Here we are at the end of the second month of 2016 already, where does the time go? How has your 2016 started? Did Valentine’s Day give sales the boost that predictions promised? Certainly all platforms of social media were awash with proposal acceptances – so if happy couples have not arrived yet they soon may, as new statistics say that over 50% of newly engaged couples prefer to choose the ring together.
This week we are talking about charms – their popularity and what they can do for your store and its footfall. Do you already sell your own charms for charm bracelets? Has their introduction increased the sales of other jewellery in your store? At what price point are they selling? Do you have your own technique for increasing footfall? Hit reply and talk back to us – we would love to hear your story and publish it if you agree, by working together sharing not only our success but are failings too do we become stronger as a community and an industry.
Have a great weekend.
Richard
The Charm Offensive
Charms – yes, let’s get this right out of the way at the get go, you can love them or hate them, you may sneer at them or covet them, what none of us can do is dismiss the retail value of the charm bracelet. And more importantly, one cannot dismiss what putting a charm display in your own store could do to increase the footfall through your door.
It doesn’t matter if charms are not to your own taste – I admit, charm bracelets would not be my first or even second choice for a piece of jewellery. However at the right level, a charm bracelet can be a real winner, this sentiment I am sure would be shared by mothers across the land. So why mention charms now? Because there are two perfect “charm” selling holidays swiftly approaching – Easter and Mother’s Day – a time when many gifts under £30 are sold and bought by children.
Convinced yet? Let’s dig a little deeper – on the google trend search for 2015 Pandora Charm Jewellery was in the top 100 searches. Anders Colding Friis, CEO of PANDORA, said: “With 2015, another great year for PANDORA has come to an end. A strong top-line development added almost DKK 5 billion to our revenue, which was broadly distributed between geographic regions and product groups, all delivering double digit growth rates. 
I was on a train a few days ago, with charms and their pros and cons swimming around my mind. And because of this I noticed that most of the women surrounding me on the train had a charm bracelet on – women of all ages and from all walks of life. Their charms were a multitude of tastes and styles, from modern to vintage with coloured stones to plain silver disks with inscriptions on. It is perhaps the charm’s greatest selling point to both retailer and buyer, which is the sheer variety of charms that are available; there is a design and colour of charm for every taste and style.
And no, we are not suggesting that you should stock Pandora charms in your store. But what we are strongly advocating is the benefits that a charm display can have. For your store charms may not bring in huge amounts of revenue for you per se – however, what it will do is get buyers old and new into your store and once those people enter your store and get to know your jewellery, they are far more likely to buy the more expensive pieces from you in the future. 
The great thing about charms is that a charm bracelet by design is meant to hold a multiple of charms – and once a charm bracelet is owned then ongoing charm presents can be bought for the wearer celebrating each and every holiday birthday and family celebration – the list is endless. Once you have a customer who buys one of your charms they will come back to buy more as a charm bracelet holds many charms.
By now I hope that we have you at the very least intrigued by the idea of having your own charm display. But this leaves the question of how to get somebody to buy the charm off you over the bigger charm companies.
Window Display
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, 50% of purchasing decisions are made impulsively, so every retailer with a bricks and mortar store should be capitalising on this figure and using any advertising space to its full potential. Your shop window is your most valuable piece of in-store advertising space. If this space is used effectively it can increase footfall which consequently leads to a rise in potential customers and thus a rise in sales. Your shop window should scream professionalism as well as making a statement. And as charms are so popular tell people that you have the perfect Mother’s Day and Easter Charms inside, or even have display an Easter Tree of charms in the window.
Personalise Charms
As a jeweller you can offer to engrave the charms in your shop – names, birth dates, Happy Mother’s Day from…… Hand and Foot prints of babies are also extremely popular, if you have the capabilities you can offer to have a baby’s footprint or handprint engraved on a simple charm? This will set you apart from the bigger charm sellers as they simply don’t have the in store capability of offering this service.
Promote that your Charms are not mass produced
Limited edition and bespoke jewellery is getting more and more popular – which is why Etsy and independent retailers are gaining in popularity. Millennials are especially far more open to buying products from independent retailers than ever before. The feel good factor comes with buying a product from a smaller retailer, and people feel more special wearing something that they will not see being worn by anybody else. This is where the smaller independent retailer wins against the larger stores every time, by promoting that your charms are either one off or limited edition will attract many customers.
What Happened – The Brit Awards
The Brit Awards is arguably the coolest awards ceremony in the world – yes there are some that are bigger, others that are more lavish too – but the Brits, that’s the party everybody wants to be at. And as far as fashion goes, you’re not going to see the likes of Stella Mcartney or Dior on everybody – because that’s just not party trendy – instead, as always there was a mash up of high end and high street – there were hits and there were misses. But what really stood out was the diamonds – they were nothing short of A-list glamour, diamonds were everywhere, and they were large.
Kylie Minogue got engaged just over a week ago, the anticipation of her and her engagement ring’s arrival was palpable – so as soon as she stepped onto the red carpet the bulbs went flashing crazy while all the paps were desperate to get a clean shot of the ring – and wow what a whopper of a vintage style square cut white diamond surrounded by smaller white diamonds with a thin yellow gold band. She later changed her dress and added beautiful white diamond jewellery from Chopard, her double-strand diamond necklace from the Haute Joaillerie collection, and pair of diamond and rose gold earrings.
Rihanna – was also sporting vintage style jewellery as she wore a large Asprey vintage style amethyst ring on her right hand, Casa Reale white diamond bracelet and rings on her left hand with very on trend super sized hoop earrings by Jack Vartanian.
Cheryl Fernandez-Versini – teamed her terrible yellow mullet dress with an array of stunning white diamonds. She had a super on trend with white diamond two tier collar necklace, white diamond cluster earrings, white diamond ear cuffs and large white diamond rings on her fingers (left hand ring finger however was notably bare – despite reunion rumours)
The lady of the evening, Adele wore a stunning ox blood flowing cocktail dress. Her jewellery was beautifully matched with two David Morris diamond rings and a pair of white gold and diamond earrings in the shape of a flower.
The post Thank TGB it’s Friday – On the Charm Offensive appeared first on Coloured Diamonds and Loose Gemstones | TheGemBank.