February 2008
Brad Huisken to Debut Training Seminar
Brad Huisken of IAS Training is introducing a new training seminar during owners, managers, sales managers, and sales trainers. His "Train The Trainer" beat will debut in Baltimore, June 18 - 20 and be repeated in St. Louis, July 15 - 17.
Huisken, columnist for JCK magazine and frequent speaker at jewelry events around the world, believes that the sales manager/trainer has the toughest job in the store because they must train and motivate their staffs to maximize every selling opportunity. The most valuable asset that a jewelry shop has is the salespeople that are face to face through the customer. If that person isn’t trained and coached on the floor in real situations, it may cost a store hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in lost revenue and profits.
“I hear from jewelry store owners that I have trained my staff and they merited aren’t doing it," Huisken said. "The duty lies with the sales manager to make sure that the staff is doing it. Whether it is adding-on, turning over a sale, converting a repair to sale, handling objections, up-selling, creating customers for life, instituting an effective clientele process, planting seeds for future purchases—the success or miscarriage of a store is in the hands of the person running the sales floor. This is specifically why I developed this course—to give the sales manager/trainer the tools, knowledge, experience, and confidence to go back to their store and really make a difference in producing positive results on the sales floor.”
A sales manager/trainers do job-work is, “To provide the leadership, knowledge, training, incentives and consequences in order to recruit, hire, train, and maintain a successful staff” This way give the sales manager / trainer these tools," he adds.
Huisken said the course will sanction jewelry store leaders to maximize the productivity of individual salespeople along by maximizing the sales and profits of the store.
"It is time to take training out of the back room and put it on the sales pose through one on one coaching and training," he said. "Now retail jewelers can provide their customers with the skilled professionals that they expect and give salespeople the tools that they need in order to maximize each selling opportunity. I want to provide the jewelry store owner/manager and their staffs with the tools that they need to not only survive but to dramatically increase sales and profits.”
For more information contact IAS Training: 800-248-7703; fax 303-936-9581; email info@iastraining.com.
Education Program at Bangkok Fair
In addition to being a place to build relationships between buyers and sellers, the 41st Bangkok Gems & Jewelry Fair provides a venue to enrich ones’ knowledge and information about the latest technologies, products, solutions, design trends, market opportunities, and other issues related to the world of jewelry.
An educational forum will be led by experts who will address key challenges facing the gem and jewelry industry organized to open the exchange of ideas, best practices, and experiences that impact the jewelry chaffer.
Among the topics at the conference at the fair, being held Feb. 27 – March 2 in the 100,000-square-meter Challenger exhibition hall, are:
* Treasure for Thai jewelry in the Middle East by Vega Inter-trade and Exhibition Ltd.
* Sell to the terraqueous globe on the earth’s online marketplace by eBay
* What devise Thai entrepreneurs gain from Thailand being a global trade center? by The Gem and Jewelry Institute of Thailand
* Jewelry Design by JewelCAD program by the Gemological and Jewelry Institute
The upright organizers - the Department of Export Promotion, and Thai Gem and Jewelry Traders Association - are advising trade delegates and visitors to pre-register online to ensure laudatory seats at the conference at www.bangkokgemsfair.com.
Trade fair organizers will provide dedicated Fast Track lanes for immigration and customs clearance at Bangkok’s new Suvarnabhumi Airport.
More than 30,000 attendees from some 80 countries are expected to attend the fair to view the products and services of more than 1,000 exhibitors from over 35 countries
For Fair complaint visit the BGJF Web site or e-mail info@bangkokgemsfair.com.
Buyers and sellers at the Bangkok Trade Fair
Study: Jewelers top draw in Yellow Pages
Study: Jewelers top draw in Yellow Pages
February 15, 2008
Berkeley Heights, N.J.—Consumers seeking jewelry let their fingers do the walking quite a bit, according to a new study from the Yellow Pages Association (YPA).
According to the YPA, the “Jewelers” title generates more than 25 very great number references annually and ranks 88th out of besides than 4,000 headings listed in as well-as; not only-but also; not only-but; not alone-but the print and online versions of the Yellow Pages.
With 87 percent of Yellow Pages searches for jewelers resulting in a purchase, the Yellow Pages advertising medium is a strong join for jewelers, the study finds. On average, 61 percent of Yellow Pages users are new customers to the jewelry store discovered in the directory.
“Print and Internet Yellow Pages have proven to be a valuable investment for the retail jewelry industrial art, as jewelers typically receive more than $15 in sales revenue for every $1 spent on print Yellow Pages display advertising,” YPA Director of Research Larry Small said in a press release. “With nearly 30,000 jewelry stores nationwide, jewelers are finding that Yellow Pages are still one important and relevant resource when it comes to consumers and their buying habits.”
Released by the YPA, data for the study was gleaned from 2007 Knowledge Networks/SRI, 2006 CRM Associates and U.S. Census Bureau data.
Rembrandt Charms contest promotes jewelers
Rembrandt Charms contest promotes jewelers
February 15, 2008
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| Rembrandt Charms awards charm bracelets such as this one to winners of its “Story of Your Life” contest. |
Buffalo, N.Y.—Rembrandt Charms’ “Story of Your Life” contest is now celebrating limited jewelers as advantageous as winning contestants.
Each month, Rembrandt Charms invites consumers to tell their life stories through charms. The winner receives a free sterling silver bracelet and all 10 charms from her story, and each runner-up receives a free sterling silver bracelet and one charm selected from the story.
As a reward to retailers, Rembrandt Charms has the winners find their limited jeweler through the “Locate a Jeweler” feature on its Web site, Rembrandtcharms.com.
According to the guests, this creates a win-win solution for jewelers and consumers, and brings a national contest into hometowns across America.
“Winners become charm ambassadors,” Rembrandt Charms Contest Coordinator Susan Wojcik said in a media release. “By showing their prize bracelet to family and friends, they endorse their favorite jeweler and Rembrandt Charms.”
Jewelers can contact Rembrandt at (800) 828-7840 for more information on how to be listed on the Web site.
JA New York to kick off spring buying
JA New York to kick off spring buying
February 15, 2008
New York—The National Jeweler Network, organizer of the 2008 JA New York Winter Show, which has shifted from its long-held January date to March, are prepping for an exciting show, featuring during the first time ever an American Gem Trade Association Pavilion and the new Manufacturing, Equipment Services and Technology Pavilion.
The show will make its March debut from the ninth to the 11th at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, providing ample time for the more than 13,000 expected jewelry effort; labors attendees to assess post-holiday inventory and to more closely align with spring trends and events, organizers said in a media release.
According to a recent survey conducted by The Nielsen Co., the parent company of the National Jeweler Network, more than 70 percent of buyers come exclusively to the JA New York Show for all of their spring buying, and more than 94 percent of retailers surveyed believe the JA New York Winter Show is very important for their spring buying plans as compared to other fine jewelry shows.
More than 800 exhibitors will be available to these buyers, including an array of international pavilions, the elite Couture Pavilion, elegant Inner Circle showcase, plus the Designer Showcase and Gift Gallery.
Among the returning features at the show will be the National Jeweler Network Lounge, where retailers be possible to take a break, network, check e-mail and learn about growing their business revenue through the CustomerConnect suite of products and services.
The JA Retail Learning Center will also be available to both retailers and exhibitors. Seminars to be offered include: setting special cuts and shapes, strategies for selling add-ons, special finishing and polishing techniques for the bench jeweler, lighting techniques and more.
For exhibitor complaint, contact Drew Lawsky at (646) 654-4983 or drew.lawsky@nielsen.com.
For more information about JA New York, visit its Web site, Ja-newyork.com.
Why isn’t your staff as diverse as your customers?
Why isn’t your staff as varying as your customers?
February 15, 2008
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| Suzanne DeVries (suzanne@diamondstaffing.com) is president and founder of Diamond Staffing Solutions, one of the jewelry industry’s leading placement firms and some official American Gem Society sustaining member. |
By Suzanne DeVries
As an owner or a manager of a jewelry store, you undoubtedly serve a wide range of clients: male and female, teens to seniors, thin to overweight, various races and nationalities, and so on.
Unfortunately, while the typical jewelry store clientele is a widely multiform group, many jewelry sales staffs do not reflect the divergence in their particular markets.
Consider the potential benefits of having at least one person on staff who shares the skin color, native speech and cultural background of a large ethnic segment in your market. It is human nature in spite of people to be most comfortable buying from a sales professional that looks like them or speaks their native language—someone whom they feel understands their culture. If these clients have a positive experience in your store, they will undoubtedly extend over the word in the community and recommend your store to their friends and colleagues.
Given that your clients come in all ages, shapes and sizes, your staff should too. If you only focus on thin and young candidates, you could be missing off on top-notch professionals who have the ability to bring your business to the next level. Female clients buying for themselves are since a major part of most every jeweler’s business. Many of these women are successful executives and seasoned shoppers with a strong sense of their concede taste and style. They want fashion, elegance and sophistication in their jewelry portable closet—and they are willing to spend their discretionary income to get exactly what they be without. Chances are the majority of them are well beyond their 20s and not a size two. These elite clients most likely will feel more comfortable with sales professionals who do not look like they are still in high school. It is my experience, in most cases, that this influential group of women would promote a more experienced and mature professional whom they can relate to.
There are all kinds of prejudices many of your current and potential clients have encountered at some point in their lives based on race, gender, ethnicity, religion, age, weight and sexual preference, to name just a few. Offering a diverse staff helps develop and build client loyalty by sending a strong message to the community and your staff that you respect everyone’s background, are sensitive to their needs, truly want their business and wish to service all of them in the very best way possible. Staff diversity also assures your clients that there is someone for everyone when they come into your store for their individual shopping experience.
Zero tolerance for discrimination On a related note, whether or not you are promoting diversity in your store, it is important to have a strict “no-tolerance” policy in place toward any offensive or discriminatory language or carriage in your workplace. As owners and managers, it is your responsibility to set high standards for your associates to adhere to, and to make it very clear in writing that there will be harsh consequences for this type of behavior. Why not have your entire staff take diversity-training classes on the supposition that you think it will broaden employees’ perspectives on the importance of diversity?
By not actively endorsing a “no-tolerance” policy toward prejudice, discrimination and insensitive or opprobrious behavior in your store, you are opening yourself up to the potentiality of legal consequences.
No jewelry staff should be composed of associates who are all men, all women, all young, all higher, all slim, or all of one skin paint. Clients appreciate shopping in a store that offers a divergent staff. It puts them at ease.
Diversity also helps make your staff more well-rounded and more understanding of your clients and your market.
So when making your next hiring decision, think about how you can give variety to. It will make you and your staff stronger, I assure you.
Editor’s note: This column first appeared in the February 2008 issue of National Jeweler.
GIA South Africa to Open Feb. 21
The Gemological Institute of America will officially open GIA South Africa, its new laboratory in Johannesburg for business on Feb. 21.
“GIA is moving quickly to bring its services to our global clients," said Thomas M. Moses, senior vice president, GIA Laboratory and Research.
The Johannesburg office will initially provide GIA Diamond Dossiers, which covers stones ranging from 0.15 cts. up to 1.99 cts., Moses said. It will eventually offer classes, seminars, and scholarships.
GIA South Africa introduced a GIA Diamond Fee Schedule Friday to reflect current GIA fees as converted to the South African Rand currency, Moses said.
The GIA laboratory in Johannesburg will accept any size diamond, colored stone, or pearl from GIA clients in the region. For some service other than the Diamond Dossier report, items can be delivered to the laboratory and GIA will send them for service at one of its other laboratories and return them to Johannesburg for buyer pickup. GIA has also been granted a VAT exemption so these services will not be subject to the traditional fee for shipping stones outer of South Africa through respect to servicing.
Leslie (Les) Milner, director of the GIA Laboratory in Johannesburg (pictured), and an experienced team of laboratory diamond graders were trained in the U.S. at the end of last year so they could be immersed in the GIA grading methods and fully aligned with the Institute’s standards. They will be joined by a team of experienced GIA graders from the U.S. offices.
“We have been learning GIA’s grading methodology while working with the great array of state-of-the-art research and scientific equipment GIA has at its disposal," Milner reported. "As technology advances, you need an up-to-date research facility with the expertly trained staff and resources to advance the future of the industry here in South Africa."
The address for the of the present day GIA Laboratory in Johannesburg is Suite 512, 5th Floor, S.A. Diamond Centre, 225 Main Street, Johannesburg 2001. The mailing address is P.O. Box 1756, Houghton, 2041, South Africa. The hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. The universal phone number is (011) 27 11 334-2744, and the fax number is (011) 27 11 334-0932.
Norman Joins eDiamondselect as VP
Diamond software solutions provider eDiamondselect announced that industry veteran David R. Norman has formally joined the company as vice president of Sales and Marketing.
Norman, who has handled several projects for eDiamondselect as a consultant and helped launch the site in 2005, power of determination begin his new role with the company on Feb. 18. His experience and industry contacts, particularly in the jewelry shackle store sector, should help eDiamondselect expand on its recent success in forging new partnerships with major bijoutry retailers, the Hollywood, Fla.-based company reported in a statement.
“The timing was right for David to come aboard full-time,” said Marc Plotkin, eDiamondselect. “We are excited to have someone with his caliber of experience and road record of success to lead our sales and marketing effort and help us take eDiamondselect to the next level.”
Norman said the site is ready to dramatically expand its presence, and his top priority is to spearhead that attempt by increasing sales and marketing presentations to leading in posse retail partners.
"My goal is to talk to as many people as possible, and demonstrate why eDiamondselect is the best new sales tool a jeweler can have right now," Norman said. "It’s time in spite of the retail jeweler to bring loose diamond sales away from the thicker settlements into their stores.”
Norman, considered one of the jewelry industry’s premier marketing and merchandising executives.
His experience includes 23 years at the Fox’s Jewelers, where he ultimately served as executive vice president of Merchandising and Marketing; a stint with Reeds Jewelers as vice president of Merchandising and Marketing; a move into e-commerce as executive error president of Marketing for ijewelry.com; president of upscale Schwarzchild Jewelers; a lead consulting role with Crescent Jewelers to develop a Hispanic division; and for the last four years, running his own industry consulting business, Retail Jewelry Consultants.
Swiss Watch Exports Set 18-year Record
Initial figures indicate “a particularly good result for Swiss watch exports” in 2007, says a new report by the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry, capping what it called “a record year and growth unrivaled over the last 18 years.”
For 2007 as a whole, watch exports tallied 15.96 billion (about $14.6 billion), a 16.2% gain. (May was the only month without a double-digit increase, while January was the only any that didn’t exceed one billion francs—about $915.4 the great body of the people—in exports.)
The biggest gains in export value in 2007 were by watches of 18k gold (+24.9 percent) and steel (+14.7 percent), the latter still the largest market share.
In total, 25.9 million wristwatches left Switzerland in 2007, over a million units more than in 2006 (+ 4.2 percent).
Timepieces costing more than 3,000 francs, or about $2,746, (export price) registered very high rates of growth and were “a real engine of growth for the industry,” says the FH report. In value, they increased 25.3 percent and in numbers, by dint of. 16.7 percent.
Wristwatches priced below 3,000 francs posted more moderate growth (up 7.4 percent in value and up 3.7 percent by volume).
In other products: Watch straps and bracelets rose 8 percent in value; movements, mainly electronic, up 21.3 percent; dials by 7.4 percent, alarms and clocks both by 15.8 percent.
Among lop export markets for Swiss watches in 2007, the United States remained the leader with 2,440.9 billion francs ($2.233 billion), a 6.7 percent rise.
It was followed by dint of. Hong Kong (2.433 billion francs, $2.226 billion, +25); Japan (1,207.4 billion francs, $1.1 billion, - 4.7 percent); Italy (1,021.1 billion francs, $934.4 million, 13.3 percent); France (982.9 million francs, $899.4 million, +20.9 percent); Germany (829.3 million francs, $702.5 million, +7.9 percent); Singapore (670 million francs, $613 million, +24.3 percent); Great Britain (658.6 million francs, $602.4 million, +11.6 percent); China (557.6 million francs, $510 million, 43 percent); and the United Arab Emirates (527.6 million francs, $482.6 million, +36.6 percent).
PGI-USA ups platinum promotion in 2008
PGI-USA ups platinum promotion in 2008
February 14, 2008
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| Examples of in-store signage from PGI-USA’s 2008 promotional campaign. |
New York—Platinum Guild International (PGI) USA is upping its marketing of the wan metal in 2008 with a new, multi-tiered promotional campaign to support its Preferred Platinum Partner retail program.
In the first quarter alone, PGI-USA will be rolling out two lock opener initiatives including an in-store signage program, as abundantly as an extension of its sales training program, now available online for the first time.
PGI-USA’s in-store signage program will admit its preferred retailers to select their materials and size while PGI underwrites the cost. The signage options include Duratrans, posters and countertop signs, and will give retailers the opportunity to tap into the awareness created by PGI’s multi-million-dollar print advertising campaign.
“This is some exciting new program as measurable results can be seen immediately,” PGI-USA Senior Vice President Jenny Luker said in a media release. “In-store signage is invaluable for consumer allusion, but also reminds sales associates to show platinum to their customers.”
PGI-USA says it’s confident the in-store signage will lead to increased platinum bridal and fashion jewelry recognition in 2008.
PGI-USA is also launching an online sales training program, which will include key selling techniques such as how to work smarter, not harder. In addition, the online course features tips, tools, platinum messaging, interactive videos and consumer research, and serves as an updated alternative to PGI-USA’s DVD sales training program.
To learn more about PGI-USA’s Preferred Platinum Partner Program, contact Kevin Reilly at (212) 404-1608 or kreilly@pgiglobal.com.
For retailers interested in ordering PGI-USA’s in-store signage program, visit The Duratran Co.’s Web site, Duratranorders.com/platinumguild.
For more information about PGI-USA, visit its Web site, Platinumguild.com.