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Cover
Retail Rap
By Phyllis Schiller
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Jade Trau for Forevermark®
Free Bird Halo Pendant. |
The 4Cs are not the only things that make a piece of diamond jewelry a sales winner. In an ongoing series, Rapaport Magazine explores the “3Ws” — what’s selling, what’s not and why — by going straight to the people who really know — jewelry retailers. Each month, we ask a sampling of retailers to comment on the important issues that are facing the industry today. Here is what they had to say when asked: “What are you doing to increase holiday foot traffic in your store?”
“Our main effort is doing a new website. And we’re doing geofencing and a lot more, trying to connect with our customers through social media. We’re advertising on Facebook, newspapers, websites. We’re still doing magazines and billboards, but in terms of dollars and time, we’re putting more into our website. We have a full-time social media person now and she’s doing everything she can to increase followers on Facebook and get us on Pinterest and all the different platforms.”
“We had some new lines that we brought in from the Vegas shows, mostly fashion in price points from $150 on up to $1,500, with and without gems. We have eight events scheduled from mid-October to December 13. Included are a Heather Moore trunk show and a Forevermark diamond event and sneak-peak Saturdays, where we bring in vendors and get a feeling of what our clients think about them. As always, we’re also doing wish lists. And we are once again participating in the town’s Holiday Stroll.”
“We typically push every button. We do everything we can find to do on social media, and during the next three months, we’ll probably have six or possibly more in-store events. We also have a magazine that we produce five times a year and that goes out shortly and it’s always well received. In terms of merchandise, we have several new vendors, including LeVian and Forevermark and others.”
“We’re predominantly a custom specialty store. We’ll have some unique, nonpromotional radio advertisements and we’ll send a direct-mail piece to our past clientele. We’re only getting into social media in a minor way. We don’t see the return on it — it’s almost more work than it’s worth. It’s a full-time job just keeping track of email addresses. And we’re not that thrilled with Facebook. We’re not a promotion type of store.”
“We are doing an event in conjunction with a local women’s shelter, Bethlehem Haven, to help build awareness with men. The shelter approached us about creating a fun, interesting evening in-store event that would appeal to men. We’re calling it ‘Watches and Wheels,’ and we are partnering with Tesla Motors, the electric car company, and a vintage watch and estate jewelry dealer. It’s planned for mid-November and that’s kind of the kickoff for us to try to get people into the holiday mind-set. We do want them to make an evening of it with their wives or significant others, who hopefully will fill out wish lists while they’re here. Ten percent of sales go to the shelter.
“We’re also doing some of the things we always do, including Christmas mailings to our clients and a holiday card with our family on it, and extending our hours. We have new merchandise that we introduce every year, fashion jewelry mostly.”
“We have lots of new merchandise and we do two holiday parties every year — a Rolex event and a Christmas party in the beginning of December. We also get involved with local media for their gift guide, local magazines and newspaper. We do well with our designer fashion lines and we’re also really focusing on diamonds for the holidays: classic diamond pendants, diamond bracelets.”
“We have several parties where we serve hors d’oeuvres and cocktails; those have always been big winners for us over the years. We had a party for our anniversary, which was in October, and then we do a holiday party in December. We’re doing more in estate jewelry than we have in the past and at the parties we have different vendors participate. We’re also doing a Christmas catalog where we feature some of our vendors like Simon G. and Michele watches and a few others.
“We’re really focusing more on social media than in the past. Where we might have done flyers, we’re sending out tweets and emails to customers and using social media more than ever. We have a pretty big presence on Facebook and we maintain a 5-star Yelp review. We find that to be pretty important and it drives many customers into the store. So we’re always mindful of that in areas of customer service.”
“Business is more and more competitive and we have to be on top of our game on all fronts. And that means special events for customers, it means very carefully choosing merchandise we think will appeal to customers and it means producing a nice catalog. And all of this is in the face of competition that doesn’t necessarily do these things or have these costs. But that’s the nature of brick-and-mortar. We usually have a big blowout event for our general customer base and several smaller events with one designer or one diamond vendor that are very targeted.
“It’s difficult to predict exactly what type of merchandise will sell by category, but I can by price point. The middle market — $10,000 plus or minus — has largely disappeared. And what we have left are lower-end pieces, say under $5,000, or higher-end pieces, over $15,000. That middle of the market can vary from store to store, but we see lower price points and higher price points selling and nothing in the middle.”Article from the Rapaport Magazine - November 2014. To subscribe click here.
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