For wholesalers that are seeing strong sales into January, it’s almost as if the holiday season is continuing. However, others are grappling with business that has yet to rebound. And until a vaccine is widely distributed, the pandemic is on everyone’s mind.
New York: Tech focus
“We’ve had the best year in the last 20 years; we were inundated up to the last minute,” said Vibhor Dhadda, chief operating officer at Vibhor, a manufacturer of premium bridal and diamond jewelry in New York.
“We’re now in a world where everyone wants the product yesterday,” Dhadda observed. The company’s ability to manufacture “exceptionally fast,” without the disruptions overseas producers have been facing, helped spur demand, even for higher-price-point items, he added.
Dhadda identified adaptability as the biggest lesson to take from the pandemic, citing profound changes in work culture and the need for companies to work remotely. “Companies must become more technologically savvy; the industry has to catch up.”
Vibhor has invested significant funds in upgrading its machinery and equipment, Dhadda reported. “Our focus is on improving efficiency in production and communications. Going forward, companies will need to create reporting systems that can be managed 24/7 — from in or out of the office, including on Saturday and Sunday.”
His company, he said, “amplified our processes tenfold in 2020. We have also examined external technology from the aerospace and construction industries that might be applicable to us.”
For 2021, Dhadda advises companies to stay on top of trends. “You need a relevant product or story or specialization to succeed,” he observed.
Dallas: Slower pace
All things considered, “the numbers for Christmas were better than I expected,” said Gadi Spiro, president of wholesaler SJ Diamonds in Dallas, Texas. Still, Spiro admitted that he had been in “survival” mode for most of 2020 and was concerned by the “quiet” start to this year.
He pointed to sales of “small items” — studs, earrings, tennis bracelets — but found that the “usual large holiday items from previous years seemed to be missing.” Even if Christmas “lifted their spirits a little,” Spiro said, he sees current market sentiment as having reverted to pre-holiday status.
For him, eliminating all travel has been the most significant pandemic-related change. “I haven’t seen some of my out-of-state customers in over a year,” he remarked. He also pointed to the difficulty of dealing with clients in states that were still shut down — though those that had reopened had called with requests to send product for their showcases, he said.
Spiro has concentrated on “giving customers all the information before they receive the diamond,” by upgrading equipment to provide higher-quality videos and photography. Still, he misses the one-on-one relationship that develops through personal contact. He predicted that it would “take a long time before we go back to normal. Returning to the previously accustomed methods will only happen after the pandemic is completely over and far behind us.”
Scottsdale: strengthening Relationships
“We sold more expensive diamonds and colored stones during Christmas 2020 than we did in the last 20 years,” said Ralph Mueller, owner and founder of Ralph Mueller & Associates — a diamond, colored-stone and jewelry wholesaler based in Scottsdale, Arizona. He sees the trend continuing, offering a “pretty positive” assessment of the current market.
Rather than identifying new opportunities during the pandemic, Mueller strengthened existing customer relationships. He pointed to one customer who had generally been spending between $10,000 and $15,000 a month, but had upped his purchase to $165,000 in December.
Describing his company as “buyers of opportunity,” Mueller explained that he bought everything on the secondary market and placed ads online. “However, given the economic stimulus, people have had less need to liquidate jewelry,” he acknowledged.
“The nice thing about having a smaller business is the ability to react quickly to market changes. We can sit and make predictions, but I care more about what happens in real life,” Mueller commented. “If the vaccine is widely distributed, business may return on a more regular basis. If the travel industry bounces back, while unlikely in the short term, jewelry sales may decline. But if there’s a crunch point in the economy, we’ll see more jewelry coming up for sale.”
For now, he summed up his strategy for 2021 as “moving forward.”
Article from the Rapaport Magazine - February 2021. To subscribe click here.