Meditations
About two years ago I began getting up an hour earlier than normal to sit for one hour in silent meditation. This morning practice is now my habit, and I never miss a day of meditation. My health has improved. My mental clarity has improved, and I operate at a higher level than I’ve ever in my life.
We spend so much time and money on gym memberships to feel better and to feel better about ourselves. For most of my life I missed one of the most important aspects of life — our minds are the most important “muscles” of our bodies. Every piece of human experience happens in our minds. Mastering your mind means mastering your life.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremypshepherd/
https://www.facebook.com/pearlparadise/
https://www.instagram.com/pearlparadise_official/?hl=en
I want to thank you so much for your time and for sharing your expertise with us. I wish you continued success!
