Look Book

38 www.thejewelrybook.com w h y r e t a i l m a t t e r s i n d u s t ry n e w s imon Sinek wrote a great book called "Start With Why" in which he challenged us to think about why businesses exist. The question is particularly relevant in retail, where we find ourselves in the middle of a rapidly changing landscape. As the fight for sur- vival consumes many stores, answering Sinek's question can help get retail jewelers back on a better track. A store's health is a function of internal factors, not external forces. U.S. retail is growing, and for Why Retail Matters By Peter Smith Peter Smith is an industry veteran with more than thirty years in both retail and wholesale. all the grumbling about online sales, the reality is that only 8.9 percent of retail happened online in 2017. Still, the list of previously online-only retailers that are opening stores is growing. In fact, I can't think of any online players who have not already made the decision to open stores. Why are so many smart people at Amazon, Warby Parker, and more opening shops? That's where the future is located. When retail is done well it aligns with our genetic make-up. Social acceptance and being welcomed into a tribe or group was, in early times, the difference between life and death. At its core, great retail is a community, a tribe. No matter how convenient it is to click our phones or tablets, there is nothing that can satiate the experience of connecting with other people in real life. It happens when we attend concerts and when we assemble to march for a cause. There's no substitute for being a part of some- thing bigger with other human beings. Robin Lewis and Michael Dart wrote about the neurological experience of shopping in their book "The New Rules of Retail." Shopping is designed to drive three things: "The dopamine rush in anticipation of shopping, the joy of the actual shopping experience itself, and the final satisfaction of consuming or using the product or service." So, it is reasonable to ask why jewelry stores are suffering a sustained contraction while retail, more broadly, has enjoyed measurable growth every year since 2010. There are clearly big chal- lenges ahead for jewelers, but they have nothing to do with the relevance of jewelry, the viability of bricks and mortar, or the indifference of younger generations. They have everything to do with bad retail experiences. It would be better to ask how we can make our stores into the kind of vibrant and exciting envi- ronments that young people want to visit, because when you remove watches from the conversa- tion, millennials are the biggest demographic group buying in retail jewelry stores. They are buying their engagement rings and that is the time to Wow them with an experience that feels more like 2018 and less like 1988. Thats as good a "Why" as any. S

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