Behind The Counter   

Because online shopping has grown to be the norm, return policies have become even more important. Unlike visitors that come into our brick-and-mortar jewelry stores, online customers don’t get to physically see and touch the item before they purchase it. Therefore, e-commerce sites have ensured that their return policies are fair and appealing to their customers by offering 30-day return policies with a full refund. Guliani’s does offer a 30-day return policy but I’m always stressed when we sell a young man an engagement ring—what happens it he breaks up with his fiancé and wants to return the ring? Of course we want to keep him happy in the case he decides to propose again in the future…do you have a different kind of policy on loose diamond returns? We do not offer returns on Special Orders or Custom design Orders.

With the launch of InStore Magazine’s trade show next April—that’s just one more show you might want to add to your list. Four hundred booths compared to JCK’s 183 booths in just the Hong Kong Pavilion. 

Living close and not having to fly far to any show is always a plus--Dan Kisch, InStore publisher boasts, “Not only are there more than 3,100 independent jewelry stores within a 350-mile radius of Chicago, but no jeweler in th...Read More

As a relatively new owner, at this time I am not taking a single penny from my store. I am fortunate my husband has a great job and works hard to support our family. I hate the fact I work between 60-70 hours a week and have nothing to show for it—but in due time I will. I just have to remind myself this at least 5 times a day or so.

I keep thinking about the day I’ll have most of my opening inventory paid for (which is not so far away—yeah!) and I’ve also been thinking about how much I will be able to pull from the store for my own salary? I understand it differs based on individual stores expenses, gross sales, and profit margin. But is there any sort of standard? On average my folks and most my friends are taking out 10% of their gross. Is this inline with other jewelry store owners?

At my store we charge customers $10 for a regular battery and $13 for lithium. We all know they cost almost nothing—but the time it takes to change one means our employees aren’t on the floor selling. Of ten we ask customers to pick up their watches in a couple of hours or the next day—but a battery is something they want done then and are willing to wait—hence the 10 bucks.

What about charging 20 bucks for a lifetime of batteries and $24.95 for a lifetime of lithium batteries? We all know batteries last a long time—if it runs out—well then the customer comes back in 6-7 months—but you’ve got the 20 bucks right then? Does it sound like we’re out for every little penny OR is it a great way to build customer loyalty?

&...Read More

Policies and warranties—they gave me such trouble when I was creating the receipts for the new store. One the back of the receipts—is the usual exchange and return policies for in stock items as well as special orders. I also have a disclaimer about blood diamonds, a tidbit on all colored stones being at the very least heat treated, and a blurb about rhodium. What I don’t have is warranty information and a customer asked one of my employees just last week when a diamond we set fell out of her band and into the ultrasonic.

Story:

Customer purchased a loose diamond, solitaire setting, and a plain 3mm white gold band. The jeweler set her .01 pointers in burnish halfway around the band as well as in the engagement ring. The customer came in only 2 weeks af...Read More

I am in the process of hiring some more talented individuals and lately, I’ve had a bunch of people calling and coming in for interviews. I know it has my staff in a little bit of an uncomfortable situation, because a couple of them have come up to me and told me they are very happy here and noticed I was interviewing. I also asked my web designer to put up a little saying that goes something like this, “We are always looking for talented individuals to be a part of our sales team. Please email resumes to shanu@gulianis.com.”

Business has been a little slow this month—but I realized you never know when you’re going to find someone you just don’t want to let go—so I...Read More

The Rapaport weekly price list has expanded to include 10-carat stones. The introduction of the new price list is a reaction to the high demand, and high prices, for large diamonds in the marketplace, National Jeweler.

I have bought and sold very few diamonds over 3 carats—but the ones I have bought and sold, Rap’s pricing was irrelevant. The guys with the goods set the prices because we (meaning the US) are not the controlling force of the diamond world. The industry is now global.

Are you using Rap to buy and sell large diamonds? Do you feel Rap will become i...Read More

We rarely have a customer who would like to put an item on lay-away and when we do offer it to our customers to secure the item they love they don’t bite. We often get the standard answer, “When I’m ready I’ll pay for it upfront.”

I have often thought of offering lay-away for add-on items. For instance, most couples whom purchase an engagement ring from us—rarely come back for their wedding bands. I have starting talking to my staff about showing the ladies and men’s band so to get an add-on sale. Let the customer know since the band is here they won’t have to go hunting when the time is right. Most my employees have said the guy has a budget and the engagement ring is already more than what he wanted to spend—so why sh...Read More

So—I’ve talked about floor time versus batter-up many times before—but while at the HOF forum (now remember I can only discuss general issues) the topic about batter-up came up and someone from HOF felt it is very stupid for us to be using that system.

In my store, each employee is given equal floor time and on Saturdays we do batter-up so that we can shake things up a little. Saturdays, usually, we have a huge number of walk-ins and this way everyone gets to help someone and it keeps things moving. The day goes by fast because between 2-5pm we are all busy and each one of us has ...Read More

This past week I was at Hearts on Fire’s Owner’s Forum. They have been doing this for the past six years in Boston. HOF invites 15 or so retailers to come and talk about their businesses. This time we were fourteen owners (only one owner from each company is allowed to attend even if you have multiple stores). I have never been so impressed by a company before. The CEO (Glen), the COO (Mark), the CFO (Bill), Executive VP (Peter), etc. are all from others backgrounds besides jewelry so they each brought different perspectives to the table. We work with so many vendors but I’ve never felt any one vendor to go out of their way. Yes I have some wonderful reps who go out of their way to help me sell their brand but I haven’t had a partnership like we do with HOF—at this owner’s forum we didn’t talk about HOF the e...Read More

Most of our semi-mounts are mounted with CZ’s and we tend to show the diamonds loose. My sales associates encourage customers to put their money into the center stone by telling them that the diamonds in the semi-mount should accentuate the center stone, but not take away from it.

Today, I was talking to my friends and I never realized that all their diamonds are mounted (most the diamonds in my FL store are also mounted). Back to my friends, while I was talking to them they told me the reason all their diamonds are mounted is that they make a larger margin that way then showing the diamond loose and being that the center stone is live the customer’s get to envision how the ring looks like pieced altogether versus seeing the CZ in it.

In JCK Luxury Winter 2008 issue Jennifer Heebner and Carrie Soucy wrote a very interesting article regarding country of origin (COO). Their article starts with a story of a man returning a piece of jewelry because he saw a made in China sticker that was on the box—but assumed the jewelry was made in China and requested a refund.

Some of my customer’s do ask where our store’s products are made and we do disclose the information as part of the sales presentation. While we don’t openly say we sell pieces manufactured in Hong Kong, China, USA, etc—if someone asks I’d be more than happy to find out if I don’t know. (I hate to say it but I don’t always ask where a product is made as long as the quality is good).