The Cutting Edge 3/11/2010

Business is firming

Traffic in the stores are returning to normal levels. Most of you are seeing real gains in repair traffic as customers are looking at their jewelry assets and fixing what they want to keep. While we are not seeing the casual shoppers in the stores, the folks with a purpose are coming in. It is our high level of service and strong reputation for quality that is driving that traffic.

Gold Buying

Gold buying has softened a bit but it is still coming in almost daily. As the economy improves expect gold selling to drop off dramatically. If it gets worse, well you know the result. Gold selling is driven by fear. Gold Buying Events are still driving traffic, but they require large advertising investments. David Fairclough generated over $63,000 in gold buys in just three days during his “Big Bonus Buyback” in January. We are doing another one in Toledo next week. Keep refining your gold buying business. ( sorry for the pun) It will remain an important source of business this year.

Bridal Rules

The Bridal business remains strong and even growing. I can not be more emphatic. The bridal business is the diamond business and those stores that are advertising bridal are doing more business than those who aren’t. This is where the battle is. The combination of strong radio and a great web site can not be beat. Young people are driven to the web to search and then to the stores to try on and buy. We are seeing clients come from designers web sites like Tacori , Mark Schneider , even small brands like Maevona. They come into the stores with specific rings they want to see. We are making a big push this year in our radio spots to drive consumers straight to our web sites. That experience better be good because that will determine whether they actually get in the car and come see you!

Stay Lean

The other thing that has really made a huge difference is that our stores have leaned up their inventories and “right sized” their businesses. Stores have been paying their bills and actually making money. Continue cutting wasteful spending and keep your inventory focused and lean. Don’t buy inventory out of fear or greed. If you can’t turn it in 30 days…. Don’t buy it!!!!! This economy is not out of the woods yet.

Radio Still Rocks

Radio made the difference last year. Our stores stayed in the game and gained market share. That trend will only continue this year. Radio is “the last mile” and still the only cost effective way to drive consumers to your store and web site. Don’t listen to the fools who preach the digital age. None of them are in the jewelry business. You will never win the digital battle. You don’t have enough bullets. Now I’m not suggesting that you should not web optimize and do all you can to insure solid search engine ranking. That we are all doing anyway. Greg Harvell, our web guru, is continually doing that with every site revision and update. But you can do what Bluenile and others can not. You can own your OWN market. It’s your town. You can drive customers to your site first. Own the last mile.