Upping Your Store’s Fun Factor

I just read Ruth Batson’s post—“Our Industry Needs a New Generation of Jewelers”—and my thoughts are too long for a typical response! I have specific (and perhaps a little wacky) ideas for upping the fun factor in jewelry stores. After all, when I think of fun shopping, I think of Target. That store has a vast array of colorful, well-designed items that I can afford. A number of boutiques also come to mind because those stores carry a range of hard-to-find artisan-made products. When I think of jewelry stores, though, I think of the opposite of Target and boutiques—merchandise that looks very similar to what other stores carry, expensive items that are out of my reach financially, and bland, lifeless environments (white walls and silence).

My ideal jewelry store has: a colorful interior, upbeat music, whimsically displayed merchandise (utilize cake platters, candy boxes, and cupcake liners to play up the idea of jewels as treats—jewelry is candy for adults), happy salespeople in fashionable clothes or uniforms, glass-barrier-free jewelry displays (Stuller, 800-877-7777, has a new case-free display dubbed “Ring-O-Bar” that enables jewelers to securely show items without cases), and perhaps most importantly there is jewelry-themed merchandise that’s less expensive—t-shirts, notecards, bags, etc—and allows shoppers to leave with at least something that’s bling-themed if they don’t buy jewelry .

As Luxury readers know, not everybody is in the market for jewelry all the time, so offer them a jewelry-themed or jewelry-like alternative. My Mid-Atlantic chapter of the Women’s Jewelry Association sells diamond-motif t-shirts and keychains to raise money for events; we had this merchandise made especially for us because you can’t easily find jewelry-themed gifts.