The economic crisis is like a bewildered Godzilla, tearing through downtown New York, tearing down all but the most secure of fixtures.  In the UK we’ve seen the demise of Woolworths and MFI in recent months. Now its the turn for diamond and pearl jewellery retailer Diamonds & Pearls. The jewellery retailer, based in Bedford, just north of London, have recently announced they’re going into administration. Many of their 91 retail shops in the UK could be faced with closing, threatening more than three hundred jobs.Worldwide accountancy firm KPMG have been given administration responsibilities. The administrators named by KPMG’s restructuring department, Myles Halley and Richard Philpott, said that they intend to sell the business by the end of the year and are currently seeking a buyer.It was clear from their statement that this is going to lead to branch closures, and, in their words, “a number of redundancies”.

Down goes another victim of the Crunch in 2009. Yet fairly recently the chain described itself as ‘one of the UK’s fastest growing fashion retailers’. How do you go from that to bankruptcy? Does this mean it’s set in stone that if you’re one of the smaller players in the retail industry, you will not survive? Not in my opinion. While Diamonds & Pearls’ physical stores may have been doing well in recent years, a quick look at their website, http://www.diamondspearls.co.uk, tells me all I need to know. Leave aside the poor web design and head straight for the ominous sounding Online Shop link - you get the message “Our Online Shop is currently under development, Please call back soon”! How about that! I think we have a winner. By failing to support their business with a strong online presence and the ability to shop online, Diamonds & Pearls have really shot themselves in the foot. The internet has been the saviour of businesses during the credit crunch, with increasing millions of consumers going online to find the best deals. It’s especially fundamental for small to medium retailers to take care of this. If you are not at least holding your own in the online world, and relying purely on traditional methods of retail, its simply become a question of how long before you go bust, not whether you do. That was a big factor of the downfall of even the big guys like MFI, Woolworths and very recently Principles. One of the key failings of all these retailers was that they didn’t have a strategy for online sales and marketing at a time when their competitors were staying afloat by these means. If I was looking for information on saltwater pearls, or browsing for freshwater pearl jewellery for a Mother’s Day gift, the first thing I’d do is search for those things. Just as millions of web users would do - and Diamonds & Pearls would be nowhere to be seen. Retailers beware: this is the clearest example you’ll get, and if you fail to heed this advice you could be next.