After a history dating back to 1898, the fourth-generation owners, brother and sister, Bill and Emily, wanted to retire and decided to close their jewelry store and conclude doing business. Maintaining their reputation in the community was important to them, so choosing the right company to help them execute a successful retirement event was really important.
Month: February 2020
Devon Fine Jewelry
Nancy Schuring’s modest beginnings in jewelry started in a tiny room in her apartment in 1975 and has evolved into a beautiful and gracious showroom you see today in Wyckoff, NJ. Her extraordinary store boasts of some of the finest brands in the jewelry industry with one of the widest selections of gems – over 100 different varieties – found anywhere in the United States
Rethinking Your Business
As you know, we see a lot of upscale retail jewelry stores and we speak with hundreds of jewelers across North America annually.
As you know, we see a lot of upscale retail jewelry stores and we speak with hundreds of jewelers across North America annually. While brands are still very special to consumers and to the retail jewelry industry, we are seeing more and more fine jewelers concentrating on promoting their own name in their community and their own house brand, particularly with custom design in a unique store setting. The experience is what really matters.
What is happening is a re-thinking of what each jeweler wants to represent in his region based on changing demographics, the consumer of today, shifting lifestyles, and new ways of doing business. Sharp entrepreneurs are taking bold steps to reinvent themselves. Bold isn’t crazy. It’s a strong, confident move to continuously adapt to these changes and to direct your business toward what will make you happy in the future.
You must ask yourself the hard questions. Am I still relevant to today’s jewelry consumer? Does my store represent what I want to be in the community? What changes must take place in order to grow and compete in the marketplace? Am I listening intently to what my younger staff are saying, or am I too set in my ways to adapt? Do I have the courage and energy to be bold in the face of challenge and change, and even to re-shape my store for the future.
Consumers still want to visit a store, see and feel the product, look a salesperson in the eye and know they can trust her, and enjoy the entire experience, often with their significant other at their side. Many retailers are reinventing the layout of their stores to accommodate today’s astute consumer, and to create an experience they simply cannot have online or in traditional stores.
At The Gordon Company, we are in business to help you stay in business and to meet your financial or retirement goals. Drop us a line or give us a call if we can help you re-think and plan for your future, and create the experience your customers seek.
Sincerely,
Jeff Gordon, CEO
Losing Customers to the Internet?
The most consistent concern we hear from jewelers is the loss of traffic due to any number of factors, chief among them, the Internet. Most jewelers want and need to capture younger clients for bridal sales, and for future sales down the line. Most of these customers do their research online, and many shop online for gems and jewelry, largely because they can.
The most consistent concern we hear from jewelers is the loss of traffic due to any number of factors, chief among them, the Internet. Most jewelers want and need to capture younger clients for bridal sales, and for future sales down the line. Most of these customers do their research online, and many shop online for gems and jewelry, largely because they can.
Many jewelers also complain that Baby Boomers are not in the market for fine jewelry anymore, indicating that they have enough. That’s debatable in our view because they certainly have the most money, and women, in particular, haven’t stopped wanting diamonds and fine jewels. But what isn’t debatable is the fact that you lose customers over time and you need to constantly replenish them.
When you couple this idea with the fact that you have aged and unwanted inventory that you must reduce or eliminate, you have a perfect reason to do a major sale event in your store. Not only will you reduce and monetize previously unsaleable merchandise, which allows you to purchase or manufacture new lines, you will create an expanded mailing list of new buyers for future purchases. 30-40% of all purchases in our sales are done by people who had never previously bought from the store. That’s an amazing statistic that proves our ability to drive traffic and build mailing lists, the lifeblood of all businesses.
So if this makes sense, feel free to give us a call to see how we can help you combat Internet sales, drive new traffic to your store, grow your mailing list, eliminate unwanted inventory, and create necessary cash flow for fresh merchandise in 2020.
Sincerely,
Jeff Gordon, CEO
