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Cover
Retail Rap
By Phyllis Schiller
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| Robert Demeglio |
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: “Did you attend the Las Vegas jewelry shows? Were there any new product lines that caught your interest?”
“We spent the most time at Luxury and Couture. We made a list of the designer lines that we carry — which number about 24 — the ones we wanted to divest ourselves of, the ones we were on the fence about and those we were definitely going to keep. We knew that we wanted to strengthen our diamond core and we had done some of that prior to the show in the early spring. We were soft in a really nice gold line, higher-end gold pieces with diamonds. Our approach is to have a certain level of purchase mentality. What brings people in and what they really appreciate is keeping everything freshened up. It’s not like we’re trying to change the course but to evolve.
“We made some substantial buys and have a few things still on the tray. For instance, I like the Lalaounis line that we saw at Couture. I’m certainly going to make a buy there but I’m not sure how heavy we’ll buy into it.”
“We haven’t gone for years. People we need to see usually come in or phone or we see them on the internet. We were at the shows when they first started and you really needed to be there. Now, they’re so big and where we are now, in relation to where we used to be in the industry, we’re not as aggressive. It’s not as necessary to go as it used to be.”
“I went to Luxury and JCK. I found the shows incredible. I accomplished all the goals I needed to achieve. I saw mainly existing vendors, some new ones. I was looking to expand inventory. I was looking for natural color diamonds. And I was successful.”
“I had about six appointments at the shows and then we went home. It’s been somewhat of a tough year and I went there for a specific purpose. It’s always fun to go to a candy store and look and shop, which is exactly what the show is, but I wasn’t prospecting. We had pretty well laid it out beforehand — seeing existing vendors and mostly exchanging and stock balancing, things like that. If we see a change toward the last quarter of this year, then we’ll most likely be back to hunting and filling our shopping bag a little more fully. We left a lot of buying still open for the rest of this season, but we didn’t go with the same open-to-buy as we did last year.”
“I’m a Couture person. I enjoy the environment; it’s just a really civilized way to do business. I found Luxury to be very good as well. We go with appointments already scheduled with designers we have great relationships with, but we’re always looking for someone a little bit different.
“Designers for the most part expanded on their brand, elevating collections they already had. Roberto Coin had a Black Jade collection — a combination of black and green jade jewelry. We’re excited about that and think it will be a great seller for the holiday season. We also saw a lot of stretch jewelry, such as Roberto Demeglio, a line from Italy, and Picchiotti, an old-school company out of Italy that does sensational stretch rings with baguettes and rounds. And now they have a stretch tennis bracelet. We brought the rings in last year for holiday and they sold through. And a lot of designers are doing stretch in color. Gold stretch, diamond stretch…it’s one of the most innovative things I’ve seen.”
“No, I did not go to Vegas. It’s just too big; it just wears us out. I did go to the Smart Show in Chicago in April and the RJO (Retail Jewelers Organization) show. Although this year I didn’t go to the Tucson show, I do go most years. I look for new lines, new things when I go. And we did find them. Maybe I’ll go to Vegas next year.”
“I went to Luxury and JCK. I always fill in from existing vendors, but beyond that I look for things that are unusual and catch your eye. I think that’s the fun of the JCK show, seeing your regulars but also discovering the unknown.
“I saw a lot of creative ideas with different stone carvings and more thematic collections from different designers. I also saw a lot of nature designs, which we sell a lot of because of where we are in a resort area, and different metal combinations and different stone color combinations. One of the incredible things I saw at the show was the interactive Memento Pearl by Galatea. Within the carved pearl design is a NFC chip. You can record a message and once you touch the pearl to an NFC-enabled mobile device, it plays the message. It really hit the mark for me. It was an incredible combination of sentiment and fine jewelry and technology.”Article from the Rapaport Magazine - July 2015. To subscribe click here.
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