Jeweller - February 2022

The Great Retail Reset | BUYING GROUPS REPORT
WHAT'S IN STORE
GROUP STRENGTH DURING THE PANDEMIC;
REAL-LIFE EXAMPLES
If there was ever going to be a time that the value of being a member of a buying group was on
display, then COVID-19 was it. One of the main reasons for joining a group is strength in numbers.
Jeweller asked the groups to provide examples of how they helped specific members, and how
members benefited in the past two years of the pandemic..
We have provided more than 100 members with personalised email
responses to their landlords who were reluctant to provide the correct
rent relief under the code issued by the National Cabinet.
In fact, we recently had a member whose lease expired during the rent
relief period, and the landlord required them to enter into a new lease at
a higher rental. We provided a letter, with references to the appropriate
sections of the legislation, pointing out that the existing lease term had
been automatically extended by the number of months of rent deferral.
With varying compliance issues from each state and country, we have
guided members with significant HR concerns and assisted in resolving
these situations.
The impact of COVID reduced a few members from breakeven trading
levels to a loss situation. Using our industry-specific trading and
benchmarking system, we identified that the best course of action for
this member was to close the business and move to a more profitable
location. We also provided free support and advice for this member
and helped establish the new store location with free marketing and
promotional assistance.
One of our newer members who weren’t able to travel to Antwerp
because of COVID was still able to participate in our Antwerp Diamond
Broker program ‘virtually’. They were successful in pre-selling more
than $40,000 of Antwerp diamonds and also achieved a significant
increase in their overall diamond sales, which they would not have
been able to achieve otherwise.
Our marketing team provided several members with free marketing
material for their stores and digital platforms, providing advantageous
promotion for the business during these difficult times. This included
our Powerpoint customer presentation on ‘The Path of Diamonds’, to
assist our members in establishing themselves as the expert on
diamonds within their community.
SHOWCASE
SHOWCASE
JEWELLERS
We’ve distributed approximately $3 million in cash flow to members
over the past two years to support Showcase stores amidst the
challenges of operating a small business during a pandemicinduced
economic downturn.
Some of our members have experienced struggles related to rent
negotiations and reductions made necessary from lockdown effects on
business operations. Showcase has been involved in this process with
several members, bringing about a positive outcome in many cases.
We are thrilled to see our members’ businesses not only survive but
prosper in these unprecedented times, with many members recording
some of their strongest growth in many years despite the pressures
presented by restrictions and lockdowns.
Over the past two years, we have brought stores together via
clever communication and have hosted monthly Zoom sessions
from ‘day one’ of the pandemic.
Industry experts were introduced to the group relevant
to what was happening in the industry at the time.
We then recorded the sessions and sent them to all stores as a video
record with notes and attachments and we have also conducted staff
interviews for stores and sat in as advisors on many aspects of their
business.
IJC subscribes to several retail management networks and have
provided our stores with key updates during every phase of the
pandemic and introduced experts in leasing, marketing, customer
journey and HR to assist stores.
We also work closely with members ‘behind the scenes’ to review
their expenses, overheads and stock-ranging and are continuously
assisting them to maintain a healthy bottom line.
We produced several marketing campaigns for the stores to use as
they see fit and we have a very strong digital marketing team, that
have set up all stores with eCommerce, Social Media support and
Database Communication strategies.
One of the biggest challenges during the pandemic has been supply and
delivery issues. Leading Edge has been able to use our stock warehouse
to support members over the past two years when required.
Consignment stock always helps when cash is a little scarce, so this
has been a great benefit for some of our members to alleviate some
of the pressure.
We have had the ability to draw advice and experience from many different
retail categories and deliver savings and opportunities to members, which
can’t be found elsewhere.
This, alongside being able to offer a product that supports all the basic
stock requirements of a store, is unique in the market.
Our team also ensured personalised support to all members throughout
the pandemic as we tried to work with them on their specific needs to
maximise their sales - whether it be sourcing specific products for them
to creating billboards to help sell their items.
The marketing team created close to 100 local and national campaigns
over the past 12 months to support members through this time, and our IT
department has worked one-on-one with stores to optimise their websites
and ensure their e-commerce platforms are performing optimally.
46 | February 2022