The Plumb Club announced last week that total retailer visits to its pavilion at the 2019 JCK Las Vegas show were up 46% year-on-year.

Based on badge scans of attendees entering the Plumb Club Pavilion Café throughout the show, the numbers “far surpassed what we had anticipated and are the best results in terms of percentage increases encountered since we began tracking this information 10 years ago,” said Plumb Club president Michael Lerche.

The Plumb Club Pavilion unveiled a new look at the 2019 JCK Las Vegas show, which took place at the Sands Expo and The Venetian. Beyond member booths, exhibits included a Retail Innovation & Education Center showcasing the latest technology; a “jewelry as art” exhibition called “Glossy,” by Ombré Gallery; and an actual planetarium that took retailers on a thrill ride through the universe, revealing insights into key jewelry trends based on research the organization recently mined.

The Plumb Club also commissioned trend-forecasting agency the Futurist to source consumer data and information useful to the jewelry market—and the firm provided insights on trends, consumer behaviors, and in-store and online sales for its member companies and their retail clients. Among those insights was the rising popularity of celestial motifs in jewelry, and Plumb Club members used that theme in their own collections. The celestial pieces from various companies were collectively named “Radiant Universe” for the show.

“The pavilion was like a think tank,” noted pavilion chairman Victor Weinman.

“The Plumb Club received feedback from retailers stating that there is a gap in the trade for aggregated, up-to-date consumer research that’s valuable to them,” said Lawrence Hess, executive director of the Plumb Club, in a statement. “We wanted to be able to help the retail jeweler by providing data and information they could use to grow their business, while also backing it up with product and marketing materials that supported it.”

Top: The Plumb Club Pavilion at JCK Las Vegas 2019 (photo by Camilla Sjodin)