Hedda Schupak

De-Junking
March 27, 2008

Spring—the season of renewal—brings visions of warmer days, brighter sun, budding trees and new flowers. It also means it’s time for spring cleaning. Depending on your outlook, this is either a chore or an opportunity. While nobody likes washing windows or swabbing out the kitchen cabinets, the opportunity to sort out, pare down, and get rid of things you no longer need is good for both your psyche and your taxes.

In a jewelry store, spring is also a good time to do some cleaning. Apart from the physical plant—yes, we’re talking windows and light fixtures and the pile of old boxes in the stockroom—there’s also a good opportunity to clear out the safe and get rid of stale merchandise. Here are some ideas:

1. Melt it down. With metal prices through the roof, it may make fiscal sense to pop the stones and melt down the pieces. You can use a traditional refiner or investigate any programs that might be set up by manufacturers. Every little bit helps, including scrap. Stuller, for example, is instituting a clean-scrap-for-credit program for its merchandise. Customers can send clean scrap to Stuller and within three working days it will be converted to credit for Stuller products.

2. eBay or other auction sites. Some jewelers recoil in horror at the suggestion of putting their jewelry on eBay, but you can create a special online clearance store just for that purpose, to keep the delineation between that and your regular store. And, after all, it gets it out of the safe and gets at least some money in your pocket.

3. Have a customer redesign event. Poke fun at yourself for your bad buying decisions, and challenge customers to redesign the pieces. Let them tell you what they’d have done with the stones in that cluster ring, for example. Have a selection of additional stones, chains, pearls, etc., to add to pieces, have lots of look books, magazines, and pictures for inspiration (but don’t copy a design!), and have a jeweler on hand to talk with customers and show how the designs can be executed. Even better if you can set up a bench and let customers “work on” a solder or a wax or anything that engages them in the moment. Once people “design” their own piece of jewelry, they’re likely going to want to buy it.

4. Have a “dogs for the dogs (and cats)” event. Team up with your local animal shelter to devise a promotion that will encourage both the sale of your dogs and the adoption of its dogs and cats. Encourage customers to bring their furry friends into the store, serve bone-shaped and mouse- or fish-shaped cookies (for humans) and provide doggie treats and fresh water. (Tivol, in Kansas City, Mo., has a doggy fountain for four-legged customers to drink from year-round.) You can then either donate a portion of proceeds from the sale of those pieces to the shelter, or depending on the tax advantages (and age and value of merchandise), you might even be able to allow new adoptive pet parents to choose a free piece of jewelry from a special selection of your “dogs.” You can offer an additional small gift or gift card to anyone who makes a separate donation to the shelter or brings in a new toy or blanket for the animals there. Or, if your space allows, encourage the shelter to bring some pets for adoption that day. Who can resist a loving furry face?

5. Have a sample sale. No need to elaborate, simply advertise a “jewelry sample sale,” and most people will get the idea.

Posted by Hedda Schupak on March 27, 2008 | Comments (4)