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How Were Holidays Sales?
By Phyllis Schiller
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| Meredith Marks |
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: “How did the holiday season measure up? What were your best sellers?”
“I would say it was a consistent holiday — sort of in the middle. We were coming off of a strong year in general, which can be both a good thing and a bad thing for the holidays. Sometimes, it means you’ve already sold something that might have sold at Christmas. We saw some of that but we were generally pleased with how the season went and it concluded a year where we were very pleased.
“This holiday season was fairly comparable to prior years in terms of traffic. We aren’t a transactional business per se; it’s more relationship driven and more unique pieces that we sell. Diamonds did well. The classics continue to sell well. Diamond stud earrings are always great for the holiday, but also diamond pendants. I felt the more significant middle price point did better and not so much for the lower end, under $2,500, when it came to diamond jewelry. The $3,000 to $8,000 range was more active.”
“We had a good, strong Christmas; we were up from 2015. We sell Pandora and our Pandora traffic was up. I had a really nice sapphire ring sale that was just under $34,000. I had a couple of nice sales over $10,000. Color sales, which had been down for us for a while, were pretty strong. In terms of diamonds — if we include November, diamonds were up, too. The year as a whole was very good. The first quarter was horrid but we made a respectable amount of our goals. We’re just starting to tie things up, but I think the year was up.”
“This was a pretty good holiday for us. Traffic was down but our volume was up. There were more big sales and fewer medium sales. A lot of big diamond studs — 4 carat and up — and a lot of diamond necklaces —10-carat, 15-carat, 20-carat diamond necklaces, which was a little unusual. We sold quite a bit of hoops with big diamonds— $10,000 to $30,000, 1-inch diamond hoops. Sales were spread out, with a little bit of a rush at the end, which is usual. The last ten days before Christmas were when most of the business was written. But there was a lot of business written at the end of November, beginning of December; we had a lot of big sales during that time period. The year in general is pretty flat, a little up… no records or anything. We’re primarily a bridal store, so we get that business but what’s a little weaker is the self-purchasing woman, and people buying for birthdays or anniversaries is slower.”
“For us, I would say it was a very odd season in that it was early rather than late. We had an incredible November all the way through early December. Then traffic got thin and December was a little soft. Overall, we will have a slightly lower season but we will have a record year.
“We did very, very well with David Yurman and Rolex. Bridal was also very strong for us. We had a trunk show in early November with Charles Krypell, which was stellar, and diamond studs have been a consistent seller.”
“We are up from 2015, so we’re slightly optimistic going into the new year. We saw movement back to tennis bracelets, which was something new for us. We basically do a lot more custom pieces, which was true this holiday. We do a lot more with diamonds. We had more fashion sales than bridal, which was surprising. We had a run on bracelets.”
“I’ll be blunt, last year sucked. This year, the holiday sales didn’t hit until late, which scared all of us. It was dead until the week before Christmas and then it rocked.
“This year, it was weird because things that we usually sell, like tennis bracelets and diamond studs, we barely sold any of. This year it was fashion jewelry, just plain gold and also with stones. We sold a lot of color this year — diamond fashion, color fashion — but it wasn’t what we usually sell. We sold a lot of Marco Bicego and a lot of our branded lines. It was different. But I was happy to have a Christmas season. We’re ahead this year from 2015.Article from the Rapaport Magazine - January 2017. To subscribe click here.
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