Imagine a store where you can buy your engagement and wedding rings and say “I do” under a resplendent Tiffany glass ceiling. At Silverscape Designs in Northampton, Massachusetts, it’s easy to fall in love with the Art Deco ambience and the made-in-America collections of jewelry and gifts.
“Couples propose here, they take their wedding pictures here, and we recently celebrated a wedding here,” relates general manager Jane Merrill. The store, she notes, is in a bank building that dates back to 1928. “People come in to see the original interior that has been preserved. We are a destination stop.”
Customers go to the teller windows to complete their transactions, she continues. The appraiser has her own window, as does the marketing manager.
“Our customer is anyone from the 25-year-old all the way up to people who have been with us for 45 years,” Merrill says.
Silverscape Designs’ location in western Massachusetts contributes to its popularity. Close to the Berkshires, the store attracts tourists from the neighboring states of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. But more importantly, it is situated at the heart of the region’s five colleges: Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, Smith, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
“Students and parents come to the store,” says Merrill, though there is a caveat: “For four years, they are really good shoppers, and then we don’t see them again.”
Handcrafted heritage
Silverscape Designs is still guided by the vision of its founder, Denis Perlman, who believed jewelry should “allow each individual to express themselves uniquely.” The focus is on artisanal products, either crafted locally or made in the US. However, Merrill admits it is becoming more of a challenge to “keep to the core of who we are” and find artisans who are not selling their jewelry online.
“We’re not trendy; our collections tend to be more classic in style,” she says. “We’re definitely a Lazare Diamonds store.” Other top sellers include Pe Jay Creations, Frederic Sage and Ed Levin for silver. Custom work accounts for about one third of sales.
Some 75% of Silverscape’s customers still purchase diamond engagement rings, according to Merrill. While she gets a few calls for alternative options such as colored gemstones, she does not want to go down the path of lab-grown diamonds. “I think once you explain to a customer that most diamonds are ethically sourced, it really eases their concern,” she says.
She’s seen a trend in estate and vintage, spurred by increased interest on the part of younger customers. “They love to buy these pieces because of the beauty of the design and the fact that the design is no longer made,” she explains. More importantly, “a lot of the younger generation believes in repurposing jewelry. They have no problem buying engagement rings out of the estate case.”
Merrill applies the same artisanal criteria to the giftware and home products the store sells, many of which are also environmentally friendly. These include handcrafted, lead-free crystal by Simon Pearce and MOVA Globes that utilize solar technology.
Investing in staff
Finding young sales talent with an interest in learning the business “from the bottom up” poses the most difficult challenge, Merrill says. Too often, people want to make big money without earning any certifications. However, one young woman Merrill hired as a part-time employee demonstrated a flair for sales. “She had no experience in jewelry but was so good that I offered to pay for her [Gemological Institute of America (GIA)] training as long as she agreed to work for six months after the successful completion of each course. I’ve got four years now. It’s a win-win for both of us.”
As for price-point competition from the internet, Merrill believes “higher-end customers want to come into a store and see the jewelry, feel it, try it on. We’ve never been a low-market seller, but I do believe that we have to pay attention to that market because we have to sell against it.”
Merrill thinks the industry is experiencing a shake-up, comparable to the ’80s and ’90s, when big-box stores and malls forced smaller retailers to rethink or even forfeit their businesses.
Sometimes that means taking it one day at a time, or maybe a couple of months. But Merrill is confident that the “good ones will survive. And I know we are a good one.”
Image: silverscapedesigns.comArticle from the Rapaport Magazine - November 2019. To subscribe click here.