As the sun rises on the most important jewelry trade fairs of the year in Las Vegas, Nevada, attendees will have anything but a leisurely week in the desert. That’s because there are mile-long shopping lists for fourth-quarter sales to tackle, and myriad manufacturers and artisans vying for the attention of merchants. Here’s the skinny on what to expect.
Must-haves for merchants
Travis Piper’s six-year-old Piper Diamond Co. business in Vincennes, Indiana, recently hit the million-dollar revenue mark selling largely private-label jewelry staples that give good value — and he’s shooting for $2 million.
“We’ve reached a plateau,” he explains. To surpass it, he’s picked up the Le Vian brand — with its powerful marketing — to better promote color and pull in new shoppers. More lines like Dabakarov and Allison-Kaufman Company will further enhance gemstone offerings. The latter’s morganite in rose gold “sells like crazy,” says Piper. “We are continuously reordering it.”
Z Folio Gallery in Solvang, California, is recovering from fires and floods that hit the area earlier this year, but is ready to move on and pick up more color. The gallery’s director of operations, Natasha Lazorova, will be looking for not just colored stones, but metals, too.
“We saw more yellow gold and color at the Centurion jewelry show in late January,” she reports. “We’re adding a lot of yellow and rose gold — we’ve stocked white for a long time — but now people are asking for the warmer colors.”
Another thing she’s seeking is impulse-purchase items. Goods from $250 to $1,000 can be a great add-on and price point to encouraging spending on a whim. Right now, canine-themed brand Dog Fever fits the bill. “No case in our store gets more of a reaction than theirs,” she observes.
She’s also steering clear of design houses that sell directly to consumers. While there are always exceptions — including recent acquisition Frey Wille, an Austrian jewelry brand that specializes in enamel — her store is trying to avoid as many of these makers as possible. “We don’t need to compete with them online,” she says.
Designers on display
Internet and social media sales are heating up among retailers who are finally taking e-commerce seriously.
Jacquie Earle of AeroDiamonds witnessed this firsthand on Instagram when a Florida consumer inquired about a one-of-a-kind diamond necklace Earle had posted. The piece had already sold, but three independent retail jewelers — one in New York, one in Chicago, Illinois, and another in Florida — piped up to woo the woman with similar-looking AeroDiamonds pieces they had in stock.
“The internet just lit up!” recalls Earle. The customer ultimately bought one of the proffered items.
Color is also on the minds of some designers who have traditionally worked with just diamonds. These include Julez Bryant, known for her matte finishes of largely pink-gold and diamond styles, and wedding-jewelry designer Erika Winters.
Winters is adding gemstones that she considers neutral tones (nothing bold) like grayish-lavender spinel and a deep, smoky teal-colored tourmaline that she describes as “similar to indicolite but greener.” Another priority for her is special shapes, such as antique-style cushion cuts, emerald cuts and ovals. “Ovals have been a huge trend for us, starting in 2016 through 2017 and now into this year,” she reports.
As for the direct-to-consumer movement, designers say they can’t afford not to sell that way. With intermittent sales, and a large number of retailers writing orders at shows only to cancel them later, makers find themselves in the precarious position of wondering how to pay their bills.
Selling to the end consumer when retailers resist purchases is an obvious solution. In fact, not doing so can demonstrate a “lack of credibility,” according to independent designer Jade Lustig of Jade Trau, who points out that middleman merchants can be daunting to some shoppers.
Plus, both consumers and designers enjoy the process. “Working directly with consumers is my favorite part of my job,” she says.
Image (left to right): Kristin Hanson linear drop earrings; Buddha Mama Y necklace; Erica Courtney earrings.Article from the Rapaport Magazine - June 2018. To subscribe click here.