In Vegas, Jewelers Didn't Gamble On Product
July 20, 10Buyers spent conservatively at the Las Vegas Shows Photo: thinboyfatter |
"Even though the economy is trending up, I was just trying to be smart about dollars spent," Levinson said in a post-show interview. "I chose to be very conservative in my open-to-buy."
Attendance figures confirm that jewelers were back in body, but it seemed that they had not quite returned in spirit to full-blown buying mode, and, like Levinson, many were shopping conservatively on price, in step with budget-conscious customers who are gradually returning to jewelry stores.
Both the Couture show, held at the high-end Wynn Las Vegas June 3 to 7, and JCK Events reported that their show floors were livelier than they were in 2009, when the down economy kept many retailers from gambling on new merchandise, if not away from the shows completely.
Retail buyer attendance at the Couture show climbed 11.2 percent over 2009, according to figures released by the show. (Couture, like National Jeweler, is produced by Nielsen Expositions, which is owned by the Nielsen Co., a global information and media company.)
Meanwhile, JCK Events, which comprises the Luxury, Swiss Watch and JCK Las Vegas shows and attracts a more midstream crowd of jewelers, reported a 20 percent increase in retail buyer attendance overall.
While the aisles might have been more crowded, retailers who spoke with National Jeweler at the shows said they were still working from conservative shopping lists, looking for lower price-point pieces. Most were buying less merchandise or the same amount as they did last year.
Levinson, for one, said she stuck by her pledge to remain conservative in her open-to-buy. Even at her high-end store, the number of $10,000-and-up tickets-which at one time were not at all unusual-has dwindled, with more customers favoring items that are priced at around $3,000.
"The customers who are spending [at five-figure levels] are fewer," she said. "The ones who do have money and want to spend it are just being a little bit more laid-back."
Silver shift
Silver continued to come on strong in Vegas, as it has at other major jewelry shows, amid a bumpy economic recovery and the continually climbing price of gold.
Gold prices remained above $1,200 an ounce during Las Vegas Market Week in early June. At JCK, the show floor buzzed with predictions about gold hitting $1,500 an ounce.
At his booth on the second day of the JCK show, exhibitor and designer Alberto Parada reported that customers of his eponymous jewelry line, which centers around pieces made of 100 percent recycled gold, were in the market to pay $1,000 or less at wholesale.
"So far, for us, stores have stayed a little bit conservative," he said.
Popular in Parada's booth were pairs of diamond hoop earrings in rose gold featuring interchangeable charms. The earrings satisfied both a price point-they wholesale for only $150-and were in line with a big trend seen at the show: pieces that consumers can wear in multiple ways.
Between retailers' conservative spending patterns and the sky-high per-ounce price of gold, Parada is considering silver designs.
"If gold goes to $1,500 an ounce, it will be really tough to create based on what I do," he said.
If Parada does begin designing in silver, he certainly won't be the only silver neophyte. Both Mark Levinson, husband of Robin Levinson and co-owner of Levinson Jewelers, and Belinda Cook, who owns Cook Jewelers in El Dorado, Ark., with her husband Gerald, noticed a number of one-time gold-only vendors slipping toward silver, more and more.
Retailer Shulamit "Shuli" Wilder of Lorraine Fine Jewelry in
"I never thought of getting into silver," Wilder said. "But even my customers are tightening up the belt."
Array of alternatives
Silver wasn't the only choice for retailers aiming to add more affordable finds to their stores. Black diamonds and pieces made of alternative materials, such as enamel, also made their way onto retailer shopping lists.
Robin Levinson said silver sales never really took off at her high-end store, so to help her fill in at the current, lower price point where her customers are spending, she has turned to enamel pieces set with diamonds as well as to colored stones and bangle bracelets.
"It gives the customers something creative," she said.
Van Simpson of Tara and Co. Fine Diamonds in
Though he admittedly did not need much for his store-for which the overall open-to-buy was down 30 percent-Simpson scooped up loose black diamonds for custom-made fashion jewelry, plus strands of the stones by themselves or mixed with yellow diamonds.
"Things that are different have been selling well," he said. "For an independent, you're always looking for something to set you apart from the chains and department stores."
Also abundant at the 2010 jewelry shows were lines of prototype jewelry, pieces crafted of non-precious metals and gemstones that retailers stock and showcase in lieu of the real thing until a purchase is made. Prototypes are gaining popularity in the industry as they offer yet another way for jewelers to avoid sinking large sums of money into inventory.
On Sunday afternoon, retailers crowded the booth of supplier and Diamond Trading Co. Sightholder Stuller to learn about one example: "The Merchandising Solution."
Claudia Evans Zale, director of premier services for Stuller, said the program consists of 12 display units of prototype jewelry (six of bridal jewelry, three of diamond fashion and one each of gemstone fashion, birthstone fashion and family jewelry).
Zale said while Stuller has had prototype trays for various programs since 1996, the new twist on The Merchandising Solution is follow-up reporting. Using data from Stuller, retailers can analyze what is, or isn't selling on the trays and can swap out up to 25 percent of their display items.
Zale said the new program also ties into Stuller.com's "Showcase" mode and CounterSketch Studio, allowing a jeweler to take customers over to a computer and customize most of the styles right before their eyes.
"Anyway the customer wants it, the jeweler can make it," Zale said. "They don't have to stock every option."
Both Joel Hassler, president of Rasmussen Diamonds in
Lorenz said he purchased a "brass-and-glass" selling system from Ostbye in 2009. It has been a success in his store.
"That doubled our selection outright," he said.
Hassler said Rasmussen Diamonds has adopted Unique Settings of New York's Unique Advantage program, which offers prototypes of bridal jewelry crafted of tarnish-resistant metal and diamond simulates. At the show, the retailer invested in another prototype system, purchasing the entire bridal sample line (a total of 30 pieces) from Couture exhibitor Sakamoto.
Overall, Hassler said the store's open-to-buy was up from 2008 but not quite at 2007 levels. By the end of 2009, he said, both business and customers' moods had picked up, and though the retailer has been busy investing in prototypes, it must also cater to customers with new product.