Jewelers Boot Camp A Big Success
The jewelry business can be lucrative, intriguing, and treacherous if you don’t know what you’re doing. There are obviously different levels of the business and not all require the same skill sets to be successful. From sourcing the raw materials – precious metals, stones and diamonds – to jewelry design, and the retail side of the business, all of the various parts of the jewelry industry require specific knowledge about dealing with the ultimate product – fine jewelry and precious stones. However, no aspect of the business is more challenging and requires more skills than that of the retail jeweler.
The retail jeweler is the face of the business to the ultimate consumer. This entails tricky requisite skills unique to all retail businesses while at the same time the jewelry retailer must also possess the knowledge and skill set of all of the other specialists in the business, and do them well. By virtue of not having to deal with the consumer, industry specialists can be much more focused than the store owner and therein lies the challenge.
So, how does a retail jeweler acquire all of the skills he or she will need to make it in the jewelry business? Well, in this regard perhaps jewelry is indeed similar to most every business; you start at the bottom and work your way up, apprenticing in all the various aspects of the business until you begin to focus your attention on the piece of the business that suits you best. And if that piece of the business happens to be the retail side of things, you better be sure that you are a good business person as well as being a good jeweler. Luckily for those jewelry retailers operating in and around Atlanta, Georgia you’ll have some help.
An industry group known as the Buyer’s Intelligence Group (BIG) sponsors a “Merchandising Boot Camp,” focusing on the retail jewelry business with this year’s event focusing on inventory and merchandising topics. The event was held this past April 1-3 and if the feedback from attendees is any indication, the boot camp was helpful beyond all of their expectations.
The gathering was held in Atlanta with the focus on helping jewelry retailers with better techniques to improve profitability in managing the costs and cash flow associated with their inventory as well as visual merchandising, two of the most challenging issues facing the jewelry store owner and two of the most important aspects behind running a profitable business.
The jewelry inventory seminar covered budgeting, inventory level planning, buying and management, as well as helping those in attendance to gain a grasp on managing a company’s assets and creating an accurate inventory budget.
The visual merchandising session covered the do’s and don’ts of jewelry display practices. Participants learned how to effectively utilize display elements, signage, case trim and space allocations to create noticeable and sales-producing displays.
The event was attended by several hundred local jewelers as well as those in the business from as far away as North Carolina. The overwhelming reaction to both discussions was positive with many participants noting that from simple techniques like following the daily fluctuations in the price of gold, silver and other precious metals, to display techniques that they had never considered, all came away with a better understanding on how to run and manage their businesses more efficiently, effectively, and most importantly, profitably.
The difficulty is always in converting knowledge into practice. Given the stresses of running the normal operations of the business, employee issues, and of course, customer concerns, the ability to create and adjust your business process and then to consistently adhere to this process is always the key to staying one step ahead of the competition.
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