That is just one of several innovations by Chow Tai Fook that are revolutionising the jewellery industry. The company aims to be a tech-savvy jewellery company and also to create a distinctive and seamless customer experience, striking the ideal balance between hi-tech enhancements and a personal touch.

In addition, the jeweller has been reaching out to people through live-streaming events and short videos posted to online marketplaces. Earlier this year, it teamed up with Austin Li, a Chinese online beauty influencer known as the “Lipstick King”, for a charity live-stream. The response was overwhelming, resulting in the sale of 5,000 jewellery products within just 30 seconds. Chow Tai Fook has also engaged consumers in person through Instagrammable experiences such as themed pop-up stores in mainland China.

O2O services are key to the retail operations, giving customers the ability to order products online to be collected in person at a Chow Tai Fook store. This is supported by the Cloud Kiosk, which links online orders at physical stores to the e-commerce platform to provide a wider product selection with shorter transaction times. Self-service Cloud Kiosks can be found at more than 1,000 Chow Tai Fook store locations, primarily in mainland China.

In 2019, the jeweller took its tech-enhanced services another step further by introducing a consumer-to-manufactory (C2M) experience centre in Shenzhen, which enables interaction with shoppers and enhances the customer experience using D-ONE, a C2M platform for personalised products and exclusive experiences. D-ONE lets customers realise the entire production process of a jewellery piece – starting with product selection and design, then to applying the custom product details and through to delivery – which can be ready within 24 hours thanks to the application of automated equipment.

Chow Tai Fook stores are also equipped with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tracking technology, in Smart Trays used for displaying jewellery to customers. By reading RFID tags attached to each product, the trays allow the jeweller to learn about customer behaviours and preferences in order to adjust product selections, as well as make it easier for each store to monitor inventory with the use of big-data analytics.

When it comes to making jewellery, Chow Tai Fook has hi-tech solutions at work in its three major production hubs of Wuhan, Shenzhen and Shunde to monitor production status and speed up order tracking. These include RFID tagging to follow the progress of each order, and intelligent equipment monitoring systems to make sure production lines continue to run efficiently.

Now comes the latest expansion to the jeweller’s digital footprint that will transform the industry: the Chow Tai Fook AI Diamond Grading Certificate, powered by artificial intelligence and blockchain technology. This new grading practice will use AI and big data to analyse the colour and clarity of diamonds under a consistent standard – the AI engine has used deep learning to analyse and learn from more than 20 million pieces of multi-perspective diamond images so far. The certificate will be introduced in the first half of 2021, beginning with smaller diamonds for Chow Tai Fook’s T MARK brand in Hong Kong.

With digital innovations applied to every aspect of the supply chain and customer experience, Chow Tai Fook has not only proved it is able to keep up with the changing times and customer expectations, but also that it is a pioneer of change in the jewellery industry.