JCK Las Vegas: Visitor Turnout May Be Down, but Sales Are Up
June 04, 07Despite complaints that overall traffic is down, exhibitors at JCK Las Vegas seem pleased with their results at the show’s halfway mark. The reduced visitor numbers are apparently so visible that even a taxi driver ferrying visitors away from the Sands Expo commented on them.
With numbers down, it seems to be a case of targeted buying, and targeted selling. Retailers are coming with shopping lists in hand and, even if browsers are not necessarily converting to buyers just yet, exhibitors are pleased to welcome back their regular customers.
Kalpesh Jhaveri of Eighternity said that so far business had been decent after traffic had picked-up on Saturday. In his opinion though, people were simply “showed out.” With many buyers attending Luxury by JCK, Premier or Couture, Jhaveri said that he thought many were taking a day or so to recuperate before hitting JCK.
At the Eighternity booth, the majority of business has so far come from existing customers. “It’s a good thing that they are coming here,” said Jhaveri, “but really, they are coming to do business that has to be done.” With such tough market conditions, he said, clients need to work with someone they can trust. “People, he said, “are going back to their business roots.”
For Sightholder Fabrikant Tara, the show has been a success. “Traffic is positively up,” said Rajeev Sheth. “There’s optimism in the air.” Most of his clients, he said were coming from the independents although there had been a good number from the smaller chain stores.
On the problems that have plagued Fabrikant of late Sheth said, “The amount of respect the retail industry - from the independents to the major chains - has shown to the Fabrikant family in an attempt to bring them back into the market have been absolutely amazing. In light of that, we are having a phenomenal year with a lot of orders. I have been coming to the show for 15 years and this is the best year ever.”
The House of Taylor Jewelry booth was another stand heaving with visitors – maybe due to the presence of ex-Sports Illustrated model turned mega-entrepreneur Kathy Ireland. President and CEO Jack Abramov puts the success of the show down to the differentiated products his company carries.
“With such a challenging market, retailers are looking for a strategy to stay in the game. They believe that by aligning themselves with brands that have such huge consumer pull, it will help them in their overall survival and success strategy,” Abramov said, adding that he believes that House of Taylor will become a billion dollar company,” although he refused to put a time frame on his estimate.
Elkana Minsky, president of Diamonds by Kattan, characterized the show as ‘much better than last year’. “So far, I’ve made double what I made during the entire show last year.”