STORES DOING CUSTOM bridal are killing it!
When I was a young man, the bride was about 22 and groom was about 25. Today, people are getting married later, bride 25 to 27 and groom about 28. They also make more money and can afford a better ring. In addition, the couple might visit 15 websites looking and still visit maybe five-plus brick-and-mortar stores. 75% will still buy their ring in a store.
They will also wait whatever time it takes for you to custom make the ring of her dreams.
Custom can be:
- Having your vendor alter an inventory ring to their liking.
- Send a drawing to a vendor to custom make a ring.
- Have your store jeweler manufacture the custom ring right in your store.
If you choose to manufacture in your store, you must talk the walk. If the man or partner comes shopping for the ring, does your store look like you make jewelry? Can your sales staff talk designing, price it and show what they want or get someone to assist?
Some stores that do CAD/CAM to start the process may have the computer attached to an additional monitor on the wall so the customer can see the design unfold, but more importantly, other customers in the store can see as well.
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You may know I sold my store in 2000. We had Gemvision, but CAD/CAM wasn’t what it is today. To show what we did, we did show a few waxes in the case, but on one wall in the showroom, we had five large pictures showing the process from carving a wax all the way to polishing the finished project. It helped the staff have a conversation about what we did. We also had picture books on the counter for customers to flip through of what we made and what we could do for them. We had a waxer and five jewelers. 75% of our income came from the shop. We advertised it immensely.
It’s 2024, and you could do an awesome job of your presentation. You could have a large TV screen on the wall with a video loop showing what your jewelers do to create a piece, and don’t forget to include videos of happy couples and lots of proposals if you can get them.
The ring should easily bring you keystone to triple key, and remember: The shop has very little inventory overhead.
With the couple’s permission, share the pictures of the items you make along with the happy couple on your social media pages.
This is one area of the jewelry business that you could make it all your own.
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