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: “Was your experience at the Las Vegas shows a positive one?
MARIA CAYSE, GENERAL MANAGER AND BUYER
GROGAN JEWELERS BY LON
FLORENCE, ALABAMA
“We attended JCK, Couture, Luxury, JIS and CBG. This year’s show seemed much better organized and the floor was easier to shop. We were there eight days. Items that we saw and liked and bought include: chokers; Slate and Tell monogram jewelry; celestial jewelry from Shy Creations, Tache and WYS; crosses with ‘meaning’ from Majestic Arts; complete bridal with GIA centers from Martin Flyer at good prices; door-buster jewelry item attached to a social media blitz in each store area for seven weeks leading up to Christmas from Jewelex.”
GEORGE FOX, PRESIDENT
FOX FINE JEWELERS
VENTURA, CALIFORNIA
“My wife and two daughters went to Couture and JCK. The agenda was basically for learning, like the Edge software program, which had a major new release. My wife was alarmed with our turnover, our ROI, and that was something she learned about, that a lot of things that are bargains, really aren’t bargains if they just sit there. So we’re going to focus on turning those items over and that caused her to be hesitant to buy. However, one thing we are looking to open is created diamonds. I hate to say it. Not heavily…we just put our toes in the water. We’re always tweaking bridal; one line we opened was Roman and Jules. And there was a silver line with gemstones we’re considering. It had a pretty large buy-in and we’re waiting to pull the trigger on that. We did mostly stock balancing.”
CHARLES BEAUDET, PRESIDENT
BEAUDET JEWELRY, INC.
EUGENE, OREGON
“As far as the luxury show, I found it very nice. How they have it set up was beautiful. I was able to find what I need. I do mostly custom, a lot of colored stone. And that was what I was buying. I did two different suppliers. One of them just because they had something that looked good and was middle priced and the other is a little more on the higher end that I was able to start off with three or four pieces. A couple of years ago, I found it very difficult to wait around to speak with vendors but not this time. I bought loose gemstones — alexandrite and mostly sapphire and padparadscha. As far as finished pieces, it was rubellite tourmaline, some sapphire and amethyst.
“I’m in a fairly small city but it’s a university town. I have to have some of that high-end and grand-look stuff around in the cases and in the window, like an emerald ring with diamonds around or a big amethyst ring — something that looks great in the cases and will get them into the store. And then they’ll look at other things and maybe we’ll do a custom piece. Having vendors who will do trunk shows, which we can do a party around, and will bring in people, is important to keep people feeling we’re a complete store.”
MICHAEL LITTMAN, CO-OWNER
GARY MICHAELS FINE JEWELRY
MANALAPAN, NEW JERSEY
“I attended Couture and Luxury and JCK. I like to find stuff and I did learn a lot. One of the things on my agenda was finding out about lab-grown diamonds. I’m much more open-minded about that and I’m thinking hard about it. I also investigated a lot of the technology out there in terms of detecting synthetics. I checked out the different devices available and we’re definitely jumping on that. We picked up a bridge line of gemstone fashion pieces at great price points, Freida Rothman, because we thought we were missing that. We’re a high-end store and feel that price points are more important than ever. We’re excited about that line; we already have it in the store.
“I was a little bit disappointed in the lack of innovation and investment in general on the part of vendors and designers. I think there’s a lot of anxiety in our industry and we have to learn how to build store traffic and draw customers back into our stores despite the internet models out there.”
CAROLYN BRIGMAN, VICE PRESIDENT
MCCASKILL & COMPANY
DESTIN, FLORIDA
“This year we weren’t on a mission to bring in a new designer but to work with our current ones. I loved seeing so much beautiful jewelry. We are excited about what we picked to bring into the store. We went to Couture and Luxury. It was a successful show. The attitude and feeling were very positive. We did a good bit of color buying, especially one-of-a-kind pieces. We got an incredible emerald ring from Omi and did some color buying with Erica Courtney and we’ll be bringing some of her new designs into the store. We were thrilled with what we saw.”
AMIE GUARINO, BUYER
LOUIS ANTHONY JEWELERS
PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA
“We had a very nice experience. We spent not quite a full day at luxury and the rest of our time at Couture. We were seeing our top vendors and making sure we had a nice selection for fourth quarter and holiday. We’re mainly a designer jewelry store and of course we do a lot of basic diamond goods. But we always try to carve out some time to take a look at new lines.
“I was very pleased with the designers we already carry; I thought their fall collections were really strong. We’re definitely seeing a lot of wearable pieces. A lot of designers had beautiful things that still had some practicality to them — beautiful design, interesting color combinations, especially in Gurhan, which is one of the lines where we saw beautiful color but approachable and easy-to-wear designs. We looked at bangles — bracelets are so easy to layer. We’re getting into the next steps of layering, showing our customers how to layer chains, pieces that you can pile on, either all at once or over time. Those looks continue to be strong for us. We feel like we’re going to have a well-rounded assortment for the holidays.”
Article from the Rapaport Magazine - July 2017. To subscribe click here.