Jewelers of America's Tips to Thrive features daily business-building tips, from Jewelers of America's resident experts. Don't just survive the year, thrive with our profitable ideas for all areas of jewelry retail.
No matter how long you’ve had inventory, you want to make sure that to the customer, it looks brand new. One way to minimize the wear and tear of your jewelry product is through proper storage.
Jewelers of America’s COO Rob Headley, a quality control expert, offers the following tips to ensure that pieces stay in good, sellable condition:
Continue reading "Keep Jewelry Inventory Sparkling with Good Storage" »
The merchandise in your display cases should be enticing to customers -- not dull, tarnished or scratched. But over time, products can get "used" in the retail case and no longer appear brand new. This is especially true with expensive merchandise that takes longer to turn.
Jewelers of America's COO Rob Headley, a quality control expert, suggests training sales associates on proper ways to minimize scratches, dents and loose stones while handling merchandise.
Headley shares the following staff-training tips to keep merchandise in good condition:
The economic downturn has meant jewelers must buy smarter and better than ever before. At her JCK Las Vegas session, “JCK Style: What’s Hot and Why You Should Care,” Jewelry Information Center spokesperson Helena Krodel will provide much needed insight on how to turn hot trends into transactions for your store.
To prepare to buy right, and for the right trends, Krodel says to consider key fashion influencers, such as:
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:
Comparing your store’s financial performance to industry averages and/or standards can have a profound impact on your business. Jewelers of America’s Cost of Doing Business Report, published each summer, helps you find out where your store measures up across multiple operating-performance areas. That knowledge is a powerful tool, since even small adjustments can lead to better profits.
Jewelers of America is currently conducting its 2009 Cost of Doing Business survey, make sure you participate to benefit from the benchmarking analysis it reveals (click here for more information).
When you take the survey online, you’ll get an immediate calculation of your financial data and operating ratios. David Peters, Jewelers of America’s resident education and management expert, says that once you have this information you can increase profitability by:
Continue reading "Increase Profitability Through Benchmarking" »
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:
While keeping your financials in check is critical during the downturn, you should also consider how you can position your store for success once conditions improve. In his presentation “The Art of Jewelry Retail,” Jewelers of America’s resident education and management expert David Peters stresses the importance of positioning your business first, ahead of your competition.
To beat the competition, Peters advises jewelers to:
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:
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:
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:
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:
Putting the right price on product can be a delicate
balance, especially during challenging economic times. Over at the Small
Business Trends blog,
Ivana Taylor shares ideas from The Art of
Pricing by Rafi Mohammed.
Consider
these strategies when pricing goods:
In today’s 24-hour news cycle, it's easy to feel a bit on the edge. But rather than pointing to the sky in abject fear a la Chicken Little, you’ll do your business (and yourself and your family) much more good by remaining calm.
Industry analyst Ken Gassman put the current economic climate into perspective in a recent IDEX Online column, “Don’t Panic, It’s Not The End of the World.” He reminds retailers that while jewelry demand may soften in a tough economy, it’s remained relatively strong this cycle and more importantly, it will rebound. “Jewelry is not a fad product; it has been around for at least 50,000 years,” he notes.
Gassman says jewelers need to hit this period of softness head-on. He offers up a “Plan of Action,” which includes the following tips:
Increase Customer Contacts: Set up a “clientelling” program to contact your best customers. Gassman reminds us that while just over 25% of jeweler’s business comes from the big holidays, the rest comes from life cycle milestone events like anniversaries and birthdays. Jewelers with good customer records can call their clients to remind them that they have “just the thing” for an upcoming life cycle event.
Target Advertising: In a slow economy, highly targeted advertising -- like direct mail and phone calls -- is the way to go. Use them to reach out to your best customers.
Properly Incentivize Sales Associates: Make sure the compensation system for sales associates rewards them primarily for doing their job -- selling. And don’t let them get bogged down with paperwork.
Focus on the Real Competition: Gassman says don’t fret over other jewelers -- whether they’re of the Wal-Mart, online or down-the-street variety -- because a jeweler's biggest competition for dollars comes from merchants selling handbags, scarves, sunglasses, cosmetics, shoes, and other accessories.
Take The Tip:
Click here to read Gassman’s full report at IDEX. We plan to revisit it for advice (and to stay calm) as the season progresses.
Retailers balance the products and business practices that contribute to profitability with those that don’t.
For example, you may accept losses in the off-season if you know you can make them up during times of peak demand. Or, in achieving sales goals you may accept products that don’t contribute to your profitability. But as the Deloitte white paper “Preparing for an Economic Storm” points out, businesses must be able to challenge these practices and assumptions. That doesn’t mean you need to completely drop them. Instead, you should look for ways to restructure, renegotiate or re-price them to become contributors.
Customer behaviors you’ve come to rely on can change dramatically as a result of an economic downturn.
That’s why, “Preparing for an Economic Storm,” a white paper from Deloitte, notes the need for customer-driven businesses to stay ahead of the curve, so they can reevaluate and react to shifts in client behavior.
For instance, many customers will “trade down” to offset changes (like high fuel costs) in their planned spending. Deloitte suggests you evaluate your product mix and pricing strategies in the context of changes in consumer demand.
Tips on how to best prepare your pricing strategies to reflect new customer behavior:
According to “Preparing for an Economic Storm,” a white paper released this summer by Deloitte, a leading professional services organization, many companies do not include performance metrics that look at cash flow in their management goals and incentives. Being “lazy” about these processes can mean missed opportunities during normal business cycles and can seriously threaten your business in the bad times.
In a downturn, Deloitte notes less demand causes most businesses to experience a combined cash and margin squeeze: inventory turns more slowly, causing a greater need for price reductions, which affects working capital and margin.
To help you avoid the cash and margin "squeeze," Deloitte suggests retailers:
To have your store experience better than the National Retail Federation’s (NRF) holiday retail sales prediction of 2.2% growth, Daniel Butler, NRF vice-president for retail operations, recommends that retailers focus on small inventories.
Butler, quoted in “How Small Stores Can Lure Holiday Shoppers,” by John Tozzi of BusinessWeek, offers these tips to keep inventory lean:
Challenging economic times require a different style of management, according to Timothy Malone, associate professor at the Gemological Institute of America’s School of Business. Malone spoke to JCK Magazine’s William George Shuster for the article, “Start Managing Margins."
“You must find your most vulnerable points immediately and stop the bleeding,” he said.
Malone discussed how jewelers can make their margins thrive during tough times:
In an already sluggish economy that shows no tangible signs of improvement, jewelers will need to stay focused in order to stay afloat. Most predict that the economy will continue to grow at a snail’s pace one percent or less, according to a National Association for Business Economics study through the second half of the year.
Over at Expert Business Source, Suzanna De Baca offers tips on how small businesses can protect themselves in the current environment:
• Offer incentives: As we’ve already instructed, these are a great way to encourage a customer to buy and to strengthen relationships.
Continue reading "Protect Your Business in Challenging Economy" »
Do you think of yourself as a retailer who likes jewelry or as a businessperson who sells jewelry? If you answered the former, then you’re in line with the 54.1% of Jewelers of America members who identified themselves this way on the JA 2008 Cost of Doing Business Survey. Just 12% called themselves business people.
While the survey doesn’t delve into how a retailer’s self-proclaimed identity relates to (or hinders) their success, Ken Gassman of the Jewelry Industry Research Institute notes that too many jewelers are in the jewelry business, but not in the business of selling jewelry. In today’s highly competitive environment, a retailer has to operate their business on a professional level to succeed.
Gassman suggests the following ideas to help you re-program the way you think about yourself, and your store:
Continue reading "Think like a Businessperson, not a Jeweler" »
Despite the shaky economy, jewelers can still achieve success. That’s what Jewelers of America’s Director of Education David Peters told JCK Magazine in the interview “Define Your Turf,” published in the June issue.
“Most independent jewelers have done a good job in the past and will continue to grow their businesses, given the right tools, information, and resources,” Peters said.
He shared his “Principles for Economically Troubled Times” with the magazine:
While there’s no magic formula when it comes to competing
with big-box retailers, there are ways you can survive (and thrive). According
to the Jewelers of America 2008 Cost of Doing Business Survey, smart independent
retailers have not only resisted the competitive surge, but in some sectors the
tide has begun to turn.
For instance, the recently released 2008 Survey shows sales growth for independent high-end retailers (3.5%) is outpacing chain store growth of 2.5%. Retailers that identify themselves as custom/designer jewelers are doing even better, with a 6.1% sales increase over 2006.
To compete with the "big guys," retailers must:
Bigger doesn’t always mean better. That’s one of the more inter
esting figures to come out of the Jewelers of America 2008 Cost of Doing Business Survey, which found that high-profit jewelers on average had smaller stores than their low-profit counterparts -- 1,775 square feet compared to 2,200 square feet.
This year, Jewelers of America commissioned an analysis of the survey by Ken Gassman of the Jewelry Industry Research Institute, who 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:
Comparing your store’s financial performance to industry averages and/or standards can have a profound impact on your business. Jewelers of America’s 2008 Cost of Doing Business Survey helps you find out where your store measure’s up across multiple areas. That knowledge is a powerful tool, since even small adjustments can lead to better performance.
In his seminar “It’s All About the Numbers—Financial Success Through Benchmarking” at the JA New York Summer Show, JA’s Director of Education David Peters breaks down this year’s Cost of Doing Business Survey into easy and usable bites.
Once you’ve identified where you stand, Peters says you can take action to increase profitability through:
Continue reading "Live from New York: Increase Profitability Through Benchmarking" »
This week we are featuring tips culled from the expert presenters at the upcoming JA New York Show. If you are attending the show, don't miss the Jewelers of America-sponsored education seminars held Sunday, July 27-Tuesday, July 29.
One of the main challenges facing jewelers today is too much cash tied up in non-performing inventory.
By drilling into the details of inventory, you can discover patterns that will help you improve the way you buy. Abe Sherman, CEO of Buyers International Group (B.I.G.), will offer a session at JA New York Summer Show on “Inventory Out of Control! Solutions for a Changing Market.”
Sherman says a few simple steps diligently applied can have you planning your inventory to get the results you desire; he offers these tips to thrive with your buying patterns:
Continue reading "Live From JA New York: Buy Smart, Think Retail" »
While nobody would doubt that today’s selling environment can be challenging, industry experts who spoke at the JCK Show, advised retailers to use the tools they have available (their sales staff, inventory, etc.) and focus on defining their business.
During his keynote address, Shane Decker offered insight on how retailers can stay on track:
In his session “Use Inventory Data as a Forward-looking Tool,” Abe Sherman of Buyers International Group (BIG), discussed what retailers can do immediately in their store to improve their sales:
When it comes to pricing goods, industry analyst Ken Gassman says the actual numbers used are key. Writing for IDEX Online, he cited a Wall Street Journal article on how to sell a home and adopted the strategies and pricing research for retail jewelers.
His suggestions for how to thrive in price points:
Mixing your merchandise to its full potential can have a major impact on your business.
Last week, we wrote about the importance of efficient management and how to take the first steps toward increasing your store’s sales per square foot. According to the 2007 Jewelers of America Cost of Doing Business Survey, this statistic is a key differentiator between high-profit and low-profit stores. Jewelers of America’s Director of Education David Peters shares advice on evaluating your merchandise mix and margins in order to increase your sales per square foot.
Whether it’s to sell off inventory or jump-start your online business, more and more retailers are turning to eBay. Speaking during educational seminars at the JCK Show, retailer and eBay expert Mary Liz Curtin provided insight on how jewelers can use the site to their advantage.
Rather than looking at the site as a bargain basement flea market, she advised retailers to plan ahead and take it seriously in order to succeed. To get started, Curtin suggested:
As we’ve already established, inventory turn is a key element in improving your store’s efficiencies and increasing profits.
In earlier posts, we discussed the importance of keeping an eye on merchandise to know what’s selling fast and what’s collecting cobwebs. We’ve suggested markdowns and employee incentives to push out those slow-moving items.
Today, Jewelers of America’s Director of Education David Peters offers more advice on how to thrive with inventory turnover:
