April 2024 | Lab Grown Magazine

April 2024 | The Lab Grown Diamond Resource Book 24 Mailed to 24,000 Jewelers Monthly - To advertise call (888) 832-1109 | April 2024 25 Your second key to LGD sales success is localized trust. Based on study after study, year after year (surveys coming from the largest and most targeted consumer bridal publications like XO Corporation [the Knot ] and Conde Nast’s Bride’s Magazine are not funded by a mining operation or a well-heeled LGD design house. These consumers studies aren’t just independent, they are concentered with the exact audience you need… young, first-time soon-to-be-engaged or recently engaged customers. Local residents continue to trust their local jewelry retailer over national chains or online LGD buying options. While both are clearly competitors, leveraging the personal service, attention and history of a local jewelry store is underutilized. Attending to your local consumer’s purchasing behaviors isn’t even close to the robust potential waiting to be unlocked. Question this When is the last time you conducted your own consumer buying interest study? What are your current (and prospect customers) looking for that you may not presently carry? These answers are simple to obtain by training your sales staff to ask such a question. Make sure they drill down to the specifics in the types of diamond designs they seek. The answers may surprise you and in one case, saved a store from closing. Willow Grove, Pennsylvania is an upscale region of America with a local jewelry store that stood the test of time, established in 1945. As of last year, they were not doing well. In fact they released a sales person, cut their hours and were ready to close for good. A stand alone Jared store had opened just a stone’s throw away from their family-owned location. Sterling Corporations’ Jared launch in Willow Grove worked in harmony with their Kay and Zale doors operating 2.5 miles away in their local mall. Michael Schechter,VP at Omnichannel has a long history in jewelry. His recent LinkedIn post speaks to LGD price over cost. The local store tried to stay on top of interior updates, buying the latest trends and offering highly completive prices but missed out on what many local jewelers take for granted: the bank-like trust of the jewelry store. The same store their family has been shopping in for decades. The local storeowners lived in the same town and were frequent quests at various community- interest events that should have secured their continued success. It didn’t. The national chains were bombarding local shoppers with enticing LGD offers by email, postal mail, online, radio, television and print commercials. The creative that Sterling Corp was promoting was much more polished than the historic jeweler was producing and the appearance of the “average Joe” and soon-to-be- finance looked like the type of family that lived in Willow Grove. They weren’t. They were actors and models and while the national chain’s communication appeared to be quite personal, it was a smoke screen adapted to every local region that had one or more of their national jewelry properties ready to sell. The pocket key So the jeweler sent out his or her own questionnaire with an offer to win a 2-carat LGD diamond to a randomly selected respondent. They also made phone calls to customers and started to memo out LGD designs to local leaders in high-ranking positions that were hosting the local events the storeowners were already going to. LABORATORY-GROWN A struggling family-owned suburban store was preparing to close forever. Big box doors moved into their town complete with large ad budgets. This started to take the mom and pop place’s lunch (and dinner). Asking the right questions to their local customers did more than save the store. Personalized LGD product (not available at the national chains or through typical LGD online stores) was their success key. Photo: Julie Dryton Fast forward to March 2024. The same small store once ready to close forever is expanding their operations. They just hired two additional sales people, added evening hours, hired an experienced store manager and purchased a large lot next door to the store. There, they will create a LGD specialty shop that is patterned after a European-style of presentation offering more open space without the standard “barrier” if a normal jewelry incase. The local shop updated their website to not only take orders faster and easier, they offered perks for picking the item up in the store. Yet, their best key to success was in learning what their most important customer wanted: Ornate, fun and highly unusual diamond accessories that spoke to their personal interests and those they would be gift giving. This included adorable