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U.S. Retail
By Lara Ewen
This past winter was tough for retailers across the U.S. Record cold and debilitating snowstorms in many parts of the country made an already bleak season feel that much worse. Even in places where the temperatures stayed reasonable, retailers felt glad to let the weak end to 2014 limp out quietly. In its wake, a more robust shopping ethos emerged. Although January and February were slow, the year still started off well, on average, and with spring forecasts on the horizon and the summer wedding season getting underway, store owners felt bullish about the coming months. It seemed that the gloom finally lifted, and with it came upbeat spirits and increased sales.
For the Northeast, it seemed that spring had rarely been a more welcome sight. “The winter was so brutally snowy and cold after Christmas,” said Kevin Gorkofsky, owner of Kevin Edward Jewelers in Avon, Connecticut. “People have to go to the grocery store no matter what, but jewelry is an emotional need. So now that spring is here, people are coming back and the wedding band season is starting.” Even for businesses that saw the worst of the winter weather, sales are up. “We’re more than 10 percent over 2014, and 5 percent over our budgeted numbers for the year,” said Kathy Corey, vice president of personnel and merchandising at Day’s Jewelers, with five stores in Maine and one in New Hampshire. “It’s truly amazing in spite of the horrific snowstorms and store closings we encountered.” Numbers were equally positive in the South, which was not subjected to the kind of winter trials that left parts of the country buried. “Business this year is going quite well,” said Richard Lee Mathis, owner of Symmetry Jewelers in New Orleans, Louisiana, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. “Sales have been fine, and we’ve been selling quite a few antique diamonds. The economy here in New Orleans is still fairly strong, and the optimism is pretty good.” Of course, even with good numbers, optimism is a carefully guarded commodity. “I finally had a chance to go over the numbers for the beginning of 2015, and I wouldn’t exactly say that it was a ‘great start,’” said Tami Toms, general manager of Carreras Jewelers in Richmond, Virginia. “The sales figures were up from 2014 but the expenses from December tend to catch up in January. There was definitely more traffic in the store. We did a different promotion for Valentine’s Day that brought in many new clients.” In the West, traffic was also up. In fact, business was so brisk that Babs Noelle, owner of Alara Jewelry in Bozeman, Montana, said she was actually short-staffed, and hoped to find more people to help her handle the traffic. “Business is great,” said Noelle, who plans to relaunch her website later this year. “In fact, business is even better than 2014. My Christmas was flat, or maybe we saw, like, a 2 percent gain. But business year on year is great. We grew 11 percent.”
As new customers come to the stores and old customers begin to return, retailers are also thinking about restocking, which naturally leads to discussions about the upcoming Vegas trade shows. “I haven’t been to Vegas in years, and this year I’m going to try and go,” said Gorkofsky. “I like to bring a lot of different ideas, and after a while, being on the East Coast, you need to see what different vendors have.” Gorkofsky, who also plans to attend the JA show in New York, said that there was a significant uptick in customization requests at his store. “Customizing is the big thing,” he said. “Everything looks the same after a while, and I think the young generation today wants to be different.” Noelle, who is also attending JCK this year, is similarly looking for things that are unusual. “When I go, I hang out at Couture a lot, and at JCK, I limit myself to the Design Center, Rising Stars and the International Center,” she said. “I see the future there. And what’s interesting for me, because of things like Pinterest, people are empowered to believe in the possibilities. Once people start to be aware that crazy is possible, they’ll start asking for crazy. So I establish relationships with people who have a specialized skill that allows me products that my competitors don’t have.”
For Corey, the outlook is okay, but depends on reaching a new, younger consumer. “I expect a moderate increase in sales from 2014, likely in the single digits,” she said. “Competition is shrinking or consolidating, but the desire to own fine jewelry is also waning. Young customers don’t shop traditional stores like they did a couple of decades ago, so to stand out, we must be relevant to them. As jewelry retailers, that translates into placing a lot of effort into understanding them, knowing how to communicate with them and looking at the way we do business in unconventional ways. The rear-view mirror only teaches us lessons from the past — that’s where it ends.”Article from the Rapaport Magazine - April 2015. To subscribe click here.
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