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

Reflect on Your Store’s Position

If you’ve paid attention to the news lately, you may have noticed a curious thing: hope. The doom and gloom of the past few months is starting to be replaced with cautious optimism. So while you may feel battered from the downturn, there are signs of improvement.

We wouldn’t want you to jump the gun and become overly confident (we still have a long way to go, after-all), you may want to take a moment to reflect on the last few months, and think about where your business is going:

Remember Relationship Selling

Jewelry is a relationship business. If you let the focus shift to simply getting sales, customers will have superficial reasons to stay loyal to your store -- and those bonds are easy to break. 

David Peters, Jewelers of America’s resident education and management expert says “Relationship Selling” is defined by the following:

More Space Doesn’t Mean More Profits

Bigger doesn’t always mean better. That’s one of the more interesting figures highlighted in the 2008 Jewelers of America Cost of Doing Business Report, which found that high-profit retail jewelers on average had smaller stores than their low-profit counterparts -- 1,775 sq. ft. compared to 2,200 sq. ft.
Ken Gassman, of the Jewelry Industry Research Institute, analyzed the survey for Jewelers of America and noted how high-profit stores do many things just a little better than their low-profit competition. So size doesn’t matter, but efficiency does.

To improve efficiency in your store, make sure you are aware of the following points:

Don’t Complain, Create Jewelry Sales!

Are you and your staff being proactive and creating sales opportunities, or standing around complaining that business has dried up? In his “At the Counter” column for National Jeweler magazine, Doug Fleener asks, “When sales are slow, do you complain or create?” Fleener says the days of the easy sale are over.

You and your staff need to step up to the plate and create sales in the following ways:

Protect Your Reputation Online

In the jewelry business, reputation is everything. As you expand your business online, are you doing enough to protect your reputation in the world “wild” web? You need to be certain that the same high standards you apply to your store are being applied to your online business.

In Small Business Trends’ “Top 10 Ways to Save Your Online Reputation in 2009,”  Janet Meiners Thaeler offers of-the-moment insight on how your online reputation can be fragile -- with web features like negative customer reviews that spread quickly and can live online for years. “Today one angry customer can tarnish a company’s reputation for years,” she writes. 

Here are some of her top tips to help you proactively protect your jewelry-business reputation online:

Recharge Your Business with Watch Battery Sales

Whether it’s to build traffic, offer great customer service, get incremental revenue or all of the above, changing watch batteries is a great way to recharge your business. In “Batteries=Bucks,”  JCK magazine’s contributing editor, Gary Roskin, writes about jewelers who use watch-battery business to increase profits, build foot-traffic and sell add-ons.

Use the following advice from jewelers to keep your jewelry business ticking with watch batteries:

Understand Employee’s “Survivor’s Guilt”

Whether or not you’ve had to cut back on staff, almost everyone is feeling the strain and has been touched in some way by the economic downturn. Business Week recently conducted an interactive case study on Cigna’s Employee Assistance Program, which helps reduce worker anxiety and increase productivity in these tough times.

In particular, the company has noticed an uptick in requests for seminars related to survivor guilt, which many feel when co-workers (not to mention friends and family) lose their jobs. In his positive analysis of the company, business consultant Nick Tasler offers up ways to mitigate the damage for those who are lucky to have jobs, but don’t feel great about it:

Good Color Commentary

Everyone could use a little color in their lives. But are you boxing yourself in when you sell colored gemstone jewelry? David Peters, Jewelers of America’s resident education and management expert, says retailers have to be careful that they don’t undermine sales by offering a limited viewpoint or bias when it comes to selling color.

He offers these suggestions on how to be open minded, when it comes to adding color to your sales:

Keep an Eye on Inventory

Inventory turn is a key differentiation point between high-profit and low-profit jewelers. In fact, the most recent Jewelers of America Cost of Doing Business Report found high-profit stores had a 20 % greater inventory turnover than their low-profit counterparts. That translates to better sales growth too. With that in mind, it’s essential that you know what inventory’s moving, and what’s collecting dust.

Jewelers of America’s resident education and management expert David Peters offers simple tips for keeping an eye on inventory:

Drive Online Visitors to Your Off-Line Location

Do you make it easy for customers to contact you through your website? If users need a degree from M.I.T. to figure out how to email, call or visit your store, it’s time to rework your “Contact” page. There’s no point in investing a lot in your Internet presence, if customers have a hard time reaching you through your site. In “Make Your ‘Contact Us’ Page User-Friendly,” Megan Morris of MyBusinessMag.com shares ideas on ensuring your information is accessible.

Tips on how to improve customer accessibility to your store online:

Be a Staff Leader

While it’s ultimately up to an owner or store manager to steer the overall direction of a business, individual staff must also play their part -- and step in as leaders when and where it’s appropriate. Let’s face it, running a business is hard work -- especially in today’s difficult climate -- and even the most skilled leader can burn out and need others to lend a hand.

In “How to Lead When You’re Not the Boss,” Christina Bielaszka-DuVernay shares ideas from the book Lateral Leadership: Getting Things Done When You’re Not the Boss, written by Harvard negotiation specialist Roger Fisher and coauthor Alan Sharp.

They provide this five-step method for leading when you’re not formally in charge:

Inspire Better Sales from Staff

When a store has a culture where employees must constantly defer to management, it not only diminishes a customer’s confidence, it’s frustrating. In order to get the most from your employees -- especially in this challenging environment -- you have to lead with confidence while giving staff the autonomy they need to excel.  

David Peters, Jewelers of America’s resident education and management expert, shares the following tips to inspire your staff to perform at their best:

Negotiate for Cost Savings

As businesses search for ways to get through the economic downturn, one thing is certain: nothing is certain. In the New York Times Tool Kit, “Nothing is Set in Stone, So Renegotiate,” Paul B. Brown notes that fixed costs may not be as fixed as you think. He says businesses should analyze every contract -- from the company that supplies the water cooler to your neighborhood banker -- and look for places where you can get a cost reduction.

Use these tips from a variety of experts on renegotiating contracts and partnerships:

Use Best Practices in Challenging Times

Your best practices are one of the most useful tools you have to get you through a downturn. Given that your customers are your most important assets, you need to be sure you maintain the systems and procedures that enable you to provide the best service possible.

Jewelers of America’s resident education and management expert David Peters shares the following customer-centric best practice tips:

Capitalize On Colored Gemstones Sales

In these dreary times, colored gemstones can provide a nice profit booster for you -- thanks to the margins, and a mood booster for your customers -- thanks to their beauty. But are you making the most of your colored gemstone jewelry? David Peters, Jewelers of America’s resident education and management expert notes that the colored stone customer is typically a female who shops frequently and is likely to make up to two purchases in a year. With consumers holding back recently, it’s time to take advantage of pent-up demand.
 
Peters says that when you’re dealing with a “colored stone” customer, it’s important to keep the following in mind:

Celebrate Mom

Mother’s Day is just around the corner and what better way to celebrate then by holding a “Mom’s Appreciation” event in your store.

Tips to hold a Mother’s Day event that thrives:

Inventory Turn: A Key to Profitability

Jewelers of America will soon conduct its annual Cost of Doing Business survey – which, starting this year, will be combined with National Jeweler’s America’s Best Jewelers survey -- but you can still gain valuable insight by looking back at last year’s numbers.

In anticipation of the new survey, we’ll be reviewing some of the key data points that help you run your business better. For instance, last year’s survey indicated that the most profitable jewelers turn their inventory 1.2 times per year, versus low profit jewelers who only turn inventory once. If your numbers are closer to low profits, brainstorm with your team on ways to improve your inventory turn – our survey shows even a slight improvement could improve your bottom line.

Tips for improving inventory turn in your store:

Tips in Action: Retailers Who Thrive

Increase Exposure and Sales with Cause Marketing
Jeweler Debbie Fox, co-owner, Fox Fine Jewelry, Ventura, CA, shows how

The news of job layoffs, housing foreclosures and the overall economic downturn dominate the media. But some jewelers have found a way to address those realities in a positive way. Jewelers of America-member store Fox Fine Jewelry in Ventura, CA, has led by example. Over the Valentine’s Day holiday, owner Debbie Fox assembled a group of 46 independent jewelers nationwide -- through Independent Jewelers Organization -- to give away 200 sterling-silver necklaces to people who lost their jobs or homes.

Wish Upon a (Customer) Wish List

One of the best tools a jeweler has in their arsenal is a customer Wish List. It not only enables targeted marketing, but couples it with customer buy-in, a huge advantage in the sales process. In “Customer ‘Wish Lists’ Prove Versatile Tools,” Joseph Dobrian of National Jeweler explores the ways that jewelers use lists to drive business.

Dobrian’s ideas on how to gather and use wish lists:

Reach Out to Customers on a Personal Level

A study of the last recession found that sales people reduced time spent contacting customers by 38%. David Peters, Jewelers of America’s resident education and management expert, says that drop off was a huge missed opportunity for retailers. Those who continued to reach out to customers were able to outperform their competitors.

Peters shares the following insights on why you should reach out to customers now more than ever:

Avoid “Bad” Jewelry Language

Words have meaning. Choosing the wrong word in the midst of a sales presentation can not only cost a sale, but could turn a customer off from your store for good. Jewelers of America’s resident education and management expert David Peters offers his take on some key words and phrases to avoid: