Trace Shelton
Trace Shelton is Editor-in-Chief of INDESIGN Magazine and Contributing Editor of INSTORE. His current favorite topics to cover include social media, marketing, and store environment, but you could also get him excited about merchandising and sales if you’ve got something new to say.
One of the questions I hear most often from retailers is, “What have you learned as a result of seeing so many stores and talking to so many store owners?” For me, the biggest lesson is that no matter how successful the store, there is almost always a blind spot – that is, an area of potential growth or improvement that the owner is just not seeing.
My third and final installment recapping the “Strategies for Advertising Designer Jewelry” panel from The SMART Show will cover advice shared by Michael Finn of E.B. Horn (Boston, MA), one of our “Eight-Figure Independents” in INDESIGN’s Mar/Apr lead story. E.B. Horn has been in business since 1839 – six years before my home state of Texas joined the Union. Nevertheless, the store’s marketing practices are anything but “old school.” Here was some of the advice Michael shared:
Last week, I blogged about Daniel Gordon’s advice from the “Strategies for Advertising Fine & Designer Jewelry” panel at The SMART Jewelry Show in Chicago and how to dominate social media.
Before the SMART Show, the session I was most looking forward to seeing was the “Strategies for Advertising Fine & Designer Jewelry” panel with Dan Gordon (Samuel Gordon Jewelers, Oklahoma City, OK), Sean Moore (Borsheims, Omaha, NE) and Michael Finn (E.B. Horn, Boston, MA).
Are you a traditional jeweler who’s thought you might want to get into selling designer jewelry but you have no idea where to start? Tom Dougherty of Studio 2015 in Woodstock, IL was in that very position recently, and he shared his story at the SMART Show alongside consultant Andrea Hill of Hill Management Group and moderator (and designer advocate) Cindy Edelstein of Jewelers Resource Bureau.
One of the cornerstones of INSTORE Magazine for as long as I can remember, David Geller, spoke to a full house on Friday about the profit potential of repair and custom work, as well as how to teach salespeople to sell both repairs and custom for higher prices. The thing I’ve always loved about David’s columns – and he didn’t disappoint in his session – is that he’s unfailingly practical in his advice. In other words, he doesn’t get lost in “big ideas” and theories, he tells people what to do and how to do it.
Next Saturday, I’ll have the good fortune to interview one of the sharpest marketing gurus in the world, Martin Lindstrom, at the SMART Jewelry Show in Chicago. This week, I spoke to Martin to ask him what he’s working on lately and the types of things he might want to discuss at the show. Our conversation reaffirmed to me that SMART Show attendees will be making an excellent investment of their time, even if he’s the only speaker they see.
When I was growing up, April Fools’ Day was one of my favorite “holidays” of the year. Like most boys, I tried to fool my friends and classmates into believing ridiculous lies so that I could laugh and say, “April Fools’!” (Come to think of it, why do we teach our kids to celebrate a day devoted to lying?) But in truth, being a fool is nothing to make light of. In fact, some things are too sad to laugh at. Here are a few examples.
While the “vintage jewelry” look has been showing up in more and more jewelry designers’ collections over the past couple of years, the style seems to be cresting in 2013, with several big-name designers and fashion houses capitalizing on the trend that the popular British TV show Downton Abbey and the upcoming The Great Gatsby feature film have brought to the fore.
Within the next couple of weeks, your March/April issue of INDESIGN will arrive in your mailbox, and you’ll be able to see who’s on our “Eight-Figure Independents” list (retailers doing $10 million or more in a single location) and read about their proudest moments, best advice, and what they see as the biggest challenges facing them. One question we asked our eight-figure independents was “What is your store’s ‘secret weapon’?” Here’s a small taste of what they had to say:
