Best Stores

Extreme Makeover: Jewelry Customer Edition

For a special experience, offer your customers makeovers.

Published

11 years ago

February 27, 2012

Trace Shelton

YOU’VE PROBABLY seen it on daytime television: A talk-show host takes a couple of ladies from the audience and asks makeup, hair, and fashion experts to do an “extreme makeover” on the ladies to bring out their beauty as only such experts can. So here’s an idea: why not do this in your store?

If there’s one thing we know, it’s that women love to look and feel beautiful – and they’re always eager to learn more on the subject. By partnering with makeup, hair, and fashion experts in your community, you can provide a holistic learning experience that gets your customers excited and makes them happy, all while making more sales and building loyalty for you.

STEP ONE: Invite a select group of customers for an after-hours event. You may want to pool databases with your event partners to choose VIPs for your guest list. Send out professionally-crafted invitations. Consider inviting a news station to cover/co-sponsor the event. You can bet this will be the hottest ticket in town.

STEP TWO: In addition to the usual hors d’oeuvre and music, set up printed displays of celebrities of all sizes and shapes (paying special attention to various necklines and face shapes). Include close-ups. Your sales team and your event partner experts can use these to show customers how certain fashions, colors, hair styles, and jewelry complements each celebrity’s physical attributes (see the INDESIGN story “About Face” to learn more about face shapes and necklines).

STEP THREE: Set up “makeover” stations for hair, makeup, fashion, and jewelry. Take pictures. Give advice. Let your customers show off and feel beautiful.

STEP FOUR: Give prizes to each customer for “best new hair style/fashion/makeup/jewelry ensemble.” Parade each winner into the spotlight. Be sure every attendee is recognized for something. Allow time for mixing and mingling afterward.

STEP FIVE: Promote the event afterwards in social media and to your local media (newspaper, TV), as well as on your website and blog. Be sure to “tag” attendees on Facebook so they can join the conversation and talk up how great the event was. Send photos and press release to INDESIGN because we want to cover your event!

STEP SIX: Rinse and repeat in six months!

Time for More “Me Time”? Time to Call Wilkerson

Rick White, owner of White’s & Co. Jewelry in Rogers, Ark., knew it was time to retire. Since the age of 18, jewelry had been his life. Now it was time to get that “me time” every retailer dreams about. So, he chose Wilkerson to manage his going-out-of-business sale. White says he’d done plenty of sales on his own, but this was different. “Wilkerson has been a very, very good experience. I’ve had the best salespeople in the history of jewelry,” he says. “I recommend Wilkerson because they are really the icon of the jewelry business and going-out-of-business sales. They’ve been doing it for decades. I just think they’re the best.”