Spring Strategies

RAPAPORT… In January, U.S. jewelers were preparing for Valentine’s Day, a holiday with a short but fairly intense buying season. Many prepare for it by offering romantic jewelry at a variety of price points in order to accommodate a variety of budgets.

“Valentine’s for us is always a fun holiday because people are excited about it,” said Rebecca Garnick, director of marketing for Long’s Jewelers, which has seven stores in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. “But it’s not a major holiday for any jeweler.”

It’s a holiday that can skew younger, so what Long’s does is try to have a “fantastic offering” at different price points that can range from a few hundred dollars to $1,000. For example, Long’s was selling Circle of Life pendants ranging in price from $360 to $1,100. What’s important, said Garnick, regardless of product, is making sure that the jewelry being offered meets the price points the target customers are looking for.

Looking forward to spring, Garnick said that color is coming into its own more strongly than ever and fashion jewelry is important, with versatility a key factor. Studs and pendants are mainstays, but there’s a continued drive toward versatile diamond pieces that can work as well with jeans as with a strapless gown. Pieces that customers can wrap and wear in a variety of ways are a big trend. Garnick said that Marco Bicego’s gold jewelry, with its emphasis on layering pieces, epitomizes this trend. Increasingly, Garnick added, women don’t want their jewelry in a box — they want to wear it.

The Journey Continues

Whitehall Jewellers, which has more than 326 stores in 38 states, is seeing Journey jewelry do well, as well as circle pendants, according to Edward Dayoob, chief executive officer (CEO) and chairman of the board. The company has built up its fashion side and, in addition, is seeing results, especially in higher-priced pieces, from its efforts to build its bridal business, according to Dayoob.

Whitehall also has been successfully promoting colored stones, selling pieces, for example, that combine a white diamond with rubies. The company also is getting good results on higher-end fashion pieces.

Ellen Lacy, owner of Lacy & Company Jewelers, El Paso, Texas, also stocks and promotes attractively priced pieces for $100 or less for Valentine’s Day. For example, this year she was selling a silver and diamond bracelet for $85 and a sterling and diamond heart necklace for $125.

“It builds traffic and traffic is always good for whoever is in the store. The more people in the store, the more the store looks like the place to be,” Lacy said. Valentine’s Day is a short shopping season, but it can be intense. Lacy, like other jewelers, said that in 2006, the holiday made for a strong February and it looked as though it could do the same for her store this year.

Post Valentine’s, Lacy plans trunk shows and other special events, since spring is usually her slowest time of year. She’s excited about the designs she’s seeing this year, especially those using gold, an improvement from last year, when nothing really excited her.

Meanwhile, Lacy finds pricing “horrible.” For the most part, she said, consumers are not aware of the pricing changes because they’re not in the market constantly for diamonds. However, those who looked at a piece a few years back may be startled at the price difference today, especially with bigger diamonds.

Snow was the story for Charles Zerbe, owner of Zerbe Jewelers, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Big snows disrupted Christmas shopping. Two weeks before Christmas, the storms began and for the next seven weekends, it snowed, starting every Thursday. “It was wild,” said Zerbe. “Everyone was laughing about it. We got killed by the December storms, and now we’ve got a big one for Valentine’s Day.”

Customers who were shopping before the Valentine’s storm hit were buying diamonds, watches and a mix of colored stones, according to Zerbe, who added that Valentine’s Day usually makes February for the store.

The Right Stuff

Aside from the snow, Zerbe’s biggest challenge is stocking the right inventory. The downtown store draws a variety of consumers — financial professionals, retired people and blue-collar workers. The store wants a diverse clientele, but the problem now is that it has to stock a wide variety of items.

“Studs and line bracelets are always good; we’ve done well with Journey,” he said, but he describes his customers as buying “a little bit of this and a little bit of that. It’s tough to get a handle on it.”

The Marketplace

• Yellow gold continues its comeback.
• Textured gold is becoming more popular.
• Pricing pressure increases, driven by competition and fragmentation in the marketplace.
• White diamonds are still strongest.
• Colored diamonds are more popular for big rings.