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Exclusive: Jewelers look to this week to boost holiday sales
December 28, 2006
Jewelers who spoke with National Jeweler today reported mixed sales results during the last week of the holiday shopping season, with many citing about the same or lower sales results compared to the same period last year, and others banking on the week between Christmas and New Year's to pull their year-end totals up.
At Duvarney Jewelers in Fitchburg, Mass., owner Steven Duvarney said sales were pretty good this holiday season, edging up a few percentage points ahead of last year.
Christmas Eve in particular was slow, mainly because consumers chose to shop at the local malls rather than at his freestanding store.
Diamond jewelry and watches were among his biggest sellers, while non-diamond jewelry categories received little interest.
"We sold some Journey diamond-jewelry pieces and some diamond 'circle' pendants," Duvarney said. "We also had a few spontaneous engagement ring purchases at the end of the week."
Duvarney said the week after Christmas is important to his store, especially due to the increasing popularity of gift certificates that can be redeemed anywhere Visa is accepted.
"Consumers can use them to shop in our store because the gift certificates don't have to be redeemed at one particular mall or at one particular store," Duvarney said.
The week after Christmas is also important to Castiglione Jewelers in Gloversville, N.Y., which sees consumers coming in to spend the cash gifts they've received or their holiday bonuses on jewelry.
Overall, owner Louis Castiglione said he wrapped up the holiday selling season about 25 percent ahead of last year, with a variety of diamond-jewelry styles, colored-stone pieces and watches as best sellers.
At Allen's Jewelers in Albany, Ga., owner Steve Allen said he had a fairly successful holiday season, but not as successful as last year.
Consumers seemed to shop earlier in the season, Allen said, and traffic was slow this past weekend: Lots of rain on Saturday brought shoppers to the mall rather than to his freestanding store, and Christmas Eve falling on a Sunday kept consumers busy with family and religious obligations.
Big sellers at his store this season included diamond jewelry such as stud earrings and pendants, colored-stone jewelry showcasing blue zircon, tanzanite and emeralds, and watches such as Cyma, Seiko and Swiss Army in the $500-$800 range.
"We also sold a couple of engagement rings in the $5,000-plus range," Allen said, "and all but one piece of our Journey collection."
Wesley T. Sheperd, The Jeweler, in Boca Raton, Fla., also didn't have a very successful holiday season. It was continuously slow, owner Wesley Sheperd said, about 50 percent down from last year.
"We're located in an exchange," Sheperd said. "The malls were packed with people spending money on other things besides jewelry. We sold only small things and a few watches."
The same goes for Brevelle's Jewelry in Lafayette, La.
"We had lousy sales. We went flat," owner Allen Brevelle said. "We had one or two good sales in the last two weeks and no calls on Christmas Eve. We sold smaller diamond-jewelry pieces. Watches were flat. Bridal was flat."
Holiday-season sales fared a bit better in the South Central region of the United States, with Newton's Jewelers in Fort Smith, Ark., doing "pretty well, about the same as last year," according to owner Kelly Newton.
"Christmas Eve falling on Sunday hurt shopping this year," Newton said, "but the week after Christmas will be extremely important. People will come in wanting to spend their bonuses or trade up for a more significant piece of jewelry."
Diamond jewelry in all categories sold well at Newton's store, with three or four significant bridal sales and a complete sell-out of Journey diamond jewelry.
Diamond jewelry also sold well at Barnes Jewelry in Amarillo, Texas, as did pearl strands in the $300-$1,000 range.
"Pearls were unbelievably strong," owner Jeff Fox said. "We ran out of strands in the moderate price range."
Overall holiday sales were "definitely up from last year," Fox said, with Friday being the biggest sales day of the final shopping weekend.
"With Christmas being on a Monday this year, people took off for the three-day weekend, so they finished their shopping on Friday," Fox said.
Fox is also looking to the week between Christmas and New Year's to boost his holiday sales.
"The last week of the year tends to be busy with returns and exchanges as well as people spending their bonuses or redeeming gift certificates," Fox said.
Connie Gerster, owner of Gerster Jewelers in Farmington, Minn., said her store (which was voted best jeweler by the local newspaper for the second year in a row) had a very busy holiday season.
"It has been busy, busy, busy, and we're open until 8 p.m. every night during December," she said.
Among the hot items this year, the diamond circle pendant continued to be a favorite, while newer items such as Journey diamond jewelry weren't as popular.
"Maybe Journey will catch on, maybe it won't, but the 'circle' appeals to consumers as does three-stone diamond jewelry," Gerster said.
She added that both bridal and watches sold well this holiday season, and that everything was up from last year.
With the week after Christmas important for her store, Eileen Eichhorn of Eichhorn Jewelry in Decatur, Ind., is still waiting to do year-end totals. She estimated that the season came in about the same as last year.
She's hopeful that the many different family celebrations at this time of year will keep business brisk, and that people coming in for fittings will spend on add-ons or upgrades. In fact, this morning she had a customer come in for an exchange and spend twice as much as he'd initially spent at the store.
"The year's not over for us," she said.
Like others, she noticed the slow start before the big plunge this season.
"Our area tends to have so many people working, and because they're always working, they don't have time to shop," she said.
In terms of what sold well this year, she said add-a-link bracelets, diamond jewelry and watches.
"We sold a real variety of pieces this year, so it's hard for us to really say any one thing stood out," she noted.
That said, with its big promotional dollars, Journey was a big seller.
"How could it not be—it was featured on every ball game that was on television," Eichhorn said.
Journey diamond-jewelry pieces, diamond circle pendants and diamond stud earrings were also hot items for Gleim Jewelers in Palo Alto, Calif. Other items that sold well included colored-stone jewelry in everything from bracelets to stud earrings to pendants, and watches, especially Baume and Mercier.
Like other retailers, Richard T. Velayo, store manager, took note of the last-minute holiday consumer.
"It was definitely one of the latest starting seasons in terms of shoppers coming through," he said. "Serious shopping definitely occurred later this year than it had before. Thank goodness for the last few days—it was extremely busy both in terms of traffic and sales. Saturday was a huge day for us."
Overall, he estimated that his three stores (in Palo Alto and Los Altos) were off by one or two percentage points for the season, barring any marquee sales this week.
In terms of why he didn't expect to see growth for his stores this season, Velayo cites competition, particularly from the Internet, which has impacted bridal sales.
"More and more people are becoming confident in terms of dealing with the Internet," he said.
Another factor is the local economy, which he said has rebounded but is not as stable as it was in the dot-com heyday.
"We have a large number of new millionaires from Google specifically, but that's just one company. They're not out spending like they did in the old days and I don't think they will," he said.
Alvin Goldfarb Jewelers in Bellevue Wash., had to contend with more than just the usual competition this year, as the Seattle area was hit with a major wind storm that knocked out power to 1 million homes a little more than a week before Christmas.
"We had about three days without business," said Steven Goldfarb.
That was the weekend of Dec. 15, but luckily things rebounded in the final weekend of the holiday selling season. Thursday turned out to be the best day of the year, while Friday was good, and Saturday "extremely busy." Sunday, with many making last-minute pick-ups on items they'd already bought, was also solid, Goldfarb said.
Overall, he expected to finish the season just about even with last year. Rather than big-ticket items, he said the majority of sales were from $2,000-$10,000.
"That's good because when you start getting returns it won't be returns that will hurt too bad," he added.
Also, he expected to have a good last week of the year.
"There will be some exchanging and upgrading and hopefully engagements for New Year's," he said.
In terms of product, he said Journey and other diamond jewelry did well. Fun jewelry and interesting color combinations were also popular, such as pink tourmaline with white and yellow gold. Watch brands such as Rolex and Breitling were also big sellers.
While there was much talk in the trade about the impact of the film Blood Diamond, retailers said customers rarely asked about it, and that the film didn't appear to hurt diamond business.
Editor's Note: According to an exclusive National Jeweler Network poll, 50 percent of retailers had less last-minute holiday traffic this year compared to last year, 32 percent had about the same and 17 percent had more. This story was first published on Dec. 26, 2006.
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