Today’s economy has influenced consumers from every economic class to consider fashion, accessories and even jewelry purchases as needs rather than wants. Shoppers who previously have not been guided in their shopping pursuits by value are now trading down and finding more value oriented offerings. These frugal fashionistas can be found in every segment from luxury through mass merchandisers. Jewelry stores need not adopt mass merchandising strategies, but there are several examples where luxury brands have been successful generating more sales by attracting more value oriented shoppers. Consider the products offered that are not branded with a designer. How can these items be marketed and merchandised more effectively by selling the quality as well as using value based pricing? Historically, higher income consumers have exhibited behaviors of coming out of a recession first. We still may be a year or two away from this given our current economy. Therefore, it is still imperative to target frugal fashionistas with value oriented jewelry offerings. Fashion forward consumers are still out there making jewelry purchases . . . but today, they may look more like frugal fashionistas.

JCK