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Retail Rap
By Phyllis Schiller
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| Schaffrath |
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: “With the price of platinum closer to gold these days, are you seeing an increase of customers choosing platinum for bridal?”
“I would say yes, they are. It’s not overwhelming, because the price difference is still somewhat great due to the purity and density of platinum. But with the raw material prices coming down, the pricing is closer than it has been in a long time. And so yes, some people are opting to go platinum. And some vendors price more strictly by the price of the metals, so they mark it up differently and that helps in transitioning people into buying a platinum piece.
“We’re trying to push platinum more and we always have because it’s an upgrade. We have always tried to do that. But it’s a little easier now, for sure.”
“People who love platinum were buying it when platinum was high and they’re still buying it now that platinum is lower. It’s not swaying them. Because the bottom line is that a platinum ring still costs a lot more than a gold ring. The fact that the commodity price has changed hasn’t changed the labor cost and all the other things we talk about when we’re making a platinum ring.”
“Platinum has been appealing to our customers for probably the past 15 years, maybe a little more. I don’t think people have noticed that the price has gone down. I think that’s a nice selling point when you’re talking about platinum. But I don’t know if our customers would really come in and say, ‘Hey, I know platinum has gone down in price, let’s do platinum.’ Platinum is close to the price of gold now. However, here in this neck of the woods, Fairfield County, at least my customers, they’re not saying, ‘let’s buy platinum now.’ I think it’s a good talking point, though.
“A lot of our business is anniversary or celebrations other than bridal, so it’s a big segment for us. For instance, we just quoted a customer a price on a platinum five-stone ring with pink sapphires and diamonds. And when she asked us what the price would be in white gold, I think that’s where it’s helpful that the price of platinum is down a little bit. It helps customers to realize it’s not that much more expensive, although the labor is a little more intense and that adds to the price. Platinum makes a better finished product. We always highly recommend it.”
“The lower pricing of platinum isn’t an issue for us. We rarely get anyone in who wants it. They’re asking for white gold. We’ve had a few customers go to yellow gold. It used to be that no one was asking for yellow gold, but it’s starting to come around. Yellow gold is making a comeback.”
“Platinum is definitely more available for people to buy now. It’s definitely something that we’ve always encouraged people to buy. But quite honestly, business hasn’t been the best since the holidays. This is all sort of happening when people aren’t buying anyway.”
“Here, we tend to push people toward platinum anyway, especially for engagement rings. And we always have. So unless it’s a very price-conscious person, we pretty much lead with that. I would say 75 percent to 80 percent of our engagement rings are going to be in platinum. As far as fashion jewelry, there is more leaning toward white gold or yellow gold compared to platinum.”
“I get very few questions about platinum from my customers. It’s hard enough to sell white gold, let alone platinum.”
“For us, I would say platinum pricing hasn’t made a difference. We don’t do a big bridal but the bridal that we do is often in platinum. And I don’t think the price has made a significant difference. We do not do a lot of fashion jewelry in platinum. It’s bridal or remounting a diamond. I usually talk about platinum in terms of the durability issue, rather than price, especially with micropavé. Customers do choose white gold and we do work with Dawes and some of their designs have been in yellow and in rose gold. But the majority of our bridal sales are in platinum.”Article from the Rapaport Magazine - March 2015. To subscribe click here.
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