September 9, 2025 • 29 mins
The jewelry industry is evolving with significant technological, market, and policy developments that are reshaping how businesses operate and connect with customers.
- Google Gemini AI tool can place jewelry onto digital hands and ears, offering an alternative to expensive lifestyle photography.
- Taylor Swift's vintage-inspired engagement ring features an antique cushion cut diamond on yellow gold with ornate engraving, likely influencing future trends.
- Tariffs on Indian goods have increased to 50%, disrupting supply chains and forcing businesses to adjust pricing strategies.
- Punchmark's "Shop This Case" feature expands, creating a seamless connection between online browsing and in-store shopping experiences
- The increasing prevalence of data-driven advertising and AI-generated content is creating challenges for authentic marketing
Learn about our sponsor JewelerOS: trytheringbuilder.com
Send feedback or learn more about the podcast: punchmark.com/loupe
Learn about Punchmark's website platform: punchmark.com
Inquire about sponsoring In the Loupe and showcase your business on our next episode: podcast@punchmark.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Welcome to In the Loop, what this is.
I have five topics that I wasgoing to turn into individual
episodes but for whatever reasonI decided I didn't have enough
to turn each one into a fulllength, 25 to 35 minute episode
about these, and instead Idecided to do five five minute
(00:39):
segments or seven minutesegments.
So it's kind of like when yougo to clean out your fridge and
you end up eating likehamburgers and spaghetti.
I think it doesn't really gotogether, but each one is going
to be good on its own.
That's kind of what I wanted todo Five interesting jewelry
industry topics that I figuredwe should all be talking about.
They might not all go together,but I really wanted to discuss
(01:01):
them.
So listen in, thanks.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
This episode is brought to you by Punchmark, the
jewelry industry's favoritewebsite platform and digital
growth agency.
Our mission reaches way beyondtechnology.
With decades of experience andlong lasting industry
relationships, punchmark enablesjewelry businesses to flourish
in any marketplace.
We consider our clients ourfriends, as many of them have
(01:30):
been friends way before becomingclients.
Punchmark's own success comesfrom the fact that we have a
much deeper need and obligationto help our friends succeed.
Whether you're looking forbetter e-commerce performance,
business growth or campaignsthat drive traffic and sales,
punchmark's website andmarketing services were made
just for you.
It's never too late totransform your business and
(01:52):
stitch together your digital andphysical worlds in a way that
achieves tremendous growth andresults.
Schedule a guided demo today atpunchmarkcom.
Slash go.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
And now back to the show.
All right, let's get into thisthing.
Here are five topics or storiesthat I've been following that I
think have really caught my eyeand I think we should all be
paying attention to.
Really caught my eye and Ithink we should all be paying
(02:28):
attention to.
First, this Gemini AI tool.
So, full disclosure I don'treally like Gemini.
I think it's too goofy feeling.
It kind of feels like a littlebit it doesn't feel serious
enough, whereas ChatGPT sort offeels like it's like a real tool
.
I don't know.
It's like the differencebetween having, like a
professional hammer versus likeone that comes with like an Ikea
kit.
It's like this one feels likeit's ready.
(02:51):
But what I've heard aboutGemini is that it's been
tailored the most and it likebecomes its own thing the best.
Whereas Chachi PT, it alwayskind of feels like a offspring
of Chachi PT.
Whereas ChatGPT, it always kindof feels like a offspring of
ChatGPT.
It feels like it's neverstopped being what it was,
(03:11):
whereas Google Gemini a lot ofpeople say that it can really be
customized really well.
The one I'm looking at isactually my boss, dan Saroy,
who's our CPO and co-founder ofPunchmark.
He is really interested infollowing.
You know these different AItools and he sometimes is
(03:32):
reading stuff and he shares themwith us and we try out the
tools.
The one that was reallyinteresting is he shows us
Google Gemini 2.5 Flash and it'salso known as Nano Banana Okay,
and what he was using it for.
What the the tool he was usingit for is.
He was taking rings from whatwe call jewelry on white, which
is uh, you've seen it, it'sjewelry shot against a plain
(03:54):
white background.
Usually it's been edited sothat it has higher contrast, so
that the white is pure white andthe jewelry stands out, and
that that jewelry, thatphotography, is pretty much
stock, like it happens all thetime.
It's very utilitarian.
Every piece of jewelry, in myopinion, needs to have at least
two of those upwards of five ifyou're doing it right.
(04:16):
So I think that Dan was takingit in this Google Gemini.
He was using it to put it onhands, like a ring onto hands,
and what was really cool is hewasn't just using like a
solitaire engagement ring, hewas using a fashion ring and I
think he used a pair.
(04:37):
I won't say any brand names sothat no one gets mad, but he was
using like a dual band, like across band type of you know
wedding band, and he, I thinkthe prompt that he had to do the
best one was like hey, put thisring onto a female model's hand
(04:57):
and have it just be the handand shot in good lighting.
So he basically did that andwhat ended up happening was it
generated a hand, and you know,hands with AI can sometimes be a
little bit weird, becausesometimes they give them extra
fingers, sometimes they removesome fingers.
So you got to look and itdropped the ring right onto the
(05:18):
hand.
The scaling wasn't perfect, so,like I think that the ring was
a little bit smaller than itmaybe should have.
I'm looking at it right now.
It doesn't look perfect, butit's pretty darn close.
And what was really interestingis the hand was just purely
(05:38):
generated.
I think the other part of it issome of the finger lengths,
some of the digits are just like1% too long and it's hard to
even detect.
I think maybe I'm just beingtoo critical, I'm looking at it
too much, but that was the the,the one that was really
interesting.
Dan also had it uh put in a studearring on him, which uh worked
(06:03):
, but it did not get thelighting right.
So that's kind of interesting.
So what he did is he had a pairof studs on white jewelry on
white, and he took a photo ofhimself showing his ear, but
like his whole head is in it,and then he fed it in both to
this Gemini, and Gemini put oneof the studs on his ear.
(06:24):
It did not get the lightingright, meaning it looks kind of
like if you were to Photoshopone of those, you know, those
ones that were shot in a lightbox and put on his ear.
So it's not great, but I thinklike it's close.
So that's kind of interesting.
But then he also did one lastone that did not work and he
took, like, um, an earringthat's definitely a more
(06:46):
decorative earring and had ithad to put it on his daughter's
ear and that one definitelyfailed because that one it was.
I think the earring was toocomplex and it did not drop it
on her ear, it actually replacedthe earring with a different
(07:06):
earring and put it on the girl'sear.
Kind of interesting.
It had me thinking because whenit comes to selling products a
lot of the times, I think thatlifestyle photography is
increasingly one of thedifferentiators between a
jewelry store and a uh like yeah, jewelry stores kind of
(07:32):
photography set using from avendor versus what you might get
in like a brand store, forexample, like one of these big
ones that are uh like apocketbook designer, one of
those you know-consumer ones,the houses, those ones it always
seems like all theirphotography is so bang on, they
(07:53):
hired a shoot, a model withtheir jewelry on, whereas a lot
of retail stores can't afford todo this.
I wonder if this is going to bemaybe one of the futures and
one of the ways that they cankind of bridge that gap.
Okay, that is like five minuteson this topic.
Let's get into the next one.
I don't want to spend too longon each one.
It's something I am payingattention to, but the future of
(08:16):
AI influencers kind ofinteresting, kind of dystopian
too, but that's a differentconversation.
All right, next one let's talkabout the big one Taylor Swift's
ring.
I have never seen somethingjewelry related be more
mainstream than this topic.
(08:37):
In case you didn't know, taylorSwift just got engaged like a
week I guess it was the weekbefore last she was proposed to
by her boyfriend now fiance, thetight end for the Kansas City
Chief and big internetpersonality, travis Kelsey.
I don't have any opinions on it.
Good for them, man.
I mean they both sound likethey are really happy about it.
(09:01):
The engagement ring, though, isit's I just looked it up A large
, elongated antique cushion cutdiamond estimated to be between
seven and 10 carats, with a 18carat yellow gold band in an
ornate engraving.
It looks kind of vintage and Ithink that's kind of fun.
It's very much in starkcontrast to the engagement of
(09:28):
Cristiano Ronaldo and to hisfiance.
Now, that one it just it almostfelt, you know, like a really
rich person's engagement ring,whereas this one, it almost kind
of feels like it wasintentionally designed to kind
of match an aesthetic, wherethis other one, by ronaldo, uh
(09:51):
sort of feels like it was just asuper large diamond.
It's almost like that one wascelebrating the diamond, and and
then this one with Taylor Swiftwas more I don't know maybe
more like a considered, like acustom feel to it.
It was a custom ring.
I think that it is going to seta lot of trends.
(10:11):
There's already a lot of.
I don't want to say the termknockoff, because that has a
negative connotation, but I willsay like a lot of people are
taking a lot of inspiration fromit.
I saw one of our jewelers hadalready started working with a
CAD designer to make somethingvery similar, um and or just in
that kind of vein, and peoplelove that kind of stuff.
And who am I to say that theyshouldn't have a ring inspired
(10:34):
by their, you know, favorite one?
I think that that happens allthe time with different types of
fashion and I think we just sawa real like my not milestone,
but more like this is a realmoment.
I think vintage is going to havemore time.
I hope that estate sales haveeven bigger time in the sun as
people kind of look for thatmore classic look.
(10:57):
We've always been going soultra modern with everything we
do so much tech and so much um,modernality to everything we buy
, you know, from cars to, um,you know everything, luxury it
sort of is almost due for like alittle bit of like, um, you
know, uh, a change.
(11:18):
I think that people are goingto go back to these, this
handmade feel.
That's really kind of polished.
The other thing I'll comment onwith this one I think is really
interesting is the engagementphoto style is so iconic and, my
friend, I have a lot of friendsthat are wedding photographers
(11:38):
and engagement photographers,but one friend in particular who
I'm very close with, she isalready despising this
photograph series because it'sso iconic.
Everybody wants to do it.
It's like this kind of a bluedout, a little bit colder with
these big, you know, reds andwhites, but it's like in this
(12:01):
nice, very tasteful blue, umoverlay with this.
You know this kind of warmth toit and now everybody wants,
wants that like a very kind ofintimate feel.
Uh, I feel I feel for them, Ifeel for the uh engagement ring
designers that are going to haveto make a ton more of these
(12:22):
vintage style rings.
But who knows, maybe that justmeans business is good.
Okay, let's move on from thatone.
Next, tariffs are back and backto being disruptive.
So it kind of felt like thebeginning of this year was all
about tariffs and then there waslike this big lull in like the
(12:44):
middle of the summer and nowtariffs are back to being like
super disruptive again, verytransparently, the reason why
I'm thinking about because of Ilost a project working with a
vendor that they had to pull theplug on their projects and the
(13:08):
production side of it because ofthese new tariffs related to
India.
In case you didn't know, indiangoods are now subject to a 50%
tariff.
So just to repeat that that's5-0% and that basically means
that these duties are nowdoubled from 25% to 50%.
(13:35):
And if you know anything aboutmargins, like a lot of the times
margins don't even cover 25%and now that they're covering
50%, it's just, it's just a lotand everybody is going to have
to, you know, increase theirprices from the very, very top
to the very bottom.
And I noticed that these tariffskind of send a shiver through
(13:59):
the air sometimes, and it's lessabout the dollars sometimes,
it's like less about thepercents.
A lot of times when we talkabout these tariffs, like I
don't know why, but in my head Ijust assume every single tariff
is 25% and I just assume it's.
You know, that's what the baseis.
(14:20):
Some of these tariffs are super, duper high and what I've kind
of been thinking about is theyalso are just impacting
increasingly just a lot of thelegs of the workflow and with
that globalization that we'vebeen kind of aiming towards for
a lot of years, since before Iwas born, I've learned that
every step of every productionis a lot of the times, you know
(14:44):
done overseas, or it goes fromoverseas back to the US and then
back to overseas and then backto the US to sell and it just is
increasingly adding more andmore markups and there's all
these rules behind them.
I won't get into it all becauseI'm not an expert on it, but it
feels like things are like it'slike oh, game on, things are
(15:06):
serious again.
I would love to hear, like, howpeople feel about this, because
to me it does feel like thingshave sort of changed in the past
.
I mean, this is recorded as ofSeptember 4th and increasingly I
think that the yeah, the tariffgame is back.
It just kind of has a new bite.
(15:27):
I felt it when I had a projectthat I've been working on for
several months get, you know,pulled the plug on in the last
legs, working with a vendorReally sucked, but you know what
.
That's just kind of part of it.
I think I should probably doanother episode or do the
episode on tariffs, but I stillam kind of still unsure if I
(15:50):
should get into it.
It changes so much.
So all that to say.
I hope everybody's doing allright with it.
All right, everybody.
We're going to take a quickbreak and hear a word from our
sponsor.
This episode is brought to youin part by Stone Algo's Jeweler
OS.
If you're an independentjeweler offering bridal in your
(16:12):
brick and mortar store, I needto tell you guys about what I
recently discovered that willexplode your bridal sales.
You guys, about what I recentlydiscovered that will explode
your bridal sales.
At JCK Las Vegas this year, Icame across the most impressive
customer-facing engagement ringbuilder that I've seen so far.
It's built by this companycalled Jeweler OS, like Jeweler
Operating System, and they'vebasically created a ring builder
(16:34):
that's better than what the bigbox stores have at their
disposal and it's available toindependent jewelers.
I had the founder on In theLoop a few weeks back and
they've already installed onhundreds of jewelers' websites
and whether they are punchmarksites or not, it fits perfectly
onto your site.
They also have thismind-blowing feature that
instantly converts a picture ofa ring your customer wants into
(16:55):
a free manufacturable CAD fileSuper cool.
The best part is there's nocontract, no onboarding fee, and
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All you pay is $25 per verifiedengagement ring lead and that's
it no hidden fees.
So if you're tired of notconverting your website traffic
into bridal sales and you wantto grow your store, go to
(17:17):
trytheringbuildercom Once again,that is trytheringbuildercom,
all spelled normally and playaround with it and get it
installed on your website if youlike it and maybe mention In
the Loop if you do.
Thanks.
And now back to the show, andwe're back Moving on.
(17:41):
So Punchmark actually rolledout a new feature very quietly,
and the reason why is it's onlythe second customer that's using
it.
And this is this new omnichannel experience which we
talked about one time before,but I haven't really done an
update on it because I'm kind ofwaiting for us to iron out the
(18:02):
kinks on it.
But it's now this shop, thiscase.
So what this is is when you'reonline and you see a product and
the retailer has the product intheir store, then there's the
ability to see that they have itin case nine and then go into
(18:24):
the store and be like, hey, Isaw this online and then be able
to go see it in the store.
But what's cool about it is youcan also do it in a reverse way,
where you can have the productsunlisted, unpriced, in a
display case and then have a QRcode.
(18:45):
That's a nicely designed andelegant, kind of like card that
sits on the table or you know,in a spot and then, in order to
shop this, the products that arethere they would be able to
scan the QR code, pull it up andget a collection of products
that are in that case, and whatyou basically have to do is you
(19:08):
have to be able to tag productsin a unique way and also tag
them and update them anytimethings shift around.
So let's just say, for example,this could save you time on
pricing instead of having to,you know, take off the tags,
write new tags, put them back onor print new tags.
(19:30):
You could, for example, justput them into a, into a carousel
and then update it in the edgeand it's kind of always staying
up to date online.
We only have two clients onthis.
It takes a lot of concertedeffort and this doesn't work
unless you're really kind of ontop of the game.
(19:51):
And it's very reminiscent to me.
If anybody remembers, I did anepisode back on Memorial Day of
2024.
So that would be like back inMay of 2024.
And I talked all about thisexperience, this omni-channel
experience I had at Lowe's, andit was so good and it was like
(20:12):
very much like one of thosethings.
I went and I went shopping andthey were like oh yeah, you
should just look online.
And I went online and I foundwhere the products were without
having to ask people, becauseeverything was tagged and
described in the aisle and inthe bay.
It was so accurate and that'show I, whenever I go to Lowe's
(20:34):
or Home Depot, I don't even askpeople anymore.
I just use the website and Ilook and it tells me, hey, it's
aisle 10, bay 15.
And I go in and there you go,and it's always there.
And I think that jewelry storescan kind of lean into that more,
because you should have yourproducts and your pricing up to
(20:57):
date online and the more you canhave one source of truth,
probably the better.
It's one of those things itdoes.
Yeah, it does take a kind of alot of work and I think it's one
of those like really excitingin theory.
In practice, it's almost like anice to have and it just takes
(21:20):
extra work.
Some stores would be down andperfect for this.
I just don't know 100% if everystore would be able to handle
this, but I'm excited to hearhow this second tester goes with
it.
If that's something you'reinterested in, maybe shoot me a
message.
I'd be interested in connectingyou with Ross, who's the one
(21:41):
that kind of rolls these thingsout.
All right, and now the last one.
Let's get into this.
So the last thing I wanted totalk about it's not really just
for in the loop, it kind offeels like it's in my life as
well, and I've tried to startsharing more and more about my
life.
I think one thing I'm just kindof feel like it almost feels
(22:05):
like data and ads have sort ofjumped the shark or they've uh,
it's not fun anymore.
You know what I mean.
Like the amount of data andretargeting that I've been
getting lately is so acutefeeling, I guess is almost the
(22:27):
only word to describe it.
It feels kind of like the adshave just they used to be at bay
and they used to only live inone kind of realm and now it
feels like they live everywhere.
To give an example of this,they're starting to be super
intrusive on Netflix.
(22:47):
Like I use this one familypackage with my brother and the
ads are in the middle of theepisode, and I remember Netflix
used to definitely not be that.
I understand they got to changesome things, but it's just like
the ads are also not good.
You know, the ads are very itfeels like an ad, and now this
(23:10):
episode is being recorded beforethe first game of the NFL
season.
But I watch Red Zone, and RedZone is this thing where you can
watch all the football gamesall at the same time on Sundays.
Red Zone is this thing whereyou can watch all the football
games all at the same time onSundays.
And there used to be this jokeabout, you know, seven hours of
commercial free football andyou'd lock in, you would sit
(23:30):
there and there would be no ads,so you would never have to get
up to you know, use the bathroomor like, do any of your chores
or responsibilities, becausethere's always something going
on, because there's alwayssomething going on.
But with Red Zone taking on ads, it almost sort of like it's
like a taints or sullies theexperience.
Suddenly, and even with YouTube, I used to use an ad blocker,
(23:54):
which are free and legal, butit's not like it's illegal to
have an ad blocker, it's just athing that blocks them.
But now YouTube has this thingthat prevents you from using
YouTube if you have an adblocker, which seems kind of
crazy, but you know, I have toabide by it.
And now I just see adseverywhere and this is, I mean,
(24:16):
it's pretty rich of me tocomplain, seeing as one of
Punchmark major uh things isadvertising you know, is helping
jewelers advertise.
I just feel like the amount ofdata that I'm being tracked with
is just too intense lately.
It feels uh, omnipresent and II don't know if that's by design
(24:41):
, I don't know if anythingchanged recently where it's like
you used to be able to trackthem this way and now you can
track them that way, but it doesfeel like the ads are becoming
like less fun, if that makessense.
It used to be like on Instagramoh, you liked this thing about
rock climbing, and now we'reshowing you a rock climbing ad.
(25:03):
Nowadays it feels like it'slike much more advanced than
that and it's like oh, we, youknow, we showed you, you know
this thing, and now we're goingto show you an, an AI mocked up
version of this or this um slopcontent which is like uh, ads.
(25:24):
You know those robot voicesspeaking on top of like either
ai created stuff, or um slop,which is like um, these mobile
games and just like really likepeople in minecraft jumping
around and they just have astory and it's people reading
them, but it's so mindless thatit's it's everywhere and I kind
(25:48):
of am sort of am I getting old,like I just I'm 30 now and I'm
like, oh my gosh, these ads arejust everywhere.
So this isn't, this isn'tanything like why am I
discussing this?
I don't know.
It feels kind of like ads havesort of rounded a corner.
It feels like there's adseverywhere suddenly, maybe more
(26:08):
than I want.
I don't know how I'm going toget rid of that.
It seems like I can't even sortthe original content away from
the slop and AI generatedcontent.
There's so much of it out therefrom the slop and AI generated
content.
There's so much of it out there.
Do you know where I see it themost is travel content is I've
been looking at maybe doing atrip to Asia next year and as
(26:30):
I've started looking, I've justbeen like they have so many AI
generated versions of, likeJapanese cityscapes and Japanese
walking down alleys and youthink that it's original content
, but it's not.
It's AI generated and at acertain point I caught a couple
of them where, like you cancatch them in certain ways, like
(26:53):
there's a certain camera panthat they use a lot and the
faces don't look great and I waslike, oh, that is definitely AI
.
And then I was realizing it'slike, oh man, all of this is
kind of AI driven.
So it's like I've kind ofgotten to the point where I'm
like I'm not having fun anymore.
So I thought I'd at least bringthat topic up Recently just to
(27:15):
kind of make it poignant.
Will Smith, the rapper, actor,the fresh Prince of Bel-Air,
will Smith he recently got introuble for allegedly using
AI-generated content to show hehad crowds at a concert he did.
(27:37):
They literally spun up a crowdand it looked kind of real.
But they published it and ittook people like a couple days
to realize this definitely seemslike it's not original content.
So if the Fresh Prince ofBel-Air is using AI generated
crowds for his concerts, well,maybe it's even more present
(27:59):
than you'd expect.
So just a cautionary tale,something I've been thinking
about increasingly.
Okay, well, I think that that'sprobably where I'll call it.
That's five topics that I'vebeen following.
This is talking about GoogleGemini putting jewelry on hands,
taylor Swift's engagement ring,which is a big deal, tariffs
(28:22):
and they're back and better orworse than ever, and Punchmark
with the shop, this case, andthen finally data and ads and
just kind of like a little bitof introspectiveness on it.
I think that that's where I'llend it.
Thanks, everybody.
We'll be back next week,tuesday, with another episode.
Cheers Bye.
All right, everybody, that'sthe end of the show.
(28:49):
Thanks so much for listening.
This episode was brought to youby Punchmark and produced and
hosted by me, michael Burpo.
This episode was edited by PaulSuarez with music by Ross
Cockrum.
Don't forget to leave usfeedback on punchmarkcom.
Slash, loop and rate thepodcast five stars on wherever
you're listening.
Thanks, we'll be back next week, tuesday, with another episode.
(29:11):
Cheers Bye.
Welcome to In the Loop, what this is.
I have five topics that I wasgoing to turn into individual
episodes but for whatever reasonI decided I didn't have enough
to turn each one into a fulllength, 25 to 35 minute episode
about these, and instead Idecided to do five five minute
(00:39):
segments or seven minutesegments.
So it's kind of like when yougo to clean out your fridge and
you end up eating likehamburgers and spaghetti.
I think it doesn't really gotogether, but each one is going
to be good on its own.
That's kind of what I wanted todo Five interesting jewelry
industry topics that I figuredwe should all be talking about.
They might not all go together,but I really wanted to discuss
(01:01):
them.
So listen in, thanks.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
This episode is brought to you by Punchmark, the
jewelry industry's favoritewebsite platform and digital
growth agency.
Our mission reaches way beyondtechnology.
With decades of experience andlong lasting industry
relationships, punchmark enablesjewelry businesses to flourish
in any marketplace.
We consider our clients ourfriends, as many of them have
(01:30):
been friends way before becomingclients.
Punchmark's own success comesfrom the fact that we have a
much deeper need and obligationto help our friends succeed.
Whether you're looking forbetter e-commerce performance,
business growth or campaignsthat drive traffic and sales,
punchmark's website andmarketing services were made
just for you.
It's never too late totransform your business and
(01:52):
stitch together your digital andphysical worlds in a way that
achieves tremendous growth andresults.
Schedule a guided demo today atpunchmarkcom.
Slash go.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
And now back to the show.
All right, let's get into thisthing.
Here are five topics or storiesthat I've been following that I
think have really caught my eyeand I think we should all be
paying attention to.
Really caught my eye and Ithink we should all be paying
(02:28):
attention to.
First, this Gemini AI tool.
So, full disclosure I don'treally like Gemini.
I think it's too goofy feeling.
It kind of feels like a littlebit it doesn't feel serious
enough, whereas ChatGPT sort offeels like it's like a real tool
.
I don't know.
It's like the differencebetween having, like a
professional hammer versus likeone that comes with like an Ikea
kit.
It's like this one feels likeit's ready.
(02:51):
But what I've heard aboutGemini is that it's been
tailored the most and it likebecomes its own thing the best.
Whereas Chachi PT, it alwayskind of feels like a offspring
of Chachi PT.
Whereas ChatGPT, it always kindof feels like a offspring of
ChatGPT.
It feels like it's neverstopped being what it was,
(03:11):
whereas Google Gemini a lot ofpeople say that it can really be
customized really well.
The one I'm looking at isactually my boss, dan Saroy,
who's our CPO and co-founder ofPunchmark.
He is really interested infollowing.
You know these different AItools and he sometimes is
(03:32):
reading stuff and he shares themwith us and we try out the
tools.
The one that was reallyinteresting is he shows us
Google Gemini 2.5 Flash and it'salso known as Nano Banana Okay,
and what he was using it for.
What the the tool he was usingit for is.
He was taking rings from whatwe call jewelry on white, which
is uh, you've seen it, it'sjewelry shot against a plain
(03:54):
white background.
Usually it's been edited sothat it has higher contrast, so
that the white is pure white andthe jewelry stands out, and
that that jewelry, thatphotography, is pretty much
stock, like it happens all thetime.
It's very utilitarian.
Every piece of jewelry, in myopinion, needs to have at least
two of those upwards of five ifyou're doing it right.
(04:16):
So I think that Dan was takingit in this Google Gemini.
He was using it to put it onhands, like a ring onto hands,
and what was really cool is hewasn't just using like a
solitaire engagement ring, hewas using a fashion ring and I
think he used a pair.
(04:37):
I won't say any brand names sothat no one gets mad, but he was
using like a dual band, like across band type of you know
wedding band, and he, I thinkthe prompt that he had to do the
best one was like hey, put thisring onto a female model's hand
(04:57):
and have it just be the handand shot in good lighting.
So he basically did that andwhat ended up happening was it
generated a hand, and you know,hands with AI can sometimes be a
little bit weird, becausesometimes they give them extra
fingers, sometimes they removesome fingers.
So you got to look and itdropped the ring right onto the
(05:18):
hand.
The scaling wasn't perfect, so,like I think that the ring was
a little bit smaller than itmaybe should have.
I'm looking at it right now.
It doesn't look perfect, butit's pretty darn close.
And what was really interestingis the hand was just purely
(05:38):
generated.
I think the other part of it issome of the finger lengths,
some of the digits are just like1% too long and it's hard to
even detect.
I think maybe I'm just beingtoo critical, I'm looking at it
too much, but that was the the,the one that was really
interesting.
Dan also had it uh put in a studearring on him, which uh worked
(06:03):
, but it did not get thelighting right.
So that's kind of interesting.
So what he did is he had a pairof studs on white jewelry on
white, and he took a photo ofhimself showing his ear, but
like his whole head is in it,and then he fed it in both to
this Gemini, and Gemini put oneof the studs on his ear.
(06:24):
It did not get the lightingright, meaning it looks kind of
like if you were to Photoshopone of those, you know, those
ones that were shot in a lightbox and put on his ear.
So it's not great, but I thinklike it's close.
So that's kind of interesting.
But then he also did one lastone that did not work and he
took, like, um, an earringthat's definitely a more
(06:46):
decorative earring and had ithad to put it on his daughter's
ear and that one definitelyfailed because that one it was.
I think the earring was toocomplex and it did not drop it
on her ear, it actually replacedthe earring with a different
(07:06):
earring and put it on the girl'sear.
Kind of interesting.
It had me thinking because whenit comes to selling products a
lot of the times, I think thatlifestyle photography is
increasingly one of thedifferentiators between a
jewelry store and a uh like yeah, jewelry stores kind of
(07:32):
photography set using from avendor versus what you might get
in like a brand store, forexample, like one of these big
ones that are uh like apocketbook designer, one of
those you know-consumer ones,the houses, those ones it always
seems like all theirphotography is so bang on, they
(07:53):
hired a shoot, a model withtheir jewelry on, whereas a lot
of retail stores can't afford todo this.
I wonder if this is going to bemaybe one of the futures and
one of the ways that they cankind of bridge that gap.
Okay, that is like five minuteson this topic.
Let's get into the next one.
I don't want to spend too longon each one.
It's something I am payingattention to, but the future of
(08:16):
AI influencers kind ofinteresting, kind of dystopian
too, but that's a differentconversation.
All right, next one let's talkabout the big one Taylor Swift's
ring.
I have never seen somethingjewelry related be more
mainstream than this topic.
(08:37):
In case you didn't know, taylorSwift just got engaged like a
week I guess it was the weekbefore last she was proposed to
by her boyfriend now fiance, thetight end for the Kansas City
Chief and big internetpersonality, travis Kelsey.
I don't have any opinions on it.
Good for them, man.
I mean they both sound likethey are really happy about it.
(09:01):
The engagement ring, though, isit's I just looked it up A large
, elongated antique cushion cutdiamond estimated to be between
seven and 10 carats, with a 18carat yellow gold band in an
ornate engraving.
It looks kind of vintage and Ithink that's kind of fun.
It's very much in starkcontrast to the engagement of
(09:28):
Cristiano Ronaldo and to hisfiance.
Now, that one it just it almostfelt, you know, like a really
rich person's engagement ring,whereas this one, it almost kind
of feels like it wasintentionally designed to kind
of match an aesthetic, wherethis other one, by ronaldo, uh
(09:51):
sort of feels like it was just asuper large diamond.
It's almost like that one wascelebrating the diamond, and and
then this one with Taylor Swiftwas more I don't know maybe
more like a considered, like acustom feel to it.
It was a custom ring.
I think that it is going to seta lot of trends.
(10:11):
There's already a lot of.
I don't want to say the termknockoff, because that has a
negative connotation, but I willsay like a lot of people are
taking a lot of inspiration fromit.
I saw one of our jewelers hadalready started working with a
CAD designer to make somethingvery similar, um and or just in
that kind of vein, and peoplelove that kind of stuff.
And who am I to say that theyshouldn't have a ring inspired
(10:34):
by their, you know, favorite one?
I think that that happens allthe time with different types of
fashion and I think we just sawa real like my not milestone,
but more like this is a realmoment.
I think vintage is going to havemore time.
I hope that estate sales haveeven bigger time in the sun as
people kind of look for thatmore classic look.
(10:57):
We've always been going soultra modern with everything we
do so much tech and so much um,modernality to everything we buy
, you know, from cars to, um,you know everything, luxury it
sort of is almost due for like alittle bit of like, um, you
know, uh, a change.
(11:18):
I think that people are goingto go back to these, this
handmade feel.
That's really kind of polished.
The other thing I'll comment onwith this one I think is really
interesting is the engagementphoto style is so iconic and, my
friend, I have a lot of friendsthat are wedding photographers
(11:38):
and engagement photographers,but one friend in particular who
I'm very close with, she isalready despising this
photograph series because it'sso iconic.
Everybody wants to do it.
It's like this kind of a bluedout, a little bit colder with
these big, you know, reds andwhites, but it's like in this
(12:01):
nice, very tasteful blue, umoverlay with this.
You know this kind of warmth toit and now everybody wants,
wants that like a very kind ofintimate feel.
Uh, I feel I feel for them, Ifeel for the uh engagement ring
designers that are going to haveto make a ton more of these
(12:22):
vintage style rings.
But who knows, maybe that justmeans business is good.
Okay, let's move on from thatone.
Next, tariffs are back and backto being disruptive.
So it kind of felt like thebeginning of this year was all
about tariffs and then there waslike this big lull in like the
(12:44):
middle of the summer and nowtariffs are back to being like
super disruptive again, verytransparently, the reason why
I'm thinking about because of Ilost a project working with a
vendor that they had to pull theplug on their projects and the
(13:08):
production side of it because ofthese new tariffs related to
India.
In case you didn't know, indiangoods are now subject to a 50%
tariff.
So just to repeat that that's5-0% and that basically means
that these duties are nowdoubled from 25% to 50%.
(13:35):
And if you know anything aboutmargins, like a lot of the times
margins don't even cover 25%and now that they're covering
50%, it's just, it's just a lotand everybody is going to have
to, you know, increase theirprices from the very, very top
to the very bottom.
And I noticed that these tariffskind of send a shiver through
(13:59):
the air sometimes, and it's lessabout the dollars sometimes,
it's like less about thepercents.
A lot of times when we talkabout these tariffs, like I
don't know why, but in my head Ijust assume every single tariff
is 25% and I just assume it's.
You know, that's what the baseis.
(14:20):
Some of these tariffs are super, duper high and what I've kind
of been thinking about is theyalso are just impacting
increasingly just a lot of thelegs of the workflow and with
that globalization that we'vebeen kind of aiming towards for
a lot of years, since before Iwas born, I've learned that
every step of every productionis a lot of the times, you know
(14:44):
done overseas, or it goes fromoverseas back to the US and then
back to overseas and then backto the US to sell and it just is
increasingly adding more andmore markups and there's all
these rules behind them.
I won't get into it all becauseI'm not an expert on it, but it
feels like things are like it'slike oh, game on, things are
(15:06):
serious again.
I would love to hear, like, howpeople feel about this, because
to me it does feel like thingshave sort of changed in the past
.
I mean, this is recorded as ofSeptember 4th and increasingly I
think that the yeah, the tariffgame is back.
It just kind of has a new bite.
(15:27):
I felt it when I had a projectthat I've been working on for
several months get, you know,pulled the plug on in the last
legs, working with a vendorReally sucked, but you know what
.
That's just kind of part of it.
I think I should probably doanother episode or do the
episode on tariffs, but I stillam kind of still unsure if I
(15:50):
should get into it.
It changes so much.
So all that to say.
I hope everybody's doing allright with it.
All right, everybody.
We're going to take a quickbreak and hear a word from our
sponsor.
This episode is brought to youin part by Stone Algo's Jeweler
OS.
If you're an independentjeweler offering bridal in your
(16:12):
brick and mortar store, I needto tell you guys about what I
recently discovered that willexplode your bridal sales.
You guys, about what I recentlydiscovered that will explode
your bridal sales.
At JCK Las Vegas this year, Icame across the most impressive
customer-facing engagement ringbuilder that I've seen so far.
It's built by this companycalled Jeweler OS, like Jeweler
Operating System, and they'vebasically created a ring builder
(16:34):
that's better than what the bigbox stores have at their
disposal and it's available toindependent jewelers.
I had the founder on In theLoop a few weeks back and
they've already installed onhundreds of jewelers' websites
and whether they are punchmarksites or not, it fits perfectly
onto your site.
They also have thismind-blowing feature that
instantly converts a picture ofa ring your customer wants into
(16:55):
a free manufacturable CAD fileSuper cool.
The best part is there's nocontract, no onboarding fee, and
they'll install the RingBuilder on your website super
fast.
All you pay is $25 per verifiedengagement ring lead and that's
it no hidden fees.
So if you're tired of notconverting your website traffic
into bridal sales and you wantto grow your store, go to
(17:17):
trytheringbuildercom Once again,that is trytheringbuildercom,
all spelled normally and playaround with it and get it
installed on your website if youlike it and maybe mention In
the Loop if you do.
Thanks.
And now back to the show, andwe're back Moving on.
(17:41):
So Punchmark actually rolledout a new feature very quietly,
and the reason why is it's onlythe second customer that's using
it.
And this is this new omnichannel experience which we
talked about one time before,but I haven't really done an
update on it because I'm kind ofwaiting for us to iron out the
(18:02):
kinks on it.
But it's now this shop, thiscase.
So what this is is when you'reonline and you see a product and
the retailer has the product intheir store, then there's the
ability to see that they have itin case nine and then go into
(18:24):
the store and be like, hey, Isaw this online and then be able
to go see it in the store.
But what's cool about it is youcan also do it in a reverse way,
where you can have the productsunlisted, unpriced, in a
display case and then have a QRcode.
(18:45):
That's a nicely designed andelegant, kind of like card that
sits on the table or you know,in a spot and then, in order to
shop this, the products that arethere they would be able to
scan the QR code, pull it up andget a collection of products
that are in that case, and whatyou basically have to do is you
(19:08):
have to be able to tag productsin a unique way and also tag
them and update them anytimethings shift around.
So let's just say, for example,this could save you time on
pricing instead of having to,you know, take off the tags,
write new tags, put them back onor print new tags.
(19:30):
You could, for example, justput them into a, into a carousel
and then update it in the edgeand it's kind of always staying
up to date online.
We only have two clients onthis.
It takes a lot of concertedeffort and this doesn't work
unless you're really kind of ontop of the game.
(19:51):
And it's very reminiscent to me.
If anybody remembers, I did anepisode back on Memorial Day of
2024.
So that would be like back inMay of 2024.
And I talked all about thisexperience, this omni-channel
experience I had at Lowe's, andit was so good and it was like
(20:12):
very much like one of thosethings.
I went and I went shopping andthey were like oh yeah, you
should just look online.
And I went online and I foundwhere the products were without
having to ask people, becauseeverything was tagged and
described in the aisle and inthe bay.
It was so accurate and that'show I, whenever I go to Lowe's
(20:34):
or Home Depot, I don't even askpeople anymore.
I just use the website and Ilook and it tells me, hey, it's
aisle 10, bay 15.
And I go in and there you go,and it's always there.
And I think that jewelry storescan kind of lean into that more,
because you should have yourproducts and your pricing up to
(20:57):
date online and the more you canhave one source of truth,
probably the better.
It's one of those things itdoes.
Yeah, it does take a kind of alot of work and I think it's one
of those like really excitingin theory.
In practice, it's almost like anice to have and it just takes
(21:20):
extra work.
Some stores would be down andperfect for this.
I just don't know 100% if everystore would be able to handle
this, but I'm excited to hearhow this second tester goes with
it.
If that's something you'reinterested in, maybe shoot me a
message.
I'd be interested in connectingyou with Ross, who's the one
(21:41):
that kind of rolls these thingsout.
All right, and now the last one.
Let's get into this.
So the last thing I wanted totalk about it's not really just
for in the loop, it kind offeels like it's in my life as
well, and I've tried to startsharing more and more about my
life.
I think one thing I'm just kindof feel like it almost feels
(22:05):
like data and ads have sort ofjumped the shark or they've uh,
it's not fun anymore.
You know what I mean.
Like the amount of data andretargeting that I've been
getting lately is so acutefeeling, I guess is almost the
(22:27):
only word to describe it.
It feels kind of like the adshave just they used to be at bay
and they used to only live inone kind of realm and now it
feels like they live everywhere.
To give an example of this,they're starting to be super
intrusive on Netflix.
(22:47):
Like I use this one familypackage with my brother and the
ads are in the middle of theepisode, and I remember Netflix
used to definitely not be that.
I understand they got to changesome things, but it's just like
the ads are also not good.
You know, the ads are very itfeels like an ad, and now this
(23:10):
episode is being recorded beforethe first game of the NFL
season.
But I watch Red Zone, and RedZone is this thing where you can
watch all the football gamesall at the same time on Sundays.
Red Zone is this thing whereyou can watch all the football
games all at the same time onSundays.
And there used to be this jokeabout, you know, seven hours of
commercial free football andyou'd lock in, you would sit
(23:30):
there and there would be no ads,so you would never have to get
up to you know, use the bathroomor like, do any of your chores
or responsibilities, becausethere's always something going
on, because there's alwayssomething going on.
But with Red Zone taking on ads, it almost sort of like it's
like a taints or sullies theexperience.
Suddenly, and even with YouTube, I used to use an ad blocker,
(23:54):
which are free and legal, butit's not like it's illegal to
have an ad blocker, it's just athing that blocks them.
But now YouTube has this thingthat prevents you from using
YouTube if you have an adblocker, which seems kind of
crazy, but you know, I have toabide by it.
And now I just see adseverywhere and this is, I mean,
(24:16):
it's pretty rich of me tocomplain, seeing as one of
Punchmark major uh things isadvertising you know, is helping
jewelers advertise.
I just feel like the amount ofdata that I'm being tracked with
is just too intense lately.
It feels uh, omnipresent and II don't know if that's by design
(24:41):
, I don't know if anythingchanged recently where it's like
you used to be able to trackthem this way and now you can
track them that way, but it doesfeel like the ads are becoming
like less fun, if that makessense.
It used to be like on Instagramoh, you liked this thing about
rock climbing, and now we'reshowing you a rock climbing ad.
(25:03):
Nowadays it feels like it'slike much more advanced than
that and it's like oh, we, youknow, we showed you, you know
this thing, and now we're goingto show you an, an AI mocked up
version of this or this um slopcontent which is like uh, ads.
(25:24):
You know those robot voicesspeaking on top of like either
ai created stuff, or um slop,which is like um, these mobile
games and just like really likepeople in minecraft jumping
around and they just have astory and it's people reading
them, but it's so mindless thatit's it's everywhere and I kind
(25:48):
of am sort of am I getting old,like I just I'm 30 now and I'm
like, oh my gosh, these ads arejust everywhere.
So this isn't, this isn'tanything like why am I
discussing this?
I don't know.
It feels kind of like ads havesort of rounded a corner.
It feels like there's adseverywhere suddenly, maybe more
(26:08):
than I want.
I don't know how I'm going toget rid of that.
It seems like I can't even sortthe original content away from
the slop and AI generatedcontent.
There's so much of it out therefrom the slop and AI generated
content.
There's so much of it out there.
Do you know where I see it themost is travel content is I've
been looking at maybe doing atrip to Asia next year and as
(26:30):
I've started looking, I've justbeen like they have so many AI
generated versions of, likeJapanese cityscapes and Japanese
walking down alleys and youthink that it's original content
, but it's not.
It's AI generated and at acertain point I caught a couple
of them where, like you cancatch them in certain ways, like
(26:53):
there's a certain camera panthat they use a lot and the
faces don't look great and I waslike, oh, that is definitely AI
.
And then I was realizing it'slike, oh man, all of this is
kind of AI driven.
So it's like I've kind ofgotten to the point where I'm
like I'm not having fun anymore.
So I thought I'd at least bringthat topic up Recently just to
(27:15):
kind of make it poignant.
Will Smith, the rapper, actor,the fresh Prince of Bel-Air,
will Smith he recently got introuble for allegedly using
AI-generated content to show hehad crowds at a concert he did.
(27:37):
They literally spun up a crowdand it looked kind of real.
But they published it and ittook people like a couple days
to realize this definitely seemslike it's not original content.
So if the Fresh Prince ofBel-Air is using AI generated
crowds for his concerts, well,maybe it's even more present
(27:59):
than you'd expect.
So just a cautionary tale,something I've been thinking
about increasingly.
Okay, well, I think that that'sprobably where I'll call it.
That's five topics that I'vebeen following.
This is talking about GoogleGemini putting jewelry on hands,
taylor Swift's engagement ring,which is a big deal, tariffs
(28:22):
and they're back and better orworse than ever, and Punchmark
with the shop, this case, andthen finally data and ads and
just kind of like a little bitof introspectiveness on it.
I think that that's where I'llend it.
Thanks, everybody.
We'll be back next week,tuesday, with another episode.
Cheers Bye.
All right, everybody, that'sthe end of the show.
(28:49):
Thanks so much for listening.
This episode was brought to youby Punchmark and produced and
hosted by me, michael Burpo.
This episode was edited by PaulSuarez with music by Ross
Cockrum.
Don't forget to leave usfeedback on punchmarkcom.
Slash, loop and rate thepodcast five stars on wherever
you're listening.
Thanks, we'll be back next week, tuesday, with another episode.
(29:11):
Cheers Bye.
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