How to Succeed in Jewelry Retail by Narrowing Your Focus

Published

2 years ago

May 11, 2021

Eileen McClelland Instore May 2021 Issue

WHILE SOME RETAIL jewelers launch their businesses with a clear focus, others need time to figure out their best path for success over time.

Once you do decide to specialize and want to become the bridal destination, the colored gemstone expert or the place for repairs in your area, it makes sense to relaunch the business and to use that as the opening salvo in all of your marketing. It gives new people a reason to come to your store, but it won’t alienate current core clients, who will continue to visit.

Update your website, make sure your SEO is targeting the right demographics and prepare for a major social media campaign.

In short, shout your specialty news from the hilltops, but then back up that announcement by delivering the knowledge and customer service prowess to sell yourself as the expert.

Specialists say if handled correctly, the potential for success is tremendous.

Rex Solomon, who has specialized in buying gold and jewelry over the counter since the Great Recession with enviable results, says there is nothing an independent jeweler can do to better control their financial future than buying from the public. In 2020, his specialization came through again for him and carried the business through pandemic shutdowns like an unsinkable life raft in stormy seas.

Jeremy Auslander owns Roxbury Jewelry in Los Angeles, a by-appointment luxury diamond and jewelry firm specializing in engagement rings and fine jewelry. His marketing message is that working one on one with an expert in a pressure-free, private, luxury office is the way diamond and jewelry buying should be done.

“Do not be a jack of all trades,” he says. “Be an expert in one thing. Tell your story, reach out to people who are interested in what you do specifically. It’s all a numbers game.”

Cathy Miller of Caleesi Designs Jewelers in Austin says one-of-a-kind design is her specialty, and it’s something non-custom jewelers just can’t compete with. “My advice? Find what you do the BEST and get the word out in every way possible.”

Michael Kanoff, owner of Michael’s Jewelers in Yardley, PA, believes his bridal specialty business, supported by a sustained investment in advertising, saved him from closing in 2020 due to COVID-19. He devotes an amazing 25 percent of revenues to marketing efforts. The message he wants to get out is that “We’re different. We’re unique. We’re custom. That’s us. No compromises. We’re going to build her dream ring and it will stand out from the crowd.”

Time to Do What You've Always Wanted? Time to Call Wilkerson.

It was time. Teri Allen and her brother, Nick Pavlich, Jr., had been at the helm of Dearborn Jewelers of Plymouth in Plymouth, Mich., for decades. Their father, Nick Pavlich, Sr., had founded the store in 1950, but after so many wonderful years helping families around Michigan celebrate their most important moments, it was time to get some “moments” of their own. Teri says Wilkerson was the logical choice to run their retirement sale. “They’re the only company that specializes in closing jewelry stores,” she says. During the sale, Teri says a highlight was seeing so many generations of customers who wanted to buy “that one last piece of jewelry from us.” Would she recommend Wilkerson? Absolutely. “There is no way that I would have been able to do this by myself.”