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Cover
Retail Rap
By Phyllis Schiller
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| Mark Schneider |
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 shape, size, style is trending right now in bridal?”
“We’re still selling rounds strongly. There is a little bit of carryover into princess and cushions but rounds are still number one. White gold is still topping the charts, followed by rose and then a little yellow. What customers will spend is all over the map. In terms of size, it used to be we were selling mostly carat-plus. Now, we seem to be selling smaller stones but bigger mountings. Halo is still the choice for settings, with some vintage, some millegrain.”
“Our bridal business is going along strong. We’re a very traditional area, so we still do halo rings and primarily round brilliant center stones, a carat or above. Our average ring sale is $5,000 to $8,000. Yellow gold is starting to come back. Another trend that’s definitely hitting here is an alternative center stone — morganite or an aquamarine or something like that.
“Custom is trending up and we do offer full custom services. We have over 150 ring prototypes that you can play with, pull one or two out and say, ‘I like this’ and ‘I like this.’ And then we have a big-screen TV and we sit down together with the customer and we design on CounterSketch. But what we’re finding is it typically leads people back to our inventory.”
“Bridal business is good. As far as shapes, it’s cushions and rounds and ovals. And it’s still white gold and platinum — yellow gold, not so much. In terms of total purchase in our store, anywhere from $4,000 to $15,000 is our bread-and-butter.
“We are doing a bunch of custom work. People want something unique. A lot of time it’s the halo design, but with a little twist.”
“Cushion shape halo or a simple, straight diamond-set shank is what’s selling, primarily 1 carat and up. We’re doing a lot of one-and-a-half to 2 carats lately. Princess cuts and cushions have had a little run because the price of round is so high. We’ve had a nice run on ovals, too. Settings are white metal but I have done a little bit of rose gold and two-tone. Even with the hundreds of settings we have, we still end up custom making three to five rings a week. In terms of budgets, they will come in and say, ‘I want to spend $12,000 or $15,000.’”
“Our normal stock-in-trade is around a 1-carat, but recently, we’ve been getting a lot of requests and had a lot of sales for three-quarter. Average price of the ring, three-quarter carats total with mounting, is $4,000 to $5,000. Cushion has been our most requested fancy previously, but just recently, we’ve been getting a lot of requests for the older shapes, which I find interesting. Someone came in and asked for a marquise and liked it. We’ve also sold a pear shape and had two requests for heart shapes, which we thought was because of Lady Gaga’s ring. Of course, it wasn’t the same size as hers.
“Halo still remains strong. Customers pretty much choose the styles we have in the cases. We have a couple of designer lines, such as Simon G. and Verragio, and then we have generic lines that we carry as well. We get some custom requests, but it’s mainly what’s in stock.”
“We’re kind of all over the place. In the past month, round still dominates but we’ve sold a couple of princess cuts and pricewise, we’ve been from $4,500 to $10,000. Sizes have been half-carat to just under a carat. We’ve done a couple of custom settings, two just solitaires and one a remount, upgrading the diamond.
“A lot of the people who we’ve had an opportunity to talk to are definitely more educated about buying. Once you start injecting quality, then the bargain hunting goes out the window.”
“Right now, we are selling rounds; they’re the most traditional. We’ve seen people spending from $4,000 to $7,000. The price range has been climbing as things get better for everyone. The specialty cuts, the more antique cuts, are becoming a little more popular. Radiant cuts and the emerald cuts and cushions are starting to become more popular, which I love to see.
“The majority of our bridal is choosing the halo settings but there are the others who don’t want to follow that trend and they want something different. So our custom design has really been picking up, where people pull different elements from different rings and make the setting their own. Depending on the price point, I would say people are shooting for over a carat but if they’re looking for a lower price point, it’s anything from three-quarters of a carat on up. But I haven’t seen anything smaller than that lately.”Article from the Rapaport Magazine - June 2015. To subscribe click here.
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