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By The Numbers: The Consumers Aren’t Buying Jewelry Myth

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By The Numbers: The Consumers Aren’t Buying Jewelry Myth

THE CHART ABOVE shows 12-month rolling averages for the number of items the average store in our survey sold and also the average ticket for the same period.

What’s amazing is that jewelers are selling as many pieces as ever, just at lower prices. The question then is whether customers are buying cheaper pieces because they have less spending power or because sales staff are directing them to lower-priced goods.

To ensure the recession isn’t a self-fulfilling prophecy in your store:

  1. Drum it into your staff that people are still buying jewelry.
  2. Don’t stop replacing expensive items.
  3. Buy up. The average value of your stockholding should be 20 percent higher than your average sale.
  4. Keep the margins up. Don’t reduce your starting prices.

By The Numbers: The Consumers Aren’t Buying Jewelry Myth

This story is from the May 2009 edition of INSTORE.

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When Andrew Smith decided to close the Springfield, Massachusetts location of Smith & Son Jewelers, the decision came down to family. His father was retiring after 72 years in the business, and Andrew wanted to spend more time with his children and soon-to-arrive grandchildren. For this fourth-generation jeweler whose great-grandfather founded the company in 1918, closing the 107-year-old Springfield location required the right partner. Smith chose Wilkerson, and the experience exceeded expectations from start to finish. "Everything they told me was 100% true," Smith says. "The ease and use of all their tools was wonderful." The consultants' knowledge and expertise proved invaluable. Smith and his father set their own financial goal, but Wilkerson proposed three more ambitious targets. "We thought we would never make it," Smith explains. "We were dead wrong. We hit our first goal, second goal and third goal. It was amazing." Smith's recommendation is emphatic: "I would never be able to do what they did by myself."

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