David Brown

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

Published

11 years ago

May 1, 2009

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[h3]The Consumers Aren’t Buying Jewelry Myth[/h3]

[dropcap cap=T]he 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.[/dropcap]

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:

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

David Brown is president of the Edge Retail Academy, an organization devoted to the ongoing measurement and growth of jewelry store performance and profitability. You can contact him at [email protected].

[span class=note]This story is from the May 2009 edition of INSTORE[/span]

If you’d like to contribute your own data and receive a personalized KPI report each month, call (877) 910-3343 or e-mail: [email protected].

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