Setting Up

When you are setting up you should actually be guided by, “How can I set this up so that the items sell?” Secondly, you should ask, “How can I attract attention to these items?”

The display is the first sales person that greets the customer. Ideally it should communicate the whole story about the item(s) and make the items desirable.

If you noticed at the JCK show* a bunch of items crammed into a space was hard to look at. The booths that had nice displays tended to be the higher end jewelry and the cheap stuff was all crammed in.

Display is an art form and although we are not all artists, we can at least follow some basic rules that will improve our displays.

1. GENERAL

   • Low in the front to high at the back
   • Don’t cram stuff into case
   • Tell a story about the items

2. WATCHES

   • Watches should be grouped by models and then by male & female.
     1. It should be easily seen that, “Here is one style and it comes all these different ways and there is another model and all the ways you can get it”.
   • Less is More
     1. Leave space so the eye can lock on one thing or group of items and not get overwhelmed or confused.
     2. One of an item standing out by itself becomes important.
   • Sport Watches should be separate from dress watches.
   • The most expensive watch in the line should be evident by the placement it receives.
   • Watches should be checked to make sure they are right-side up

3. ENGAGEMENT RING

   • Again group by type, (type of metal, expensive/less expensive, sets from solitaires, etc.).
   • Make expensive rings stand out (or make the one you want to sell stand out, making it special).
   • Just because we have a lot of rings it doesn’t mean they all have to be crammed into the case. Pulling a tray from the safe sometimes makes them special to the customer.
   • Mountings should have a stone in them even if it’s a CZ** as some people can’t imagine what the ring would look like.
   • Yehudas*** should not be mixed in with regular diamonds and should be kept separate.

4. DIAMOND STUDS

   • They should be arranged from small to large so someone can easily find the size they want and compare.
   • Well cut studs should be separate from average cut studs and displayed so they stand out.

5. NECKLACES

   • Only one item per neck.

6. TENNIS BRACELETS

   • Same principles as above.

*JCK Show – an annual jewelry buying convention sponsored by Jeweler’s Circular Keystone (a prestigious, international publishing group that puts out JCK magazine)

Circular – a letter or notice sent to a large number of people

Keystone – the most important part of a plan, idea, etc. on which everything else depends

Jeweler’s Circular Keystone then is the “the magazine that jewelers depend on”

**CZ – Cubic Zirconium – a man made material formed into the shape of a diamond, fake diamond used in cheap jewelry or given by cheap husbands.

***Yehuda – named after the inventor of the diamond treatment, a Yehuda is a diamond that has been “clarity enhanced” with a laser to remove defects and filled with a clear material that gives the diamond a better appearance. Of course diamonds that are not treated, that may appear the same as a treated diamond, are worth more.