Prestige Promenade pearls and sweets
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1341085
s How did you finish the year? Was your business up or down? If you had a good year, welcome to the "How the heck did that happen club!" It's probably fair to say that few of us would have predicted such an incredible year for jewelry stores in the middle of a global pandemic, but it happened. In fact, I can count on my fingers the number of jewelers who did not have a great year. The vast majority of retailers exceeded previous years sales from about June through December. Many retailers came close to recovering all the lost business from the second quarter, when the pandemic forced the first wave of closings, and still others were able to finish the year ahead of 2019, so strong was the second half of the year. So how did that happen? Well, as a wise man once said, "it's complicated." If you've been around this business long enough, you will relate to the sentiment that when the economy sneezes, jewelers get pneumonia. We saw that in the recession in 2008 and beyond, where everything seemed so much more challenging for luxury products, and especially for jewelers. We watched as luxury timepieces, a category that had hit a brick wall at the onset of the recession, seemed to recover much more quickly than jewelry. But that didn't happen in the pandemic. Besides grocery stores, retail pharmacy chains, and the warehouse clubs, retail jewelers performed as well or better than most retailers. Why was that? For starters, if you've ever had any doubts about who the competition is this last year should have put that firmly to rest. The battle for the custom- ers' dollars for retail jewelers is not just other jewelers, other luxury retail, or even travel. It is anyplace where consumers can spend discretion- ary money. Consumers have so few options during the pandemic for in-person shopping experiences and that has been a boon for jewelers. Most jewelers are destination stores. Even if customers did not require curbside pick-up, the option of going into a store without the hassle of a On Retail 56 www.thejewelrybook.com How it S tarted, How It's Going Retail in a Pandemic World By Peter Smith