Making Jewelry Available to All through Omnichannel Retail

Tell us about JTV.

JTV (Jewelry Television) is the premier online jewelry shopping destination specializing in extraordinary jewelry and gemstones at extraordinary prices. JTV is an omnichannel retailer with live broadcasts 24 hours a day to over 84-million homes. We serve our customers through robust online and mobile platforms, as well as streaming devices such as Apple TV and Roku, and on social media. Since JTV.com launched 20 years ago, it has become one of the largest non-bridal jewelry e-Commerce websites in the country. Our mission is to open the world of jewelry and gemstones to everyone.

How did JTV find DMI?

DMI came highly-recommended through a contact of mine at Oracle nearly three years ago. We were in search of a trusted partner to support our re-platforming initiative as we transitioned from our flagship website, www.JTV.com, to new technology. Specifically, we needed to enhance our e-Commerce infrastructure and move from a hosted platform to a platform we hosted ourselves.

How complex was JTV’s re-platforming initiative?

It was a large-scale, high-stakes project. In short, our website needed to do more and operate more quickly. We needed more control and flexibility over our digital properties, features and functionalities including authentication management. We needed to seamlessly integrate our live television information and data with our digital commerce customer interactions. We had to remove all friction points for our customers so more web transactions could be facilitated.

In leading digital transformation for JTV, describe your leadership style and what’s the secret to your success?

At the end of the day, it’s the team and culture you build that leads to success. It’s a group of talented computer scientists and engineers wholly focused on delivering quality, useful solutions to make our business successful. So, the secret, I guess you could say, is buried inside of a lot of decisions made over time and if those decisions take your culture into consideration and put your people first, then that leads to something special. I appreciate a culture that combines academia with corporate success, one that allows people to take risks and learn. While I’m a computer scientist, my main job is to create an environment where my team can be successful and thrive. I love to work with people who are unique. I love to work with people who LOVE computer science and engineering, who are passionate and do things the right way to build technology that not only achieves success for JTV, but technology that is elegant and optimized, paying attention to details so we don’t, for example, throw hardware at a problem to cover up a software issue. On my leadership style, well, I like to say that anyone can make you a manager, but no one can make you a leader. That’s earned. My approach is let’s have a great time doing what we love and support each other both personally and professionally.

What’s it like working with DMI?

DMI is a fantastic partner. These guys are brilliant. They’re central to our success in transitioning off our website to the new platform and new systems. I think at the heart of our strong working relationship is that both companies really have similar values; do the right thing and work with transparency. We are definitely all one big team.

What does the future hold for JTV?

We’re really moving toward a headless platform. That will put us at the forefront of the entire jewelry industry and it’s exciting. When we envision what the future looks like for JTV, we will have the leading platform for selling jewelry and gemstones in the entire world.