Jewelers tap tech for innovative marketing

In Yiwu, Zhejiang province, globally renowned as the "capital of small commodities", speed is the ultimate currency.

The city is home to over 8,000 jewelry enterprises and 3,000 factories, producing over 1 million types of products that are sold to more than 100 countries and regions. Accounting for two-thirds of the domestic market and two-fifths of the international market, Yiwu sees nearly 10,000 new trendy items launched daily. In this fast-fashion ecosystem, the ability to quickly produce high-quality visual marketing materials is vital.

Historically, jewelry companies relied heavily on human models and professional photography teams. A single product image could cost up to hundreds of yuan, and the production cycle often stretched to one or two weeks. This sluggish pace severely bottlenecked the rapid product turnover required in today's hyper-competitive e-commerce landscape, leaving smaller merchants struggling to keep up.

Sensing this critical market need, China Mobile Zhejiang Branch has formed an "AIGC + E-commerce Scenario Commando" team. After conducting in-depth research into the jewelry industry belt, they launched the "AI E-commerce Xingcan" platform.

Powered by advanced large language models and multimodal technology, the platform acts as a 24/7 "silicon employee". Merchants simply upload a smartphone photo of their product, and within 40 seconds, artificial intelligence generates a complete set of five commercial-grade images. A promotional video takes just three minutes.

Lin Muyun, owner of Zhuoheng Jewelry, has witnessed firsthand the transformative power of this technology. "Our company launches an average of 100 new products every day, which means we need to simultaneously generate 500 images and 200 videos for domestic and international platforms," Lin said. "With the AI platform, efficiency has surged by 90 percent, and our visual production costs have plummeted by 96 percent. The most direct impact is the noticeable increase in customer stickiness. Last year, our e-commerce client base grew by 12 percent, and our cross-border sales now account for 50 percent of our total business."

Lin emphasized that the true value lies beyond mere cost-cutting. "AI has eliminated massive amounts of hidden opportunity costs. In the past, we had a bloated workforce where highly skilled designers were trapped in repetitive 'cog-in-the-machine' tasks, sometimes spending three months revising a single image based on vague client feedback," Lin said. "Now, AI instantly visualizes ideas. It frees our core talent to focus on 'soul' tasks — actual product research, development and strategic operations."

The platform is also democratizing technology for smaller players. China Mobile has introduced a "token operation model" that provides inclusive computing power, lowering the barrier to entry for small and medium-sized enterprises.

For instance, Li Chong, owner of Qintong Jewelry, runs a shop with her college-aged daughter. By using the AI platform to generate personalized scene images and build a unique personal IP around her daughter's image, the mother-daughter duo saves between 500,000 yuan ($73,620) and 600,000 yuan in photography fees annually, allowing them to redirect their energy entirely toward product development and store operations.

As AI-generated content proliferates, concerns regarding copyright and platform compliance naturally arise. China Mobile has proactively integrated safeguards to protect merchants.

Hong Hui, project manager at China Mobile Jinhua Branch, has addressed these operational risks. "Before any commercial image is generated, the uploaded photos undergo strict automated compliance and copyright checks within our system, aligning with national data standards," Hong said.