STEWART BRANDT
OWNER
H. BRANDT JEWELERS
NATICK, MASSACHUSETTS
“Generally, I don’t have a lot of women self-purchasers come
into the store, but this past February, that is an area that has been off the
charts. They bought diamond fashion jewelry. Inside-out diamond hoop earrings,
a diamond-solitaire necklace, a diamond halo necklace, a diamond bar necklace
and some sterling-silver earrings were all self-purchases. Three of the women
came in and said they didn’t have valentines so they were buying jewelry for
themselves. The price point went from $75 for the sterling-silver earrings up
to $3,000 for a diamond-solitaire necklace. I hope this is something that I
will be seeing more of.”
RUSS CAPLAN
PRESIDENT
TOPPER FINE JEWELERS
BURLINGAME, CALIFORNIA
“We are in the San Francisco Bay area, which is a
particularly independent part of the country; it’s the tech breadbasket of the
country. And we have women customers who are engineers and tech executives. And
we sell them jewelry that is meaningful, which makes it meaningful to us.
“Most often, we are seeing a combination of designer fashion
pieces — such as jewelry by Marco Bicego, Roberto Coin — as well as classic
pieces like diamond stud earrings and line bracelets in self-purchases. That
represents the vast bulk of that kind of business.
“Coupled with that, we also consistently do custom designs
for people, which involves taking pieces they have and might not love and
restyling them to make them into new pieces that they do love. And we’re
successful at it.”
STEVEN HUG
PRESIDENT
HUG JEWELERS
CINCINNATI, OHIO
“I do see some women self-purchasing — we do have women
coming in and buying themselves jewelry in both the smaller price-point range
and also in larger amounts. A lot of women will come in and impulse buy.
Under-$100 items are very popular for this. In the over-$100 up to around
$10,000 range, the purchase is a little more well-thought-out. Often it’s
something they have been considering for a while. And they want to sit down and
look at several examples and hear about everything. They like to get into a lot
of the specifics about the jewelry, which is fun to do.
“We also do a lot of custom work, where women bring in pieces
that they want us to reset. It can be heirloom jewelry, items that they’ve
inherited but that don’t fit their tastes or lifestyle, as well as diamonds,
which we will reset. That’s been very popular at our store because people know
we’re good at custom jewelry. Color stones also have been really good,
including aquamarine and blue topaz. And the big three stones — sapphire, ruby
and emeralds — remain very strong.”
BRAD KOEN
CO-OWNER
JOE KOEN & SON JEWELERS
AUSTIN, TEXAS
“I do see women coming in to purchase for themselves as a
trend. Women do treat themselves to a Rolex watch to celebrate a milestone they
have achieved. And sometimes, it’s that they have a deadline and to get happier
about working on the project and meeting that deadline, they come in and buy a
piece of jewelry as a treat for themselves.
“We’ve found women are buying fashion diamond jewelry and
anything in earrings. It’s not necessarily high-dollar jewelry items that they
are self-purchasing. It can be $700 rings or earrings or pendants. It’s
whatever is new in style — that’s what they’re buying for themselves. And we
are stocking jewelry that women might come in and choose in that category.
Really small diamond pieces are popular, rather than a big diamond necklace —
they want the petite-looking jewelry now.”
Article from the Rapaport Magazine - April 2018. To subscribe click here.