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U.S. Retail
By Lara Ewen
Jewelry retailers are reporting positive sales all around for the first quarter of 2015 and while the upswing isn’t big, it’s certainly good news. Customers are buying bigger and more expensive pieces, and some stores are seeing an increase in that ever-elusive younger crowd, which for the past few years has spent more time online than in brick-and-mortar establishments. Some retailers credit the uptick in traffic and the under-30 set to an increased push to connect through social media outlets, including Instagram and Pinterest. Hopes are high that this trend will continue through the end of the year, and that this change may be the beginning of a new normal for the industry.
Compared to this time in 2014, sales are better overall, even if they’re not always stable month to month. “We look at 2014 and compare it to 2015, month on month, and it’s good,” said Mike Lordo, president of Lordo’s Diamonds in Ladue, Missouri. “January was great, year on year, but February was bad, although winter overall was relatively easy so I don’t think it was weather related. Then we had a good March, and April is good.” Business is improving, though somewhat unsteadily, across the country. “I think we’re on par with 2014, and we’re on an uphill swing, but it won’t come back really quick,” said John Nichols, sales manager at Huntington Jewelers in Las Vegas. “When the recession hit, sales went down really quickly, but they won’t go up quickly. Right now, it’s like starting your own business all over again. But we’re still alive, and the recession is over, even though jewelers will be the last ones to realize it. Even engagement sales had dropped off, but that’s coming back. And instead of buying the online cheap stuff, customers are coming into our store for the better stuff.”
It seems that the economy — and its shaky but mostly positive outlook — has brought back not just more traffic, but good feelings, too. “Business is going really well,” said Blanca Arnao, buyer at Eve J. Alfillé Gallery and Studio in Evanston, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. “Business has its ups and downs, and I think the economy plays a big role for everybody. The first quarter of the year is a little careful during tax time, but things are still moving. There’s nothing we have to worry about.” One of the reasons some retailers are feeling positive is because of the kind of traffic that’s beginning to come in. “Business is awesome,” said Kathy Cary, stone and diamond buyer and graduate gemologist at Skeie’s Jewelers in Eugene, Oregon. “But it’s a different world now. A lot of the customers we had before the recession are not our clients anymore. Now we have a younger client base. We did a lot of advertising, and we hired a lot of younger salespeople. Our Instagram is great and our Facebook is darn good. So I’m thinking it’s kind of a blue-sky year.” For some store owners, even bad weather over the past few months did not hurt sales. “After a major showroom renovation, and taking into account the horrendous late February weather, we have seen a first-quarter increase of 10 percent over 2014,” said Hy Goldberg, owner of Safian & Rudolph Jewelers in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Goldberg, who plans to attend the Vegas shows this year, is also expecting to see better diamond prices. “We anticipate diamond prices will continue to drop, which we hope will lead to increasing sales.”
Goldberg will not be the only retailer heading to Vegas this year, of course. For many, this is an important annual scouting trip. “We go to Vegas most years,” said Cary, “but we do very little buying there. We look at new lines and we research and look at new-season items for our existing lines.” For others, Vegas is a necessary evil. “I go if I have to, but they’re all the same,” said Nichols. “It’s just too big. If I can get out of it and send someone else, I will. I don’t have time for it. A lot of people like it because they’re in town and it’s a party. But not for us. We’re local. It’s a different animal when you live here.” Still others skip the show altogether. “We haven’t been to Vegas in two or three years,” said Lordo. “Today we have 40 or 50 vendors we deal with, but when you go to Vegas and don’t see all 40 vendors, they get their feelings hurt. Every year we go out there, we never even see other vendors because it’s overwhelming. A lot of vendors still travel. So now we don’t go to any shows.”Article from the Rapaport Magazine - May 2015. To subscribe click here.
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