Unless you've been in a sleeping for the last year you are surely aware that retail sales this past holiday season have taken a big hit. The media has reported that almost across the board, from large retailer to small retailer, sales have dropped dramatically.
The jewelry industry has not been spared the downturn. According to digital tracking firm comScore, online sales of jewelry and watches for nearly all of December fell by 24 percent. This is a HUGE hit! Even Zales jewelry stores reported that it's holiday sales (including all November and December 2008) fell 19.6%.
Other discouraging news came to light today regarding the jewelry store chain The Shane Co. This jewelry retailer with 23 stores in 14 U.S. states just filed for Chapter 11 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Denver. The Shane Co. listed about 6,000 creditors.
According to a report from Jewelersalert.com, Shane Co. owes more than $100 million, and as much as 26.2 million to it's 20 largest unsecured creditors. The largest unsecured creditor is New York based Dison Gems Inc. with $4.7 million owed. This I find VERY interesting, since their commercials and website (www.shaneco.com)states that it's customers "pay no middleman markup" since Shane Co. are direct diamond importers and purchases diamonds and other gems directly from cutters in Belgium, Israel, Bangkok and India. They also say "because we pay cash, the gem cutters give us first choice..." If they pay cash overseas for their diamonds and gems, then why do they owe so many diamond and gem vendors here in the U.S. so much money? Ok, enough of my rambling on this subject.
With all the negative news being reported from the jewelry front, there is some encouraging news to relate. One creative online jeweler actually bucks the trend and reports increasing sales for December. The online sales of www.Titanium-Jewelry.com increased 16% in December. Why? A variety of factors caused this to happen.
One reason for the increase in December sales was the implementation of creative marketing. Customers who purchased J.R. YATES tungsten rings were offered a free matching J.R. YATES tungsten bracelet if they completed their purchase in December. So shoppers got the cool mens ring they wanted, plus ended up with another jewelry item. They could gift it or choose to keep it for themselves. This proved very successful. Increased orders from Canada added to the sales total also. By offering Canadian customers free shipping (a $29 value) this enticed our Canadian friends to pull the trigger.
In these tough economic times it is getting increasingly more difficult to maintain sales momentum. So to be successful retailers, including online jewelers, must continue to offer customers a better offer than their competitors.
-- J.R. YATES
Monday, January 12, 2009
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