You have to be lean in order to survive. But there’s a big difference between smart cuts that won’t hurt your business in the long-term, and a crash diet approach that leaves your store starving.
At National Jeweler Network’s America’s Best Jewelers (ABJ) Retail Benchmarking Symposium -- held in January – jewelers, like William J. Curry, of Curry Fine Jewelry, shared ideas on how to smartly reduce expenses:
- Cut Payroll and/or Store Hours: Curry says you owe it to your staff to keep your business afloat. That means taking a hard look at where you can cut back without compromising sales.
- Extra Tip: Consider shifting hours to times that are most convenient for your target customer.
- Lower Credit Card Charges: Be aware of what you’re paying and negotiate fees.
- Target Your Advertising: If it’s wasteful and unproductive, you don’t need to be spending money on it. You need to constantly measure your ad metrics and reevaluate what works and what doesn’t.
- Extra Tip: Check out our “Use Media Variety to Drive Traffic to Your Store” Tip for ideas on how to economically market your brand.
- Look at Facility Costs: Using different lighting in your windows and cases can lead to tremendous cost savings.
- Extra Tip: Read our June 5th “Conserve Your Energy” Tip for ideas on how to cut energy costs.
Take The Tip:
To further investigate where you have room to cut expenses, use Jewelers of America’s annual Cost of Doing Business Survey to compare your expense costs to those of similar-sized stores and high-profit jewelry retailers. Click here to find out how to order.
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