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The Diamond Conference 2018 “The Influence of Diamonds and Style”. When I was asked to join the panel. I know fashion design and retail but what do I know of diamonds ……… As a fashion retailer, we have work with fashion product attributes
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The Diamond Conference 2018 “The Influence of Diamonds and Style”
When I was asked to join the panel.. • I know fashion design and retail but what do I know of diamonds……… • As a fashion retailer, we have work with fashion product attributes • You cannot just design a dress or a collection that just looks beautiful; somebody must want to buy it and keep coming back to buy • So our product attributes are colour, cut and fabric = price/value • Keep adding newness and looking for inspiration
What we did with American Swiss & Sterns • It reminded me of when I ran Foschini with American Swiss and Sterns concession store within a store…….. • Trying to determine where the opportunity lay and determine the affordability levels • ASJ -If your brand is pricey, how do really added value to the customer (shopfit was more expensive, sales associates were better trained and tried to create an upmarket experience) • Sterns - So if position where price is key, don’t make your brand positioning look cheap (shopfit was not cheap; but cheaper, sales assoc were trained to drive basket size) • Still an emotive buy, driven by an occasion
As trade got tougher • Trading got tougher, we sold less diamonds and gold jewellery So what did we do…… • Tried to sell cubic zirconia, investigated man-made, introduced cheaper gold • Introduced more silver and fashion jewellery, added more value to existing product and sold less but at higher prices • Combined costume with fine jewellery and developed a range of fashion jewellery which was more affordable and more on trend • Sounds easy but it was difficult to let go of our heritage and the educate the customer to move across • “Fashion is making the customer look and feel more special when purchasing a garment”