The JA Report: News, Tips & Trends from Jewelers of America

Offer Great Greetings

First impressions are everything in this business, so how you greet visitors to your store is key to your success (or failure) in turning a browser into a buyer. In “Approach With Care: Getting Help for ‘May I Help You?'” JCK Magazine’s Rob Bates talks to experts about why that phrase can be lethal to sales, and offers better options for a fruitful meet and greet.

Great opening strategies include:

Keep Marketing on Target

Since you can’t be everything to every customer, Tom Shay of Profits Plus says it’s essential to define your target customer. While it may be tempting right now to cut back on targeted marketing, Shay says that strategy is short sighted.

He offers some ideas on how you can continue thriving with your target consumers:

Be Creative With Your Business

Controlling costs is a key way to make it through the downturn, but that doesn’t mean you should stop innovating to improve your business in the long-term. Jewelers of America’s resident education and management expert David Peters says you can be both smart and creative when it comes to your business by:

• Doing something different, unusual, or unexpected
• Not doing things only because that’s the way you did it last year, especially when last year’s models may need to be tweaked in the face of today’s challenges
• Not building any marketing initiative on price discounting. In the long term, it’s neither sustainable or profitable and can hurt your brand.

He offers some simple ideas to thrive with innovation:

Use Storytelling to Gain Sales Success

The jewelry business is all about celebrating moments in people’s lives -- birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, graduations, and many more. As a jeweler, you share these special occasions with your customers, but do you get them to share back?

A quick glance at stories being told by visitors at Jewelry Information Center’s recently launched new website, www.jic.org -- as part of its “Jewelry Stories” consumer marketing campaign -- shows the wealth of goodwill consumers have toward jewelry. Harnessing that sentiment is especially important in these tough economic times.

Follow these tips to make the most of customer’s jewelry stories:

Decrease Average Inventory Dollars

One of the best ways to manage your costs during these challenging financial times is through better inventory control. During a recent presentation at the National Jeweler Network’s America’s Best Jewelers (ABJ) Retail Benchmarking Symposium, jewelers discussed ideas on decreasing average inventory dollars.

William J. Curry, president of Curry Fine Jewelry, and other jewelers shared the following inventory management tips:

Leadership Insight for Tough Times

Businesses need strong leadership to weather economic downturns. During the National Retail Federation’s 98th Annual Convention & Expo, executives offered a variety of ideas on leadership and inspiration.
Among the advice offered to help you thrive in leadership:

Is Your Store a “Feel Good” Experience?

As a jewelry retailer, you don’t sell products -- you sell emotions and memories that can last a lifetime. But does the environment in your store reflect that lofty purpose?

Over at the Brand Insight Blog, John Furgurson writes about “the ultimate, feel-good retail experience.” While the store he profiles --Powell’s Sweet Shoppe -- sells memories of the edible kind, the memories evoked by jewelry can be even sweeter.

If you’re looking to improve the customer experience at your store, it wouldn’t hurt to take a page from the Bend, OR, candy shop:

Reduce Discounting for Increased ROI

In these challenging economic times it’s easy to get caught up in “discount fever.” But by holding the line and cutting back on your cutbacks -- even just a little -- you can increase your return on investment.

That was the message delivered by William J. Curry, president of Curry Fine Jewelry, during a presentation at the National Jeweler Network’s America’s Best Jewelers (ABJ) Retail Benchmarking Symposium.

Curry and other jewelers offered the following tips to thrive while decreasing discounts:

Watch Your Numbers

Keep track of your financials in a downturn could be the difference between your survival and a liquidation sale. Tom Shay of Profits Plus says your financials offer the tools you need to make informed decisions about your business.

Shay offers the following ideas on effectively watching the numbers:

Connect with Your Staff in Tough Times

Implementing measures that will get your business through the downturn is your number one priority. But you also need to effectively communicate and partner with your staff. It’s likely that the decisions you make will have an impact on their lives and careers and they need to be a part of the process.

Jewelers of America’s resident management and education expert David Peters offers the following advice on how to lead your staff by connecting and partnering with them.

Common Sense Strategies

It’s too soon to know whether or not Zale CEO Neal Goldberg can turn his company around. But at least in terms of attitude and outlook, the relative newcomer says the right things. In “Zale’s Strategies Are Common Sense” for IDEX Online, industry analyst Ken Gassman broke down some of the CEO’s key strategies:

Hold Tight to Top Performers

Having competent and reliable staff is essential to steering your business through these challenging economic times. As you consider or enact cost-savings measures like hiring freezes, don’t forget to hold onto those employees who have supported your business through the good and bad times.

David Peters, Jewelers of America’s education and management expert, notes that retaining well-performing staff is good business since:

Protect Your Turf

As the retail marketplace becomes more competitive, one of the best advantages independent jewelers had was an ability to connect with customers on the local level and form real community relationships. In contrast, “Big Box” retailers often relied on standardization and centralization for success. Those days are over.

Companies like Best Buy have moved from being low-price leaders to focusing on the customer experience, said Jamey Wojciechowski, Best Buy’s program director of CRM. He discussed the retailer’s local strategy in the session, “Community-Centric Retailing: Getting Closer to Where Your Customers Live,” held during the National Retail Federation’s 98^th Annual Convention & Expo, January 11-14 in New York City.

Wojciechowski says some ways Best Buy is positioning itself in communities includes:

Reach Out to Former Customers

Do you have formerly reliable and regular customers who are suddenly nowhere to be found? Even if it’s been a while, now isn’t the time to let go of those who have lapsed. If they aren’t ready to purchase from you right now, reaching out to those who have fallen off the radar can be the difference between losing that client for good, or reestablishing a connection that could reap benefits (on both sides) down the road.

David Peters, Jewelers of America’s education and management expert, offers some insight on reminding the wayward client that you’re still there for them:

• One Year or More:Get in touch with any customer that has not bought from you in the past year and find out why.

• Handle With Care: Assign someone skilled to perform the task or the customer will likely provide easy answers like “you’re too expensive.” Ask probing questions to uncover the real reasons.

• Incentivize a Return:Create an incentive to motivate lapsed customers to visit your store in the near future.

What Not to Cut

As you reflect on the recent holiday season and look to the months ahead, it’s easy to lose your bearings. Cutting costs is without a doubt one of the best ways for your business to make it through these challenging times, but a slash-and-burn approach could do more harm than good.

In Entrepreneur.com’s “Recession Cost-Cutting No-Nos”, experts discuss the measures to avoid.

Live From JA New York: If You Have Only $5,000 Left...

As the global recession has worsened, foot traffic has dwindled and consumer spending has plummeted. If you’re feeling panicky, you’re not alone. But independents who stop marketing now are making a shortsighted – and potentially fatal – mistake, according to Rafael Mael, marketing strategist for Brand Launcher.

At his JA New York Winter Show seminar, “Market or Die: 5 Ways to Grow Your Jewelry Sales in a Challenging Economy,” Mael suggested that instead of cutting promotional budgets, which will inevitably hurt sales, retail jewelers should concentrate marketing expenditures where they count most.

But what should you do if you’re down to your last $5,000 in promotional spending? Hold an event, said Mael. When executed well, this can inject an immediate cash infusion into your store.

Live from JA New York: Maintain Regular Contact With Customers

While the economy may seem like a barrier to success in these challenging times, don’t give in! With the right tools and attitude, you can still thrive. According to David Peters, director of Member Services for Jewelers of America, regular contact with customers is a key component of retail success during good times, and its critical now.

In his JA New York Winter Show seminar, entitled “Selling in Challenging Times,” Peters maintained that the relationships you build with your customers are among the most important resources you have to make it through these tough times.

He suggested retailers use the following tips to thrive with customer relationships:

Live from JA New York: Create an Unforgettable Shopping Experience

In the age of “retailtainment,” your store needs to provide consumers with not only product, but a great shopping experience. One way to achieve this is by creating an interactive sensory experience that inspires the customer to buy again and again, and to share the experience with their friends. 

 

In his JA New York Winter show presentation, “Make Your Store Stand Out – Presentation Techniques and New Trends,” Andy Macaulay, director of business development, independent jewelers for Chippenhook, offered ideas on how your store can give customers an interactive shopping experience break through the visual clutter of today’s retail marketplace.

Macaulay said some key components to thrive with sensory shopping include: 

Display Based on Product Categories: Set up display windows and showcases by major merchandise classification to tell one complete and easy-to-understand story. For example, display a diamond story, a color stone story, etc.  Merchandising by major classification creates visual impact and simplifies the selection process for the customer.

Live from JA New York: Move Customers From “Just Looking” to Buying

A great sales presentation isn’t about what you can tell the customer, but what you can get the customer to tell you. That’s why asking the right questions is critical to your ability to successfully move the sale toward the cash wrap.

Brad Huisken, principal of IAS Training, offered insights on the Seven Essential Questions to get the maximum amount of information from a customer at his JA New York Winter Show seminar, “‘If I’m Just Looking is the Answer,’ It’s Time to Change the Question!”

Huisken said these are some dead-end questions or phrases jewelry retailers should avoid to keep the sales presentation thriving:

Live From JA New York: Control Your Quality

In these challenging economic times, your service department is a crucial component of your jewelry business. That’s why you need a comprehensive quality control system in place to ensure high levels of customer satisfaction and to protect your reputation as a professional jeweler.

Arthur Skuratowicz, president of Jewelry Training Center, presented a Jewelers of America-hosted seminar entitled, “Quality Control Issues in Jewelry,” at the JA New York Winter Show on Sunday, January 18th. He said that communication between the bench jeweler, sales associates and managers is an important component of quality control.

Among his suggestions for improving the flow of information, Skuratowicz had these suggestions for retailers: