Take the guesswork out of authenticating luxury watches. Join Joseph as he shares the knowledge gained in his 25 years of experience. The real-life examples and pictures of counterfeit and authentic watches will enable you to buy and sell pre-owed watches with greater confidence.
In this session, you will learn:
The Basic Metallurgy of Precious Metals: Important Considerations for the Bench and the Consumer
Do not underestimate the importance of having metals behave in a consistent and predictable manner at the bench and during regular wear. A bad casting, an overly soft alloy, or a piece that has simply been cold-worked too long can result in scrap and rework, causing potential downstream problems for both your clients and profitability.
In this session, we will look at the far-reaching effects of metallurgical quality on the performance of a jewelry item. We will discuss porosity, microstructure, mechanical strength, and the effects of alloying elements, as well as best practices for high-quality metallurgical outcomes.
The issue or problem we will address in the session: Insufficient information regarding the root causes of failures in precious metal castings that can cost jewelers unnecessary time, expense, and reputation.
This session provides:
What's the new strategy for 4th quarter sales and planning as holiday sales revenue now is spread over the last three months of the year? It's not all about December sales anymore!
This session will tackle the product, price points, and planning that have an impact on 4th quarter sales. Retailers will share and discuss what worked for them and what didn't.
Bring your experiences and suggestions. How will you have a super finish to 2016?
As social and digital marketing have become a dominant force and integral part of the luxury landscape, marketing channels like social media, paid search, and your website must be part of a larger coordinated strategic plan. If your digital marketing plan is the no-plan plan, it's time to step back and create a new one.
In this session you will learn:
Good business owners know their customers and continually assess the drives and demands of their markets. GREAT business owners truly understand their customers' wants, needs, passions, and motivations, while recognizing that everything they understand today likely will evolve into an entirely different scenario tomorrow. The keys to moving from GOOD to GREAT lie in a thorough understanding of consumer demographics, careful attention to the lifestyle details of customers who love your store and your business model, and recognition of worldwide evolving trends in consumer behavior.
So... what is the new normal for consumer demographics? People — of all ages and in all markets — are constructing their own identities more freely than ever. As a result, consumption patterns no longer are defined by traditional demographic segments such as age, gender, location, income, or family status. Today, it's about a complex weave of factors that create a lifestyle behavior.
INSTORE's Kate Peterson will explain these changes in demographic analysis and will help you understand how best to move to a new way of thinking in your own business. You will exit this session with a new strategy to engage and retain your current customers, as well as a solid plan for attracting more of the people who are most likely to become long-term, high-value members of your client community.
In this session, you will learn:
For advance information see the recommended Trend Watching Report at the website below.
How you present your assortments and products can significantly impact sales and margin. Learn how to create meaningful collections and how to brand yourself and your jewelry. Displays are truely the "silent sellers". What do your displays tell your customers about who you are? Are the displays telling your story? And, are they consistent with your overall merchandising and brand image?
In this session you will learn:
Packed with in-depth plans, must-know formulas, handy checklists, calendars and much more, SMART Merchandising will help you get organized, know what’s really going on in your business, and give you more confidence in every merchandising decision you make.
Grab a copy of SMART Merchandising and start making the numbers work in your favor today — because this is the stuff that makes you money and turns an okay business into a thriving success.
Wedding businesses across the country and around the world all want to know — what is the most effective way to close a sale. In this session, Alan will address this often-requested topic. His in-depth knowledge of the wedding business gives him a unique perspective on wedding and bridal sales and has impacted sales significantly for many wedding professionals. Alan will share his knowledge of how jewelry professionals can sell effectively to this emotional customer. Love it or hate it, sales is an integral part of your jewelry business.
In this session, you will learn:
In this session, you will learn:
Your shop should be a profit center. Learn how to price your custom work and repairs for the profits you deserve. David will remind you that repairs are not PRICE sensitive, they are TRUST sensitive. Find out if you are charging enough for your labor and your trust factor. Learn from this industry guru how to make sure you correctly value your worth and the services you provide!
In this session, you will learn:
From a Facebook post to a billboard, from email to direct mail, from your business card to a full-blown, interactive, e-commerce-enabled website, most jewelers are hyperfrustrated by the diminishing returns on their advertising efforts, regardless of the chosen media. Seems like the more you spend, the less you make. While all kinds of experts advocate for this marketing approach or that, nothing seems to bring in more customers. It's a common industry lament.
The problem is simple. Most jewelers are missing — or mis-executing — the three primary determinants of successful response-generators: Targets, Headlines, Offers. Get these right and the rest, as they say, is cream cheese! If you want more customers who will pay you more money, more often™, you must reach the right people at the right time. Then you need to capture their attention, convert it into interest, cultivate deep desire for your products, and get customers to take action. Learn the powerful headlines and compelling offers ignored by most jewelers.
In this session, attendees will discover the usually unknown, seldom-revealed secrets for:
Isn't it time to take a profit-proven, scientific approach to marketing and stop throwing your hard-earned dollars down the drain. Don't miss this session!
This session provides:
Grab a copy of SMART Merchandising and start making the numbers work in your favor today — because this is the stuff that makes you money and turns an okay business into a thriving success.
When you are buying, selling, or recutting a diamond, little things can mean a lot. Let this master diamond cutter show you what to look for in the most beautifully cut diamonds. His in-depth look at the finer points of cutting will take you beyond Hearts and Arrows to an understanding of the facet definition subtleties for cutting and polishing this gemstone — and will show you that faceting is the key to bringing out the best in a diamond. Evert will give you easy-to-see and understand examples of what takes a diamond from "meh" to "OMG!"
In this session you will learn:
Workshop and Role-Play
Each engagement and wedding ring sale is different. Your processes need to be as flexible as your clients are varied, but your message and your brand promise need to be completely consistent and concisely delivered every time.
Practice makes perfect! Practice your presentation here, not on your customer.
In this session you will get:
It is important to know that all lab grown diamonds can be identified by a professional diamond lab. It is the diamond industry's responsibility to ensure the consumer is never misled.
HRD Antwerp, Europe's leading authority in diamond certification, takes this task to heart.
In this session, you will learn all about Synthetic Diamonds.
You know your custom jewelry is worth more than the sum of its parts, but it can be difficult to present its value in ways that consumers understand and embrace. The key to high perceived value is to start long before the inquiry or sale. In this session, you will learn the techniques used by luxury businesses around the world to establish a strong value story through messaging, sales, and presentation. Get beyond how you cost and price your work and start realizing the margins your custom work deserves.
Luxury businesses have long known how to sell the idea that a purse can be more than just a purse, and a pair of shoes can be more than just a pair of shoes. Yet, some of the most impressive luxury experiences are offered by small local sellers — not multinational giants — proving that you don’t have to be an international brand to pull this off. This session will teach you how to make your store brand and custom jewelry purchasing experience work for you by increasing perceived value and finding ways to dissuade buyers from their inclination to haggle for a better price.
In this session you will learn:
Wearable technology in the form of watches, rings, bracelets, and more is here to stay. Smart jewelry transforms your product into a highly functional accessory. Does this functional jewelry have a place in your merchandise mix? How SMART is your jewelry? Is wearable technology something that excites you or your customer?
Join and participate in this interactive discussion with your peers to consider the place of wearable technology in the retail jewelry store.
It's 2016 and your digital presence is more important than ever. So should you be paying someone to increase you search engine optimization (SEO) rankings each month? Surprisingly, probably not.
In this session you will learn:
Synchrony Financial’s Fourth Annual Major Purchase Consumer Study
Join Synchrony Financial’s Market Research & Competitive Intelligence Leader Ronda Slaven to review the Path to Purchase of Fine Jewelry shoppers. How do customers think about the purchase, how long do they take to buy, what resources do they search, and where do they look for the information? This presentation will provide insightful tips and best practices to help you participate more actively in your consumers’ Path to Purchase. It also will expand your knowledge of financing and its role in the Fine Jewelry category. Learn how you can incorporate the financing discussion effectively throughout the Path to Purchase.
In this session you will learn:
The link below the speaker bios is for the Fourth Annual Sychrony Report
Workshop and Role-Play
When it’s time to close the sale, you do not want to be practicing your technique on the customer! We will review common failures to close and how best to handle them before going step by step through the closing process. Then, we will give audience members the chance to show their consultative selling skills by demonstrating how they would close the sale. Pick up pointers and share your own sales talent.
In this session, you will:
Couples on the path to an engagement and/or a wedding are your most emotional and vocal customers, especially when something goes wrong! In this age of instant feedback through reviews, testimonials, blogs, and social media, keeping track of your online reputation is a little like herding cats. Just when you think you have a handle on it, along comes another twist and turn. What action should you take when your online reputaion is less than wonderful? Alan will help you make sense of it all.
Come to this session to learn:
(Have a story you would like to share? Email cindy@smartworkmedia.com.)
Catch up on the issues and news surrounding diamond supply, trends, and sales with this panel of industry experts. The panel will address the supply chain issues, pricing and Internet competition, marketing, and trends.
In this session, you will learn valuable information that will:
You work hard for your money, so it’s important that you don't allow hidden inefficiencies rob you of even a fraction of your profits. In Lean Manufacturing, we call these inefficiencies waste, and waste can be found in everything from equipment maintenance problems to poorly maintained tools, to problems with workflow, or even poor ergonomics. In this session, you’ll learn how to do a production environment audit, then tackle the problems you identify. Take these lessons straight from the session to the shop, and you’ll be improving efficiencies (and therefore profits) immediately.
The jewelry business comes with high cash demands, and cash flow problems weigh on most jewelry business owners. This session helps owners and shop managers identify and eliminate internal problems that rob them of cash and slow down their operations.
Lean Manufacturing is a set of disciplines that has long been credited with improving manufacturing speed, quality, and performance. But most Lean Manufacturing programs are geared to more complex manufacturing operations. Andrea Hill has been breaking down Lean Manufacturing for the jewelry shop environment for nearly 15 years, taking the most valuable aspects of Lean and showing small shop owners how to gain value from a handful of basic, down-to-earth practices.
Andrea Hill will cover the basics of how to reduce unnecessary movement and increase productivity, how to find shop bottlenecks and what to do when you find them, how to perform a quarterly shop audit to identify opportunities for improvement, and how to transform the term continuous improvement from a thing people say to a thing people do.
In this session, you will learn:
The only way to get hordes of new prospects, customers, and clients in today's crazy, mixed-up, new-ballgame, millennial world…
In today's "world of the millennials," it may be impossible to get an immediate, up-front purchase. You may have to court your customers and cajole them into the eventual buy. If that's the way today's customer does business, you need to switch to a "funnel approach" — one that attracts more specific prospects with whom you can develop a relationship that encourages them to buy from you.
Sounds like a real pain in the patoot, doesn't it? Why can't things be simple, like they used to be — a Yellow Page ad, a little something in the paper, and the money comes rolling in. Well, those days are gone, and you'd better adapt to the new marketing paradigm FAST.
This is where funnel marketing comes in. And effective funnel marketing boils down to two things: Generating TRAFFIC and getting CONVERSIONS. Harder than it sounds and a bit more complex, too.
In this session, Jim unravels the mysteries and shows you how you easily can get your funnel marketing efforts up and running in no time, and producing more sales, as you discover:
1. The pros and cons of social media — loads of potential, but 97% of all independent jewelers are using them WRONG! Here's how to do it right!
2. How to integrate your digital and traditional media to get more bodies through the door so you can put more dollars in the till.
3. A place for all marketing, and all marketing in its place.
4. Test, Track, ANALYZE & Adjust! Failure to do these things could spell the DOOM of your business.
If you've been frustrated by the current emphasis on "nothing but digital," if your instincts tell you it takes more than that, you're going to walk away from this session saying, "Finally, it all makes sense!"
Alan has spent 23 years in the wedding and events industry. He brings a unique perspective to current engagement and wedding consumers' needs for a meaningful experience and shares his wedding industry knowledge with the independent retail jeweler. Discover what these important customers expect in their jewelry shopping experience, and how you can give them the exceptional moment that makes them yours.
Alan will provide insights into:
Get the inside scoop from leading experts in the fields of merchandising, marketing and sales. Informationals and executions tips and advice on trends impacting your merchandise assortment, how to reach and engage your target customer and how to win them over once they're in your store and keep them coming back. Join the energetic conversation and share your own best ideas.
In this session, you will learn:
Workshop and Role Play
How do you present your engagement and bridal jewelry in a manner that matches the way your clients make their decisions. There is a logic to successful displays that aids the buying process and eases the angst that can be part of this emotional purchase. INSTORE's Larry Johnson puts to work the principles he discovered in the book, Predicatably Irrational by Dr. Dan Ariely.
In this session, you will learn:
To get the most of this session, you may want to watch Dr. Ariely's video and check out his website. His short, amusing videos are excellent support for each chapter of his book.
Hands-on prototype models for this workshop provided by WR Cobb/WR Cobb Online. (http://www.wrcobb.com/)
David Geller will give you the steps you need to organize your store's accounts and help you truly reveal the foundation of your business and your customer base. Knowing where the money comes from will show you where you should be focusing your energy and resources. Make more money with less stress! David is the author of a series of articles on QuickBooks™ for INSTORE magazine. The man has the answers to your questions about this amazing accounting software.
In this session you will learn:
Jewelry manufacturers increasingly are integrating digital casting models into their production processes with a wide variety of machines and materials from which to choose. There is a significant body of evidence, both anecdotal and documented, indicating that digital model materials have varying degrees of success in casting. The root causes of related defects are not well understood, leaving the industry plagued with speculation and a variety of homegrown methods aimed at addressing these problems.
This presentation will share original research using controlled studies to understand the casting behaviors of several model materials, including an evaluation of dimensional movement experienced by these materials when subjected to firing. In addition, we will show how we track related casting defects to their root causes through observations of defect size and shape.
In this session, you will learn how to optimize product quality when casting with digital models, and
This interactive discussion is a perfect follow-up to the earlier Diamond Update panel. Our industry has developed a reliance and need for accurate diamond grading reports. Inaccurate reports and industry scandals at the retail and lab levels have rocked our industry. Are we in need of universal standards or non-human grading? Are synthetic diamonds being accurately identified?
Join and participate in this discussion with your peers and industry experts as we consider the role and future of diamond documents in the retail jewelry store.
Emmanuel Raheb, CEO & Founder of Smart Age Solutions, will be sharing his experience and knowledge, as well as best practices to compete in today’s eCommerce world. Having spoken to hundreds of business owners, and helping them turn their websites around to start “working for them”, he brings his unprecedented exposure to America's top sites and data analytics to help you understand what the greatest websites of our time are doing to reach their ultimate success goals.
"Being a Google Elite Partner means that our agency has access to information that many others don’t,” states Emmanuel. “This allows us to work with clients, from single store operators to national chains on their marketing strategies, helping them turn around their web presence to get the most out of their marketing dollar.”
Mr. Raheb will discuss pain points for retailers who are experiencing the ever growing convergence of Site-to-Store and online shopping, as well as important questions every website owner should ask:
Does your site invite consumers into your store?
Are you implementing the best call to actions?
Does your competitor have a stronger web presence?
Are you learning anything from your current site?
Is Google even seeing your website?
Is your website truly yours?
He will also cover:
- 10 Things all Websites Must Have!
- What works and what to stay away from.
- Tips to help improve your Local SEO presence.
- Tactics to help get more business from your site.
- What you can learn from your site.
What's your story?
Stories are powerful tools, and storytelling is a valuable skill in sales and Organizational Management. Today's business card provides identification, yet little about our interests, what we like to do, how we like to spend our time, and our network of relationships. These are important assets you need if you are to build a powerful sales and management team.
In this hands-on workshop, you will create a Personal Narrative card for telling stories about yourself. Share your story, listen to others, and discover the importance of this active listening and communication technique to:
This session is a preview of the new Trendvision Jewellery + Forecasting global consumer trends that are shaping the jewelry market of 2017 and beyond. You don't need a crystal ball to see future jewelry and fashion trends!
If you possess the fundamentals of bridal sales and merchandising, it will be easy to guide your customers through becoming engaged to getting married! Joshua will help you understand the price points your customers are looking for — the Good, Better, and Best. His simple approach divides bridal categories into five basic classifications and three basic styles. When you have what the customers need, you can help them make the right bridal and engagement jewelry purchase.
In this session, you will learn:
Riva resturant on the Navy Pier is the place to be for the opportunity to connect and network. This casual venue offers a great view and super refreshments! WJA brings just the right energy for a successful evening of socializing.
RSVP to Bernadette Mack
Email: Bernadette@womensjewelryassociation.com
Phone: 914.474.6002
Online:
http://www.womensjewelryassociation.com/ev_calendar_day.asp?date=4/16/2016&eventid=19
Today, the experience is more important than the product. If the experience isn't there for customers, they will not purchase, they will not return to your store, and certainly will not brag about you.
Shopping for bridal and engagement jewelry can be an exhaustive and emotional journey. The average couple will take 80 days for research, and 60% will visit a retailer's website and review other web and social media sites. In addition, 74% conduct in-store research. What do you do when they get to your store?
Shane will give you a guide to meet these couples' expectations and make them customers for life. Be prepared for this all-important sales opportunity. Using Synchrony Financials Annual Major Purchase Consumer Study will give you the information you need to fulfill the bridal and engagement couples' expectations of a meaningful shopping experience.
In this session, you will learn:
Third Place Small Cool Division
Matt and Evan established their business in 2012 and added a $35,000 buildout in 2014. Business grew based on their use of social media and a strong referral culture. Matt describes himself as a networking ninja! The 2014 buildout allowed them to create the collaborative selling and designing space that provides a unique nontraditional store environment.
Find out what this business does to attract the young and the social wedding and engagement business!
In this session, you will:
Synchrony Financial’s Fourth Annual Major Purchase Consumer Study
Join Synchrony Financial’s Market Research & Competitive Intelligence Leader Ronda Slaven in a review of the Path to Purchase of Fine Jewelry shoppers.
How do customers think about the purchase, how long do they take to buy, what resources do they search, and where do they look for the information? This presentation will provide insightful tips and best practices to help you participate more actively in your consumers’ Path to Purchase. It also will expand your knowledge of financing and its role in the Fine Jewelry category. You will learn how you can incorporate the financing discussion effectively throughout the Path to Purchase.
In this session, you will learn:
The link below is for the Fourth Annual Synchrony Report.
Couples on the path to an engagement and/or a wedding are your most emotional and vocal customers, especially when something goes wrong! In this age of instant feedback through reviews, testimonials, blogs, and social media, keeping track of your online reputation is a little like herding cats. Just when you think you have a handle on it, along comes another twist and turn. What action should you take? Alan will help you make sense of it all.
Come to this session to learn:
2015 First Place Big Cool Division
Fox Fine Jewelry opened in 2014 with a build-out cost of $1.1 million. While well-known for custom work, this store also carries numerous brands to entice customers into the heavily trafficked store.
This husband-and-wife team worked with designer Jesse Balaity to develop innovative ideas for displaying product — including the must-see diamond wall that makes shopping for that important diamond easy and awesome. Discover how this team of store owners and store designer transformed this business into a Cool Store!
In this session, you will learn:
In this session, you will discover:
How do you connect today’s consumers to the luster and relevance of fine jewelry? What makes them tick, click, swipe, and tap, and thereby form a relationship with your brand?
Today’s highly digital and social environment provides more opportunities to engage, communicate with, and understand consumers. How can you optimize your brand approach to develop business with these customers and stay relevant with this retail revolution?
First, whether you are a designer, manufacturer, or retailer, you must learn new skills so that you can understand the current technology. The consumers of today and tomorrow have a different understanding and expectation for how a brand relationship should look and feel, and technology plays a big part in the process. However, although today's consumer is tecnologically savvy, the connectivity goes far beyond Facebook, Instagram, and mobile websites. Current brands must create new and meaningful experiences for their customers. They must create opportunities for cultural and sociological movements, not simply craft marketing messages.
Ben Smithee is known for helping companies create new relationships with their customers. Recognized around the globe as an expert in digital marketing and the connected consumer, his work in the jewelry industry ranges from the largest retail brands and manufacturers to start-up designers and family stores.
His keynote at the 2016 SMART Jewelry Show will help attendees look into the future and start evolving their businesses — today.
In this session you will learn:
You will leave this session with a clear understanding of what connected consumers are looking for in their shopping experiences and the Top 10 things you can do now to delight them.
Your store staff is the key to your success. In a sense, owners want their employees to be married to the store with the same passion and care they themselves feel.
In this session, you will learn the management skills and motivation techniques that will help you meet the most challenging staff situations. Come learn ways you can keep your staff motivated and productive for greater success.
Come to this session to learn:
Gabriel shares what he has discovered about the importance of an onmi channel marketing presence to the brick and mortar retailer. By combining a strong online presence and servicing customers in brick and mortar stores, jewelers can stay relevant and can anticipate selling trends.
Find out why Blue Nile and Amazon are opening stores they call 'web rooms' to take advantage of the consumer preference for in-person browsing and to up their online presence. And, why Warby Parker, a well-known purveyor of eyeglasses, now has storefronts in nine cities.
Studies have indicated that a retailer has roughly seven seconds to capture the attention of passing potential customers. Does your store make that right impression? In this interview-style session, Leslie will provide amazing images of projects, big and small, focusing on ideas that can be implemented in any size jewelry store,
In this session, you will learn:
In this session, you will learn:
This panel of experts will share their success in creating the perfect bridal and wedding experience that engages the bride, the groom, and everyone they know.
The outcome? Lifetime customers with only one jeweler in mind — YOU.
What you will learn in this session:
Want answers? Send your questions to cindy@smartworkmedia.com.
Join the Chicago Jewelers Association for dinner and drinks, including a two-hoour open bar. Get your tickets early, as this popular event sells out every year!
For ticket information call:: (312) 641.5201
Email: admin@chicagoja.org
INSTORE's Kate Peterson will explain these changes in demographic analysis and will help you understand how best to move to a new way of thinking in your own engagement, wedding and bridal business. You will exit this session with a new strategy to engage and retain your current customers, as well as a solid plan for attracting more of the people who are most likely to become long-term, high-value members of your client community.
In this session, you will learn:
Grab a copy of SMART Merchandising and start making the numbers work in your favor today — because this is the stuff that makes you money and turns an okay business into a thriving success.
As a year-round business, bridal is a staple for most retail jewelers. Learn the newest statistics about the bridal market and information about the ever-changing bridal consumer. Find out the newest trends in engagement rings and wedding bands that will keep your bridal business relevant to today's customer.
This session provides:
