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Will the Holidays Be Merry?
By Phyllis Schiller
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| Alishaev Brothers |
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 your expectations for the holidays? What do you think will be your best sellers?”
“It’s been a good year, so I anticipate it being a good Christmas. One of the things we have seen is an uptick in our bridal, and some larger stones, which is kind of exciting. I’m hoping that’s a trend that will continue through the holidays. This is also the time when fashion jewelry becomes important, so we are certainly prepared for that. This has been a great year for diamond earrings and we think that some of the other basics like diamond bracelets will be good…they’ve been good so far. We’re also fingers crossed that it will be a good season for color. If anything’s been soft during the past year, it has been color. And that’s something I have a passion for and I inventory pretty heavily, so hopefully that will be important.”
“Our Upper Peninsula pieces — shaped like Michigan’s Upper Peninsula — tend to be very, very popular. They make great gifts. We also do a lot of custom; there’s usually a major influx of custom at this time of year, and we’ve already begun seeing that. I’ve also seen a lot of people looking for earrings, mostly with gemstones, so far this year. It seems to be something that people are shopping for.
“We tend to keep a pretty wide array of gemstones in the store, especially precious gemstones, and we always keep all the birthstone gemstones on hand all year long. It’s been a good year so far and, of course, we feel it’s going to be one of the best holidays yet.”
“Based on the past two months, I would say the holidays could be very good. Diamonds are selling. People have been coming in for engagements and buying rather than just looking, which is nice to see. In terms of specific holiday items, we just got into stocking some lower-end merchandise, nicer silver pieces — $100 to $300. But otherwise, we decided a few years ago not to buy into the holidays; there were so many holiday seasons that we got hurt. We always have enough merchandise and it seems like unless customers come in at the last minute, you never have exactly what they want and you end up ordering it in, anyway. So I really don’t stock up for the holidays. Inventory is the killer for jewelers, anyway.”
“I think people are getting away from fine jewelry, aside from engagement rings. People don’t get dressed up in our area. The big item is engagement rings, but after that it’s maybe birthstone rings, color stone rings, and sterling silver jewelry, which we hadn’t carried before at all. But you have to have the price-point pieces.
“This year, so far, has not been good — election years usually aren’t — so hopefully people will get over that and get out and shop. But I’m definitely not expecting it to be a record year.”
“We’re doing something very different this year. We’ve decided to hold an inventory liquidation event through the holidays. We’re pretty optimistic. We have never had a storewide off-price event so far in 16 years. So we’re anticipating a good bit of market response to this. We’re looking for sales across the board, but we’re especially heavy in diamond basics.
“We’ve drafted a letter to our clients saying that we’re not going out of business but we’re preparing ourselves for the future. We’re anticipating a more streamlined assortment with a sharper focus on the categories we’re choosing to carry. We’re also looking into steps to provide higher value for our clients and so there’s a number of components to doing that. But our world is changing and you have to give more to your clients in order to be successful. To watch margins and provide good prices, you have to take certain inventory steps.” Article from the Rapaport Magazine - December 2016. To subscribe click here.
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