Fine jewelry has been one of the stars so far this holiday, and jewelry retailers are stepping up their service to make sure the momentum continues.
In an effort to win over new customers and create a comfortable shopping experience, several retailers are thinking outside the box to drum up business.
De Beers wants to dissipate the initial tension between the customer and salesperson. The diamond jewelry company, which has been under media scrutiny with the release of the film “Blood Diamond,” has 15 international stores, including locations in Los Angeles and New York, and has put jewelry prices in the windows and the cases in the U.S. for anyone to see.
“Our strategy is, how do we make the consumer who walks in the store feel empowered, whether it’s a $6,000 or $6 million ring?” said Alyce Alston, chief executive officer of De Beers, North America. “The jewelry industry’s tradition has been to keep prices [out of sight] like it’s some big secret. Today’s luxury customers don’t need the pomp and circumstance…Maseratis and Oscar de la Renta dresses have price tags. I never understood why jewelry was different.”
Alston said the formula is working, attracting customers who are truly serious about buying through the threshold, while discouraging mere browsers. The customers can then go forward and get the help of a salesperson.
When Tiffany & Co. debuted the Frank Gehry jewelry collection last spring, the company allotted an open-air space in its New York and Los Angeles flagships, so consumers could touch and feel the jewelry, without the assistance of a salesperson. The open selling area was revolutionary for jewelry retailers, who are concerned with shrinkage and the tidiness of displays. Tiffany beefed up security and sales help in the areas, preventing such problems.
“With Gehry, we didn’t want to do something in a traditional case line and have a salesperson have to help you every time,” said Beth Owen Canavan, the company’s executive vice president. “We wanted consumers to be able to explore it themselves, to see the movement and sensual curves. It was calling out ‘Touch me.'”
Owen Canavan said the experiment worked out so well that last month it replaced the Gehry open selling area with a Tiffany Charm Bar, in which customers can mix and match silver charms onto necklaces and bracelets. Prices range from $100 to $125. Already in New York and Los Angeles, the company is opening Charm Bars throughout many of its 64 U.S. stores.
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“It’s a very spirited collection,” said Owen Canavan about the charm line, adding the department is one of the most populated areas of the stores. “It’s interactive and fun.”
Smaller jewelers also are developing their clever customer services. Chris Lane, co-founder of Elizabeth Leigh Co., a five-year-old Coral Gables, Fla. -based pearl jewelry firm, will go out of her way for her clients. Lane has received clearance to meet a client for an hour at the gate of the Miami International Airport and often goes up to men’s offices to sell jewelry she knows their wives already love.
Creating closer relationships with their customers was key to Lane and business partner Cara Brown upon founding the company. Their jewelry isn’t wholesaled, nor do they have their own retail shop. The two host catered jewelry shows in clients’ homes in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Georgia, New York and wherever their clients take them. Amid the Champagne and hors d’oeuvres, customers plunk down from $2,000 to $85,000 for a gem-quality pearl necklace. It’s not uncommon for the two to generate revenues in the six figures in one day. “We sell to people without any pressure in a private home,” said Lane. “Eighty percent of the people that walk through our door are buyers.”
Sharon Khazzam’s colored-stone-drenched designs are available exclusively at select Barneys New York stores, but that doesn’t stop her from staying in touch with her clients and creating custom pieces for them, which will be sold through Barneys. Khazzam, a native of Tehran who is based in Great Neck, N.Y., keeps close tabs on her one-of-a-kind pieces, which range from $1,500 to $2 million, and their buyers by getting to know her salespeople at Barneys. Khazzam is so well attuned to her client base, she even creates custom pieces for them without their knowing. She once bought two hefty sapphires that reminded her of the blue of a client’s eyes. When the client saw the ring Khazzam created especially for her, she bought it.
“What I have to offer that makes a difference is that even though I’m working with a company that has other designers, we’ve created relationships with the sales associates and we work almost as if it’s a tiny retail store,” said Khazzam.