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

Understand the New Luxury Mindset, Part 1

Luxury’s past resistance to recessionary times has not held true in the current downturn. According to a recent report from Unity Marketing, "Luxury Consumers’ Attitudes and Motivations Report," there’s a new normal. The study found that when the current recession ends, the luxury market that emerges will be very different from the past. The report notes that conspicuous consumption is out of style, as new luxury consumers seek alternative routes to growing wealth and achieving happiness.

Address the shift in attitude toward luxury and lay the foundation for future success by using the following tips:

Reduce Waste and Expenses

A recent contest over at Small Business Trends encouraged readers to share their best “Green Small Business Tips.” The end result is a list of 100 eco-friendly business management tips -- most of them incredibly simple -- that, in many cases, can save you money.

Thrive by implementing these cost-saving ideas in your business:

Compete With Mystery Shopping

Scoping out the competition is one of the best ways for companies to evaluate and improve their performance. Over at the Expert Business Source blog, Brad Huisken of IAS Training argues that mystery shopping is an underused tool that can help increase sales. 

Huisken says you'll get the most out of mystery shopping when you observe the following areas:

Avoid Employee Discrimination Claims

Are you doing enough to protect your business from employment discrimination claims? The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) reports that discrimination claims filed last year rose to their highest level in the agency’s history. Charges based on age and retaliation saw large annual increases according to the EEOC, while allegations based on race, sex, and retaliation showed as the most frequently filed charges. The EEOC cited economic conditions as a possible factor.

Could jewelers be affected? You bet! And according to Jewelers Mutual Insurance Company, even one claim could seriously undermine your business.

Jewelers Mutual shares tips to help you protect your business from discrimination claims:

Get LinkedIn

While Facebook and Twitter garner most of the social-media headlines, Small Business Trends’ Lisa Barone says that business owners should also have a presence on, LinkedIn, the career networking website for professionals and companies. She says businesses can use the website to do things like build their traffic, their brand and their expertise.

Use these tips to get started on LinkedIn.com:

Market at Online Forums

With marketing budgets plummeting in 2009, innovative and cost-effective ways to get your brand message out have become more important than ever. In a RecessionWire article, Julia Rogers suggests that businesses can use online message boards as a marketing tool.

Use her tips to cost-effectively promote your brand at online forums:

Draw Customers in With Contests

Contests are a great way to boost your customer database, including email addresses. MarketingSherpa shares a case study on how one company was able to double the size of their email list in eight months. Not only did the numbers grow, but the new contacts have provided better response rates. The campaign -- implemented by CoolComputerBags.com -- was for a monthly computer bag giveaway. The strategy was to keep costs low, while targeting top prospects with a relevant offer.

Learn the steps the company took to see how you could replicate this successful strategy in your store:

JIC Tip: Follow Fashion's Footsteps -- Forward

The jewelry business could learn a lot from the fashion industry. For example, fashion designer Norma Kamali -- who realized that consumers are using technology for everything including leisure activities, especially shopping -- has incorporated technology into her clothing line promotion and sales. In fact, Kamali's most recent fashion collection was not held in the revered white tents of Bryant Park but shown at the flagship Apple Store in SoHo. 

So what can retail jewelers learn from this forward-thinking designer? Helena Krodel, of Jewelry Information Center (Jewelers of America's new consumer education arm), says that in an effort to “democratize fashion,” Kamali used technology to do three things. These three things may seem drastic, but Krodel believes in six months, they will seem passé. By using the Internet, iPhone, iPhone apps, and other Apple technologies, Kamali bringing her clothing designs to a broader reach of people.

You too can expand your customer reach. Krodel shares some of Kamali’s “know-how”:

Boost Online Sales This Holiday: “Virtual” Customer Service

According to Forrester Research, online retail sales will increase 8% over the 2008 holiday shopping season. Retailers, who feature e-commerce or have product directory at their website, cannot overlook the importance of their web presence to increase their holiday sales. Larry Chasin, President & CEO of Ideal Diamond Solutions, an online technology platform provider, says that your “virtual” customer service is key to closing sales online.

Use these tips to enhance your website’s customer experience and thrive with online sales:

Reap the Rewards of Ethical Selling

Jewelry is a high-end product that has an emotional connection to consumers. As a jewelry professional, you need to be sure that connection is protected and never taken for granted.  That’s why responsible business practices are so critical to your business.

David Peters, resident education and management expert for Jewelers of America, notes that being ethical is a fundamental part of being a jewelry professional. Peters says retail jewelry professionals should “think like a customer” on a day-to-day basis to stay ethical.

Consider the following questions to help you thrive with responsible business practices:

Price Proactively

One of the keys to profitability is being able to buy and price merchandise effectively. David Peters, Jewelers of America’s resident education and management expert, notes that passive pricing -- with little or no strategy -- is the norm for many independent retailers. But by treating all your merchandise with the same exact formula (such as, buy it, keystone it, put it in the case), you could miss out on opportunities for increased profits. Instead, he says jewelers should use proactive pricing to maximize the profit contribution of your inventory.

He shares the following proactive pricing strategies:

Mobilize Holiday Sales

According to a recent study, 90% of all Americans own a cell phone. Almost 70 million use their mobile device to access email and the web, and 154 million send 3.5 billion text messages daily. With those kinds of numbers, it’s clear that mobile technology -- if used correctly -- has the power and reach to mobilize shoppers. “Holiday Sales 911: Three Quick Ways to Boost Your Holiday Sales Today,” a white paper from the SmartReply Benchmarking series, offers ideas on how retailers can improve sales through mobile technology.

The top three tips are:

Get Ready for the Brave New Advertising World

According to a study from IBM, major shifts are expected in the advertising landscape over the next five years. In Entrepreneur.com’s “The End of Advertising: What Will It Mean for You,” Carol Tice shares some of the study’s key findings and provides ideas on how small business can manage -- and succeed -- in this changing landscape.

Read on to discover the seismic advertising shifts and how you can capitalize on them: