RAPAPORT... The 4Cs are not the only things that make a piece of diamond jewelry a sales winner. In an ongoing series, Rapaport Diamond Report 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: Are you planning to stock any different merchandise or do any special promotions for this holiday season?
DIANE CHRISTENSEN, CO-OWNER
CHRISTENSEN & RAFFERTY FINE JEWELRY
SAN MATEO, CALIFORNIA“One thing we did last year — and we’re planning on doing it again this year — was instead of sending out a holiday catalog, we created a large puzzle, based on a photograph we had taken of a grouping of jewelry, with one piece missing and then we put it on display in the store. We sent out puzzle pieces to everyone on our mailing list. Whoever received the piece that fit the puzzle would receive a $5,000 shopping spree. Customers were asked to come in to see if the puzzle piece fit and to take a look at our collection. We figured it was a ‘green’ way to do a Christmas catalog.
“This year, instead of doing just one puzzle piece, we’re going to have three pieces. The first person who comes in with the missing piece will win a $3,000 shopping trip, the second piece is worth $2,000 and the last puzzle piece, $1,000. The puzzle this year is of a necklace, earrings and a ring with one of our boxes with our name on it, so it looks like a pretty page in a catalog.
“In terms of what we stock, we probably carry more unique, one-of-a-kind pieces. So we’ll probably have some larger, one-of-a-kind pieces but we’ll still have our everyday things. We try to sell jewelry all year long, not just in December. I always think if Christmas is less than 20 percent of your whole year, then if you have a bad Christmas, you can still have a fine year.”
PHILIP DUPUIS, OWNER
DUPUIS ET FILS JEWELERS AND GOLDSMITHS
JACKSON, MICHIGAN“My strategy is that I’m going to be stocking up on the basics, stud earrings and things like that. I’m staying away a little bit from some of the designer pieces, mainly because of the price point involved. It’s difficult times right now, not only because of the economic situation but also the price of gold. My biggest fear is loading up on jewelry bought at high gold prices, let’s say $1,000, and then having the bottom drop out of gold, or at least have it go down to the $600 to $700 range. What has been selling for us, and has been moving the past couple of years, is pretty much basics and price points. So that’s what I’m going to be doing and I’ll be buying very cautiously.
“As far as promotions, I’ve done some direct mail in the past and I don’t feel that it works as well for me dollarwise. I advertise on a local cable television show geared strictly to the community and I get more feedback on that than probably any other advertising I’ve done before. I probably will not be using a great deal of newspaper advertising. I’ve found electronic media is working better for me right now.”
BOB SIROIS, OWNER
CLASSIQUE JEWELERS
FRISCO, TEXAS“This holiday, we’re going to be focused on more of the bread-and-butter type items.
“We’re going to do a lot more with the Chamilia brand. We took it on last year and have been very successful with it. All year, it’s been kind of a blessing for us, so we’re certainly going to do lots of advertising with that. And I also will be doing a mass mailing for a big, huge holiday party. We’ve done that every year except for last year, which, as you can imagine, was pretty horrible. But this year, I expect that sales will be a lot better and we’re going full force forward with our gala holiday. We usually hold it on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. It’s an in-store event; it’s really quite nice. We have an orchestra that plays in the store and we have food and wine and, since it’s Texas, margaritas.”
JULIAN NEWBAUER, PRESIDENT
KIRK JEWELERS
MIAMI, FLORIDA“We’re not going to do anything differently than we usually do this year and it’s not just because of the economy. We’re in the midst of building another location and it’s taking a lot of our budget. We’ve already got a lot of specials out on the floor. We have all prices; it’s just well-priced merchandise. We’ll see how that works. I don’t think we’re going to have the ability this year to do any promotions other than what we’ve already budgeted for advertising for the store. We might be doing emailing. Certainly, we’re going to be getting into email blasting next year, big time.”
RICHARD WHITE, OWNER
ED WHITE JEWELERS
CULLMAN, ALABAMA“I have plenty of inventory, but I’m counting on a lot smaller average ticket sale this year. I’m cutting it about probably 40 percent. I’m banking on the fact that people will still be shopping but they’re going to be spending less. Bread-and butter-items, ensembles — earrings, pendants — will probably do a good job and I’m trying to keep my price points somewhere around $1,500 retail.
“I do cable TV commercials and, occasionally during the season, I’ll do print but that’s pretty much it.”
JOHN HAYES, OWNER
GOODMAN’S JEWELERS
MADISON, WISCONSIN“We will be stocking some things that are a little lower price points than last year. We’re also going to do a promotion we call ‘Extreme Value Pricing.’ As with every store, there’s always some stock on hand that’s older and obviously that older stock was purchased at a lower gold price than today’s market. So we’re utilizing that fact and rolling back prices on a number of things to reflect the older gold price. We’re showing what the current price would be and then what the retail price is based on our actual purchase price and calling it Extreme Value Pricing. We’re kicking that off with a campaign in the middle of October.
“We’re working on how to make email a stronger tool for us. We’re also working to upgrade our direct mail to have more current, accurate addresses to do a direct mail in conjunction with the Extreme Value Pricing.”
SAM ROSENWASSER, PRESIDENT
NEW YORK JEWELERS
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS“Our strategy for the holidays is that we’re not going to do anything new, but continue our previous strategies that have helped us grow — providing good quality merchandise and good service to our customers. Our emphasis will be we’re going to work extra hard to provide extra service and maintain customer loyalty.”
Article from the Rapaport Magazine - October 2009. To subscribe click here.