Jeweller - December Issue 2017

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CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE where they work. The stores should be positioned as the beating heart of the business and store managers should be openly empowered to look after their customer. Where possible, retailers should recruit ‘their customer’ so they can then sell to the customer. Employ people who love the store’s brand, or if they are unfamiliar with the store’s brand give them a reason to love the brand by treating them well. Focus should be placed in the areas of compensation, incentives, reward, recognition as well as learning and development. “WHERE POSSIBLE, RETAILERS SHOULD RECRUIT ‘THEIR CUSTOMER’ SO THEY CAN THEN SELL TO THE CUSTOMER.” • Selling skills are very important because, after all, in retail that is what retailers do – they sell. Developing a toolbox of training materials with a selection of selling tips and skills needs to be created and utilised. Jewellers don’t need a ‘way of selling’ – the steps of the sale or a sale process – they need some practical selling advice, a great working environment and to be empowered to look after their customer. It is as simple as that. • Measure the customer experience in the right way. Measure the financial results and find a way to measure how the customer was made to feel. An important part of this is making sure that the team works within the boundaries of a small number of financial KPIs. Simplicity is key and the store’s team should be measured on a small number of financial KPIs. Providing customers with a great experience is the role of every person employed by the business. Recruit people who are passionate – or are given a reason to be passionate – about the store’s brand. Provide the team with skills and the know-how to measure the experience, as well as the financials and KPIs, and empower retail store managers to deliver a great customer experience for their customers. i DAVID ALLEN is president of Pandora’s EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) region. He was appointed to this newly created position in 2015 and prior to that, was Pandora Australia and New Zealand president. Before entering the jewellery industry, Allen had extensive experience in Australian retail, having worked for companies including Pretty Girl Fashion Group, Woolworths and Colorado Group. Sterling silver and stainless steel anchor bracelets from Sweden 1.2M followers facebook.com/thetomhope :: 300K followers @thetomhope :: www.thetomhope.com Distributed in Australia and New Zealand by BYMR tel (02) 9436 2929 info@bymr.com.au
NEW NORMAL Prospering in the New Normal THE RETAIL LANDSCAPE HAS ALTERED FOREVER AND DRAMATIC CHANGES ARE STILL EXPECTED. COLIN POCKLINGTON REPORTS ON HOW JEWELLERS CAN BEST ADAPT TO A CHANGING MARKET IN ORDER TO SURVIVE AND THRIVE. ost readers will remember the look of happy consumers circa 2009; however, there have been less of those in the years since and this article will explain why as well as how local and international trends have come together to impact the jewellery industry. I started tracking Australian jewellery and watch sales in 1982 and Figure 1 (See page 22) shows the period from 1982 to 2009. In 2002, I noticed there had been an increase in real income for the average Australian and the industry was on a path of growth. At that point there was a tremendous opportunity for jewellers to increase the sales of luxury goods, particularly diamond sales. As Figure 1 indicates, the average jeweller from about 2002 onwards achieved very good growth and much of that was due to increased diamond sales. Then of course the global financial crisis (GFC) hit in 2010 and I predicted the industry would need strategies to survive in a ‘slowing’ economy. I expected that the economy would for some time be quite slow; that prediction was correct but it was also for a lot longer than I had anticipated. Tracking jewellery and watch sales after this period, Figure 2 (See page 22) shows that sales dropped slightly to about $3 billion by 2012; however, were back above $3 billion by 2016. In the financial year just ended, which is not shown in Figure 2, there will be a 6-8 per cent drop in jewellery sales. Seven years of static sales, and now a drop is putting a lot of pressure on the industry. REASONS FOR THE FALL International gross domestic product (GDP) growth has halved since the GFC, which means the whole world has been affected to some extent. This is because of lower population figures, the retirement of Baby Boomers, a decline in labour force participation and the fact that technology/innovation has been primarily used to steal market share, rather than drive growth in jobs and thus not adding wealth to the world economies. When putting my analysis together in June this year, Australia had the third highest household debt to GDP, as seen in Figure 3 (See page 24). It was twice that of the G20 (20 largest economies), twice as bad as Europe and 50 per cent worse than the US. Since Figure 3 was produced, Australia has moved into second place. Unemployment rate in Australia is 5.7 per cent; however, the more important figure is that 26 per cent of people are ‘under’ employed – they’ve got part-time or casual jobs and they’re not getting the sufficient number of hours they need in a week to cover their living costs. Interest rates have been low for many years and everyone is concerned what will happen when they start to increase, which they inevitably will at some point. An interest rate increase from 4 per cent to 5 per cent might not seem much – it’s only 1 per cent – but that means a 10 per cent increase in repayments to the bank each month. Online retail sales is an influence as well, with Australian online sales in the year ended 2015/2016 being about $20 billion or representing 6.7 per cent of total retail sales. We’re also currently going through another revolution. We’ve had the agricultural revolution, the first industrial revolution, the digital revolution and now the technological – or fourth industrial – revolution. This one is affecting or disrupting almost every industry around the world and there are more changes in the years ahead with artificial intelligence, robotics, autonomous vehicles and 3D printing. The impact of 3D printing is going to be huge – many things purchased in a few years won’t require anyone to physically visit a store to make a purchase; they’ll simply download a program and print a product using their own 3D printer. Australia’s national accounts indicate that roughly 80 per cent of the average spending by population is on essentials – rent, loan repayments, food, health, power and so on. That leaves about 20 per cent for non-essentials like expensive clothing and jewellery. Now in the past four or five years, there’s been negative wage growth in real terms. Wages haven’t gone up enough and so the average person has had a 1-2 per cent decrease in their income in real terms and they’ve come from $100 down to $98 – December 2017 Jeweller 21
Page 1 and 2: VOICE OF THE AUSTRALIAN JEWELLERY I
Page 3 and 4: WORLD SHINER PTY LTD Inspired Perfo
Page 5: RETAIL HAS CHANGED FOREVER, ADAPT N
Page 8 and 9: UPFRONT “I first worked in my fam
Page 10: TOP PRODUCTS TOP PRODUCTS FOR 2017
Page 13 and 14: MARTIN RAPAPORT IMAGE COURTESY: PRO
Page 15 and 16: ® TONES & SILVER WHOLESALERS OF QU
Page 17 and 18: CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE Defining the cu
Page 19: CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE core competenci
Page 23 and 24: NEW NORMAL increase. There will be
Page 25 and 26: NEW NORMAL however, it’s importan
Page 27 and 28: Andrés Gallardo Name: Pablo Limón
Page 29 and 30: Butani Name: Stefano Tordiglione Po
Page 31 and 32: Luxe by Hugh Rice Name: Lloyd Blake
Page 33 and 34: Brands do not appear from nothing,
Page 35 and 36: GEMSTONE FACETING faceting. I will
Page 37 and 38: When you open your eyes it’ll be
Page 39 and 40: BUSINESS THE MERITS OF A MORNING ME
Page 41 and 42: SELLING SELLING WHAT’S IN STOCK
Page 43 and 44: MARKETING & PR WAGING WAR: MARKETIN
Page 45 and 46: GEMS COLOUR INVESTIGATION: ZIRCON z
Page 47 and 48: CALENDAR 2018 TRADE SHOW CALENDAR N
Page 50 and 51: SOAPBOX MARGIN CALL I’ve been in
Page 52: MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM ALL OF US pms

Jeweller - December Issue 2017

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